Nails Nails Nails

Most of us who watched the Olympics got to see some of the athletes Nail Art ... AWESOME. Needless to say I'm not very feminine, but I want that in my life. But alas, I'm not talented or coordinated enough to pull off that kind of elaborate handy work, and that's why they have access to free spa treatments in Olympic Village and I don't. But here's the thing, after watching a great many nail techs do their best to make my paws look presentable, I've learned a few tricks to make at home manicures that much easier. So here are some ideas to make your next do-it-yourselfer job look less like a 5 year old and more like "yer darn skippy I did those myself!"
The first step is to clean up your nails. And I don't just mean underneath the nail, I mean clean your nail beds and the nails themselves. I start by washing my hands. This may come after removing nail polish, or starting off if my nails are devoid of color. Then I go to work. You can buy super cheap wooden manicure tools (they look like shish kabob skewers) at ANY Walgreens - it's my favorite spot to find cheap and good manicure items! (THEY HAVE EVERYTHING!) I use one of these to clean under my nails and push back my cuticles. After that I trim the cuticles that are left and trim up any hang nails - which there usually are a great many. After that I take a nail file - or emery board for those of us more advanced, and try my best to shape my nails into something not so horrendous looking. So far, so simple. After that's done, take your polish and shake well. You're supposed to technically roll the bottle between your hands like you're making a play-dough snake, but not all bottles are shaped right for that, and I still use the ole shake and apply method. After that opener up! I recommend doing this over a paper towel, even if you're at a table. Past experience has told me nail polish is hard to get out! Apply the polish first with your dominant hand - so if you're right handed put the polish on your left hand first etc. It's less intimidating and quite frankly applying nail polish with your non-dominant hand is like trying to lick your ear, ridiculous and hard. Apply in downward strokes starting in the middle of the nail and going from cuticle to tip. Don't be afraid to have polish on the applicator, but make sure you don't have too much either. If you do get an overload of polish, don't panic, just use a q-tip to gently absorb some of the excess. It's best to have as even of an application as possible, overages take longer to dry and cause unsightly pockets to form which usually stay tacky for so long you'll end up with a smudge, imprint or worse. Also, if you apply too light, you'll find yourself doing coat after coat which gets redundant OR see through polish which doesn't look as finished. That being said, you can use those same wooden tools used to clean your nails to scrape along the edge of the nail to clean up any "outside the lines" polishing! PS use a new one, the last thing you want is some nail gunk in your fresh coat! Then move on to your next hand. I know it's hard but it has to be done. Fashion has not yet caught up with us "don't have a lot of money and have to do this myself but I'm not real coordinated with my other hand" kinda gals! So both hands have to be painted (for now). Apply the same technique and remember, now you have a way to safely remove the polish that you got on your finger with out messing up your other nails, so go crazy! If you go a little too Bananas, you can always put a little nail polish remover on a q-tip and rub around your nails on your finger part to remove excess.
Let dry for at least 20 minutes, most of us don't have that kind of time I know, but unless you have the super fast drying nail polish, you'll end up with a lot of damage. So here's what I recommend, do it a while before bed, after you've showered and while you're watching TV, this is down time for most people anyway, so there shouldn't be much you need to do.
One last thing you should know ... if you're planning to give yourself a Mani Pedi (which I'll talk more about how to do Pedi's or Pedicures in a later post) DO YOUR TOES FIRST. Can't emphasize that enough ... If I've seen it once I've seen it a thousand times ... you go to do your toes only to find that you just did your fingers and can't use the acetone (polish remover) because it'll mess up your nails and on and on and on. So if you are planning to do both ... START with the feet!!
Hopefully you find this helpful and your next at home treatment will be much less stressful and you'll be steppin out in style sayin ... "YEAH you KNOW I did my nails myself!" and not "What? I have nieces!"
Have fun, stay safe and don't spill the bottle!