At Home Easy Manicure Tutorial (Make your manicure last longer too!)

Hey everyone! I’m so sorry I have not been posting lately. I’ve been really busy with school and work.

I thought I’d show you all how I do my own manicure. It’s super easy and affective and your polish will last longer!

These are all the tools and products I used–>

From left to right, cuticle trimmers, buffer block, Burt’s Bees Cuticle Creme, cotton round, nail clippers, nail file 220/230 grit, wood stick, cuticle pusher, and a nail cleaner.

So this is how awful my nails look before I did anything to them. I took off my polish with nail polish remover and a cotton pad. I like the pad better than a cotton ball because they are bigger so you only need one for both hands. They are also great because they’re thin so you can fold it or crease it to get down on the sides. I took the wood stick and wrapped cotton around the tip to get the polish off the sides and underneath.

The next thing I did was cut my nails. I like to keep some white on them, but not too much. 

Then I file them with a file that is for natural nails. You don’t want to use one that is too hard because it will break and slip your nails. Try to file in one direction, and don’t saw back and forth. The best shape to file them is with your natural white line shape. 

Then I use a metal cuticle pusher to push down my cuticles. This is very important. It’s never cute to have your cuticles growing half way up your nails. Many people don’t bother to do this but it is important because if your cuticles are covering part of your nails, your polish will not stick and will peel up from the bottom. 

If they were really bad, and you push them back and you have a lot of extra sticking up, trim it off with cuticle trimmers. I trimmed the extra skin that was hanging off around my nails. DO NOT cut off your cuticles. This is a common mistake. They are there to protect your nails. It will just bleed and get all red and swollen. Plus it just does not look natural.

After you push back your cuticles, use the 2nd step on the buffer block. Yours will probably be different because on mine the first side is the nail file. If it does not have a nail file on it, the roughest side is what you’ll use first. Concentrate on the very bottom of your nails where your cuticle was because it will buff off all of the skin and stuff that was stuck to your nails. Don’t over buff, just enough to get the ridges and skin off.

Follow with the next steps, which is very important because this is what makes your polish last longer. Also, it makes them shiny!

Then washed them, used the cuticle creme, and cleaned them out underneath.

The result! Shinier, cleaner, smoother, and natural looking.

My polish lasted twice as long with using the buffer!

*You can get these tools pretty much anywhere, they are just basic. Mine came in a set.

Comment if you have tried this, if the buffer works for you, and what your manicure routine is!

XOXO,

Gena