Give Your-Self A Manicure: At Home Spa Edition 1

This is How I do my manicure's and this is the end result of it-

I am not a manicurist (is that even the job name?) I don't even know. All I know is I love to get my nails done but hate those huge, fake, thick, acrylics! It might be just me, I get more satisfaction when I can create a look like this one all myself! These are my real nails and I bite my nails since I had teeth (my mother likes to say) I recently (about 2 years ago) stopped biting my nails. If your an abuser of your nails as well, continue having major breakage, hopefully this might help! 

1. What I do first is take off any polish w/Nail Polish Remover I may have on, yah no with some tissue or cotton ball, whatever works for you.

2. I take a little tub (mine is that green thing & it's from the hospital, anything your fingers will fit in will do) Fill it up with warm water. I put in some of The Color Workshop Cuticle Repair. I feel like it gets my nails even softer & easier to work with plus it's a great moisturizer. I say if your going skip one of the Cuticle Oil steps, Skip this first one! Soak your nails in just water if you like, the Oil works better on contact. It's a great invention so I do both. I mean be creative! Try aloe in your water, that's also a great moisturizer! When the water starts to get cold, pat your hands dry and move on to the 3rd step!

3. Then I take this File Cube is what I dubbed this item. (the pink block on the right hand side of pic) You can get these at the Dollar Store guys, for a buck. Not expensive AT ALL. It has 4 sides for 4 reason's. Steps 1,2,3,&4 they are for your whole nail, not just the tips. It doesn't file, it just smooths down and shines. Its a Great Buy for a Buck you can't get any better! If you need to file or clip your nails to get the length you want, do that too.

4. Moving on, More cuticle oil! I like the Avon's Cuticle Oil Pen with Lavender. It has a brush and I just brush it all over my nail and cuticle. I think the Avon one is discontinued, but I would think any Sally's may have a Cuticle "Pen" Then just rub it in, if your sweetie is near-by have him massage it in for the full Spa effect, but this is obviously 10x better! A miracle Step! Let it sink in, and move on to the next step.

5. I use Avon's Nail Experts Strong Results (length and strength complex). I have a extremely quick review on it here. It's a great product. The watery consistency threw me off at first, but it does help with my nails. They are growing in longer & stronger. I am happy with this product. This is one of my favs for the month (little tid bit) This is another miracle step! Let it dry of course and move on.

6. Base coat. Simple as that. Apply it.

7. This is the fun step! I use the L.A. Color Art Deco polish (in white) for this. As you can see, the tip of brush for this particular line, is nice and thin so you can get that precise application. If your not hip to these, DG carries them for a buck and they are great, they have a bunch of colors, today i'm going with the white on my tips. If your are more comfortable, Use tape or those little strips you can get to apply to your tip's. That way, if you mess up- no biggie! That's how I did it for a while until I was comfortable otherwise.

8. Once that dries, just slap on (well neatly) some top coat. I like to use Orly Nail Lacquer. It works for me!Im sure any Top Coat will do!

End Result: I usually change my polish every other day (probably because i bite it all off) regardless, even about a week or so after my nail polish and manicure has long worn off, my nails are still quite soft & that Cube File & Nail Hardener does it for me.

At Home Manicure: adding all of the above up, along with some extra time to not bite those nails! (I was such a nail bully!)  For all of those products you would pay about $25. You can do about 25 manicures! So a buck a manicure.                                                             

 

Salon Manicure: can run anywhere from$25-$30. For one manicure.

Thank You for Letting Me Share and I Hope All You Ladies Love It! And oh yeah do you all like the Post's That Have A Number of Chapters? (ex: Spring Trends) Any Idea's on Some New Topics I can do? I would love to hear!