Steps to a perfect manicure are just what every girl needs for creating a professional-looking at-home mani! We often see plenty of pictures of a professional manicure and start looking for some tricks that could help our nails to look like that. With some steps to a perfect manicure your nails can look like that! So let’s start…
1. Prepping
If you want a professional-looking mani, prepping is not something you will want to skip! Nails ain’t the only ones to deserve some pampering, so you should also reserve some of the good stuff for the surrounding skin. To ensure a painless cleanup, apply cuticle oil, carefully push cuticles back, and then buff softly your nails. Hangnails should be soft by now, so snip them off with a pair of nail scissors!
2. Shaping
No manicure will look professional without professionally shaped nails! So take a nail file, and start working your way to a great-looking nails! To ensure an elongated, symmetric and clean look and remove any remaining pieces of hangnails, file the sides of your nails first, and then square the top. If you’ve cut your nails short, file along the curve to ensure the line is absolutely smooth.
3. Great nail base
A great base will smooth and perfect the nail surface, making it easier to apply nail polish and making the finished look much better. It will also help the nail color adhere better, so you can wear even the easiest to chip polish much longer, and it will keep your nails stain-free, especially perfect for dark polish, and really strong!
4. Painting
This famous manicure trick could save you lots of brush strokes, so make sure you give it a try the next time you paint your nails. The key is 3 strokes! Place the brush parallel with the cuticle line and then pull to get a good straight line along the center of your nail. Remember 1 brush stroke for each side of your nail and you have coated your nail in just 3 strokes! Amazing, isn’t it?
5. Cleaning up
Cleaning up is another step to a perfect manicure! Take an old makeup brush, no matter slanted or oval, and use it to clean your cuticles and the sides of your nails like a real pro! If you ever wondered how beauty bloggers manage to have that perfectly shaped space between the nail polish and cuticles, you can do the same! Just dip the brush into the nail polish remover and with smooth and firm moves clean up all stains and your cuticle line. It takes some getting used to, but trust me the result is worth it!
6. Cheat
You’ve got French manicure strips, magnetic nail polishes, and special effect toppers to make the application easy and professional-looking. And what about foils? Nowadays the beauty industry has literally taken it all, so reach out and take it! It means having some more products than you are used to, but it will give your nails a professional looking manicure!
7. Applying a top coat
Finally, the last step is applying a top coat! You can skip this step if you are using a special effect topper. You can buy a 2 in 1 base and top coat or clear top coats that pretty much each brand has to offer. So apply a top coat, wait for it to totally dry, wash your hands, pat them dry and then apply cuticle oil! Congratulations, you have just learned all the manicure tricks you will ever need for gorgeous looking manicure!
What do you do to keep your mani looking as awesome as it does? Is there any manicure trick I might have missed? Share your thoughts, please!