I wrote here on what works for me when preparing my nails for nail polish. I’ve also shared here the tools to own for the at-home manicure and today I wanted to share basic tips on how to apply nail polish. This is would be the fun part of doing a pretty polished look on your nails. I’ve found that once you get the into the habit or ‘rhythm’ of things, you’ll do these steps pretty quickly.
3 Easy Tips To Prep for Nail Polish:
Tip: Do you have a shaky hand, a dominant hand and a not so dominant hand? Yes, I have a dominant hand too – my right. Do your nail polish on a table or desk, somewhere steady, where you’ll be able to rest both of your hands as you polish. I like to use my right hand – my dominant to paint my left hand first. I do this so that the left hand has enough time to dry when I begin my right hand. It leaves me with less mistakes.
Still have an unsteady hand, no problem try this ‘Magique’ Liquid Latex Barrier for nails. It comes in a nail polish bottle, simply apply this around your nail – your cuticle, and then apply your nail polish – do NOT wait for your nail polish to dry, peel off the latex barrier right away after you’ve applied the nail polish. This latex barrier is perfect for gradient, splatter, water marble and stamping nail looks. Apply the latex as you go, do NOT try to ‘save time’ by applying the latex to all your cuticles at once – it’s tempting, but don’t.
Tip: Prep the area where you’ll be doing your nails. I like to work with a paper towel near by, especially when I’m ready to use the nail brush to clean up any mistakes. Simply fill the cap of the nail acetone and dip the nail brush inside, clean the area of your nails and wipe the brush clean on the paper towel after every use.
Tip: When using darker or brighter colors you don’t want the skin to stain and leave a messy residue, so wait for the polish to dry a little first before cleaning your mistakes around your skin.
4 Easy Steps To Apply Nail Polish:
1. Great nails start with healthy cuticles. When preparing the nail beds for nail polish, push back the cuticles, never cut. If you have areas where there may be a bit of dry or dead skin, if you do, carefully remove it with a cuticle nipper.
2. Before applying a base coat or any polish, be sure to use a bit of pure acetone with a lint free paper towel or your daily rubbing alcohol to clean the nail bed. If you use a cotton ball, be sure there are no traces of that left on your nail. You want to clean the nail bed first because it’s easy for oils or dust from the nail filings to get onto your nails and give you an uneven manicure.
3. Do NOT shake your nail polish bottle. This creates bubbles in the polish which then transfer onto your nails. Instead hold the bottle on the palm of your hand and simply roll the bottle.
Lastly ….
4. You will apply 2 coats of nail polish on each nail. When you bring out the polish brush out from the bottle, try not to get too much polish – a little goes a long way, clean out the excess on the bottle.
You will begin the first coat by making the first stroke in the middle of the nail, from the back – by the cuticle, to the front of the nail, then a stroke on the left – back to front, and lastly a stroke on the right side – from back to front. That’s ONE coat. Do it again for the SECOND coat – middle stroke, left stroke and right stroke or ‘middle, side, side’.
IF you’re using a light nail polish shade say, a nude or even white, I’ve found they at times require a third coat.
My Final Look Has:
1 Coat – ‘Seche’ Base Coat
2 Coats of Nail Polish (three strokes per coat on each nail)
1 Coat – ‘Out The Door’ Top Coat
This is optional ….
‘Cuccio’ Cuticle Oil – Milk & Honey – Cuticle oil will avoid your cuticles from drying that can happen from the nail acetone, it helps keep your cuticles moisturized
Do you do things different, do you use different products? Let me know what they are, share all the good info! Hope you have a great Friday.
A-
Mom Life With Chiari 
Please read my first post.
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Will do! 😊
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Gotta try that cuticle oil! I have a tendency to chew on them; horrible habit!
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Yes, my daughter also, but I tell her if she wants me to polish them she needs to stop bitting them. It works just a little! Before I know it, she’s back at it! I think it’s more of a nervous tick though.
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In high school I used a nasty tasting clear polish on my nails designed to curb the habit of biting them… it worked! Gotta love those kiddos!
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Yesss! My mom used that on my sister, she said it tasted like garlic. And last year I tried buying it for my daughter and I couldn’t find it. Oh! Amazon is my go to! I know they would have it! 😊🙏🏽 Let’s see
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I haven’t tried it before, I think I will give it a trial..
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Yes, please do! Let me know how it goes 😊
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Okey..
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I made the mistake of having gel polish put on my real nails, it destroyed them. They are recovering now but terrible mistake. I refuse to get fake nails for that very reason.
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Oh wow! Sorry that happened! How did you remove the gel? I’ll get gel occasionally at the nail salon. When it’s time to remove them, I go back to have them do that also for me. You can do the removal at home also, simply take small pieces of aluminum and small pieces of cotton soaked in acetone and wrap each nail with it, leave this on your nails for about 30 minutes I’d say. The gel polish will slowly soak up the acetone making it easier for the gel to come off the nail easily. The gel though is a better option than the acrylic. Hope this helped! 😊🙏🏽
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Thank you. I soaked them in acetone for about 20 minutes but the lady used the router thing that made indents in my natural nails, damaging them.
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Oh wow! No! They need to wrap each nail with aluminum foil and acetone. That should be enough to take the gel right off with the cuticle pusher. I’m now doing my own nails at home, I go to the nail salon for the pedicure – cause this mama stops at the hands! 🙂 Too much for my back these days.
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I’ve always done my own but wanted the polish to last longer so I tried the gel. Never again.
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Ugh! So sorry. Yes, gel definitely does last longer – close to about 2 weeks for me. Oh! The shop I go to, to buy nail polish, she mentioned to me that if I buy the ‘gel’ nail polish, it easily comes off with pure acetone. Not sure how much truth there is on that, since I’ve never tried gel on my own. Although if I were to try it at home, I’d use the same technique they use at the salon to remove them. Have you tried the Sally’s or Essie Gel polishes?
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No I haven’t. Only the salon gel.
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Neither have I! At least for the Essie gel nail polish, it’s a two step process – rather quickly. I’ll have to give them a try to know the best way to remove them.
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That’ll be a great post. The ones I had done require a black light. I don’t care for the Essie brand. I have found it to chip easily. I prefer opi and they have a gel version.
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Really?! Oh, the Essie brand has worked so well for me. Yes, I’ve seen the OPI gel collection, such beautiful colors 😍
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I tried this method but when I hit the head with a hammer they chip.
Oh , now I get it. Nails on hands 🙂 HA
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Ha!
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Am so lazy when it comes to applying nail polish…. And when apple to my hands, it easily washes of with 24 hrs
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Really?! 😫 Only 24 hours, try the base and top coat, the top coat especially will act like a seal, allowing your nails polish to last longer. With so many little ones, I’m constantly washing my hands. So, my nail polish will last a couple day before they begin to chip – but again, that’s due to the constant washing.
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I’ll try this process on your post…. Thanks for sharing
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