Ten Steps to the Perfect Manicure

In high school I used to absolutely love painting my nails. I would paint them in a base colour and then paint designs over the top. They were always complicated and not very often entirely neat as I used only the brushes which came with the nail polish to do it, but by the end I had gotten pretty good at it (even if I do say so myself). Some of my favourite designs were strawberries (paint your nail red, add tiny yellow dots then green leaves on the ends), the Union Jack, polka dots and stripes.

In painting my nails I learnt a few tips on how to do the perfect manicure. Although I don’t paint my nails very often these days, when I do I like them to look really nice and last a long time. My current average manicure lasts 10 days before it chips. The following are my top 10 tips (in order of completion) for getting your nails done perfectly and lasting a long time.

1. Wash your hands
You want to ensure you don’t get any grit or nasties under the nail polish to ensure you always wash your hands before you apply polish.

2. Prepare your nails
Buffing your nails with a good nail buffer will ensure you have the smoothest base to work on and will help your nail polish to stick.

3. Apply a base coat
Even if you don’t have time to do a top coat (although that is the best thing to do) ensure you apply a base coat. This will protect your nails from staining. Nobody wants gross yellow nails! Absolutely never ever under any circumstances should you paint your nails red without a base coat! I also recommend using OPI Chip Skip under your base coat (not on top) to extend the wear of your polish.

4. Two thin coats
Always apply your nail polish in two thin coats to speed up the drying process. It’s tempting if you’re chucking on nail polish right before you head out the door to do one thick coat. Don’t! You will damage the polish on your way and it will look awful. If you’re in a real hurry do one thin coat only. It will dry a lot faster.

5. Use less polish
If you have less polish on your brush it’s easier to control. Wiping the bush on the edge of the bottle will remove excess polish and avoid any random blobs or clumps.

6. Three strokes
Paint your nails in 3 even strokes – the middle, the left and the right. This will ensure your nail is evenly covered.

7. Don’t touch the sides
Remember in primary school when you were colouring in and it was really hard to stay inside the lines? Try doing it with your left hand (or right if you’re left handed). Now try on a curved surface. That moves. Not easy, right? Painting your nails is the same. I recommend always leaving a slight gap at both the base of the nail and the edges of the nail, this will make your nail polish look a lot neater and make your nails look the perfect shape, even if they aren’t. This is my number 1 tip for perfect nails.

8. Apply a top coat
In order to get that perfectly shiny gloss, apply a top coat. This can also help your nail polish to dry faster if it’s a quick drying top coat. Although if your top coat dries and the layers underneath are still wet it increases the possibility of creating indents in your polish, or getting those stylish sheet marks. If you can let the nail polish dry before applying top coat, that is best. I recommend OPI Rapi-dry top coat.

9. Cold Water
Dipping your touch dry nails in cold water or running them under cold water (as long as it’s a gentle flow) will set your nail polish faster. Although it won’t be completely dry you’ll be less likely to smudge or leave little marks in it.

10. Remove your polish
Remove your polish as soon as it has any obvious chips. Especially if you’re trying to appear organised and pulled together. Chipped nail polish is never a good look.

Bonus Tips:

Use good nail polish
In my experience OPI make the best polish.

If you do smudge it
If you have a top coat handy, go over it and the dent or smudge will sort itself out (it really works). If you don’t, run it under cold water or lick it. It sounds really strange, but the moisture allows it to straighten out.

Follow these tips and your polish will look great!

T.