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How To Give Yourself A Manicure
Give Yourself a Manicure. Transform your hands with a professional looking manicure. Follow our step by step guide with plenty of expert tips thrown in!
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Step 1:
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You will need:
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Step 2:
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Make some time
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Don't rush your manicure, you'll make a mess. Give yourself some time and do it right, it will last longer in the end.
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Step 3:
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Remove old varnish
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You have to all of last weeks varnish off before you put fresh stuff on. Put some nail varnish remover onto a cotton pad and wipe your nails until they are clean.
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Step 4:
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Cuticle oil
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Brush on some cuticle oil and massage it in. Leave it on whilst filing to soften your nails. If you don't have cuticle oil olive oil or any edible oil will work just as well.
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Step 5:
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File your nails
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There's no point in having beautifully manicured nails that are ragged. Take an emery board and run it along the nail tip only in one direction, until you get the shape you want.
When you have finished shaping the nails use a motion like this, to get rid of the frayed edges. This is called beveling.
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Step 6:
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Tidy up your cuticles
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Cuticles are the skin which overlaps on to the nail. It's a Cuticle are the skin that overlaps onto the nail. It is a natural part of the nail, but oil in the skin means that the nail polish will not stick to it for long.
Put on some cuticle oil and soak your nails in warm water until the cuticles soften.
Alternatively you can apply cuticle remover to your nails..... give your hands a generous coat of moisturiser.... and wrap them in cling film for 15 minuets.
Once they're soft, take a cuticle stick and rub it around in very small circles until the dead cuticle is rubbed off. You can then push the cuticles back.
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Step 7:
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Wash your hands
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Clear away all of the nail dust and all the grime around the edges of the nails, you don't want to seal it in.
The nail varnish won't stick well if there is any oily residue on the nails, so wipe them down with a nail varnish remover once more.
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Step 8:
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Put on a base coat
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Wipe off the extra on the side of the bottle. Brush on in 2 or 3 swift strokes.
The base coat provides something for the next layers to cling onto. It also prevent heavily pigmented polish from staining the nail.
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Step 9:
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Apply the colour
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Brush on the colour varnish next. Again make sure there's not too much on the brush. You can put on more layers if you need to deepen the colour.
Wait until the first layer is dry to the touch and then put on a second layer.
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Step 10:
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Put on a top coat
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The top coat is a clear layer that seals in the colour and is harder than the others, so protects the nail.
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Step 11:
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Let it dry
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This coat takes a long time to dry, and if you want a good manicure leave it at least 5 minutes before even checking if it is dry.
To check if it's dry you can lightly touch a nail with your tongue, if you taste nail polish it's not dry.
Stop lint from your clothes sticking to your nails, by putting a little cuticle oil on when they are almost dry.
If you're really in a rush you could try dunking your hands in iced water to speed up the drying process, but this is a very last resort.
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Step 12:
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Potential mess ups
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If you make a mistake; like smudging the top coat, you will have to take it all off that nail and start from scratch.
However if you have just a little polish on the skin around your nail, wrap a small amount of cotton wool around a cuticle stick, add some nail varnish remover then gently then gently rub away the unwanted nail varnish.
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Step 13:
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Put away your polish
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Add a little nail varnish remover to a paper tissue and wipe around the bottle. This will prevent it from becoming sealed shut.
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