About a year ago, I sustained a knee injury that meant I couldn't dance for a quarter. With no dance classes and rehearsals after school, I practiced painting my nails. After a while I got pretty good at it and I now have a good collection of products that I use every time I paint my nails.
The Zoya nail polish remover is a bit of a luxury, but it is one darn good remover. The packaging, while fun, isn't exactly super convenient for me. However, the technique I use to remove polish from my nails does work well with the bottle. This technique (involving one cotton ball and about five minutes) has become a savior as well. Learn how to do it here.
After I've removed my nail polish, I like to go in and clean up any cuticle issues I may have. I finally acquired the Sally Hansen cuticle remover gel, and I'm quite a fan. I also use a little trimmer thing that I bought from Hema when I was in the Netherlands that works quite well.
I'm not very good at trimming my nails, but I try my best with a regular nail clipper from the drugstore. After the trim, I use a glass nail file that I also got from Hema, and it makes such a difference. It's much gentler than a regular file, and I have weak nails already so it has become a real savior. Always remember to file in one direction, not back and forth!
As far as base coats go, I haven't quite found "the one," but I've been using OPI's Nail Envy for a while now and it works okay. Tip: buy it on Amazon, you can get it for much cheaper! Mine is almost finished, and I think I'll be trying something from Butter London next. As far as top coats go, I've tried Seche Vite and the red Sally Hansen one, but I have actually repurchased the Essie Good to Go top coat. It's not incredibly quick drying, but it doesn't get gloopy until it is almost empty, plus Essie polishes are 3-free, meaning they don't contain Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), or Formaldahyde (Michelle Phan has a great blog post about this here). I like to keep my chemicals to a minimum, and since I usually paint my nails while going on a YouTube marathon, I have plenty of time to let them dry.
If I really need my nails to dry quickly, I'll pick a polish that's a one coat wonder and add the Revlon Liquid Quick dry. This is an oily formula that helps your polish dry much faster and is very helpful with the Essie top coat.
Whew! That was rather long winded, but I do love a good at home manicure session. Do you have any tips or tricks when you do your nails at home?
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