My Perfect Manicure

MY NAIL CASE WHICH HOLD'S EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A FAB MANI

I love nice nails & a great manicure but besides the hand massage & my cuticles being taken care of, I'm never happy with the shape professionals file my nails & always have to come home & fix them 99% of the time. I was a chronic nail biter until I was 12 (nervous habit), then my mother got me one of those polishes you paint on & when you go to bite your nails, they taste horrid - it worked & have had nice nails ever since.

I have perfected my home manicure over the years (I flirted with acrylic nails when I was a teenager & ended up hating them, then the condition my lovely natural nails were in when I had them removed, I vowed to never go there again & I haven't.

So this is how I do my home manicures:

OFF WITH THE OLD

Firstly I always remove my old polish with an acetone free remover (cutex is an old favorite). The only time I use an acetone remover is to remover the glitter polishes that have become popular of late. For that I fill some soaking bowls with acetone remover & soak my nails for 5 - 10 minutes (if it is a VERY stubborn glitter I places cotton pads soaked in remover on each nail & wrap in foil for 10 minutes - its still not easy to remove but this does help.

FILE

I usually file my nails down every 4 weeks. I like to keep them a nice length BUT as soon as I start to have trouble on the keyboard or my phone, its time to file. My favorite file I discovered is by OPI called Edge 180/400. The grey side is strong and you can do a file down very quickly with it, most times I don't let them get to out of hand so the other side does the trick. I like what I have termed a round square. I file my nails to a square shape then round the corners and the nail just a little.

CUTICLE TIME

Next I push those cuticles back. I love OPI Avoplex exfoliating cuticle treatment with AHA. I apply a thin layer & leave about  minutes then gently push back with cuticle stick. When cuticles are tip top & no skin on nail bed I go and use any old scrub (usually a cheap one or something I want to use up) and exfoliate my hands with it, giving them a little massage & rinse in warm water & dry.

BUFF IT BABY

Again the best buffer I've ever used is the OPI Brilliance. It only has 2 sides unlike a lot of others & when you have used the second side, after a few seconds you will hear a squeaky noise and look to see your nails look like the have clear base coat on them NO lie. I have never had a buffer give me this type of shine on my own nail. If you didn't want to use polish, you could be done at this point & people would thinking you were wearing a clear one. When I remove my polish my nails are still just as shiny.

PAINT TIME

This is the fun & hard part, what colour to go with. After trying many polishes over the years I am a devoted OPI girl as they wear the best of any polish I've tried. Sometimes I even remove it cos I'm sick of the colour & want a change, not because it's chipped.

I'm lucky I have good strong nails, but from time to time for no reason they will peel. So for a base coat I always use OPI Nail envy for sensitive & peeling nails. Once I've made my colour choice I then apply 2 coats (3 sometimes if its a glitter or a very see through shade). I have found quite a bit of easy to do at home nail art & some weeks for fun play with that. If I am going to apply a nail art transfer I will do it BEFORE applying my top coat.

I then apply the only non OPI product I use & that is Revlon colour stay top coat, it dries quickly, goes on smoothly (apply quickly if you have made any little bumps or errors and it will smooth it out).

Here are some of my recent manicures:

OPI BURLESQUE MOVIE TIE IN COLLECTION TEAS-EY DOES IT

NICOLE BY OPI KARDASHIAN KOLORS IN KIM-PLETELY IN LOVE WITH A LITTLE BUTTERFLY NAIL ART FOR FUN

OPI SHREK FOREVER AFTER MOVIE TIE IN OGRE THE TOP BLUE WITH SOME NAIL ART

OPI KATY PERRY COLLECTION TEENAGE DREAM WITH HELLO KITTY NAIL ART

OPI THE MUPPET'S MOVIE TIE IN DIVINE SWINE

OPI KATY PERRY COLLECTION THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY (HOLDING KATY'S LATEST PERFUME PURR)

OPI BURLESQUE MOVIE TIE IN SPARKLEICIOUS

 HAND CREAM EVERY DAY - NO EXCEPTIONS

 Every night part of my bedtime ritual is applying hand cream. You guessed it my favorite & the one I swear by after trying many is OP Avolplex high intensity hand & nail cream. A little goes a long way and absorbs really well. No greasy hands when you're done.

CUTICLE OIL EVERY OTHER NIGHT

I keep this handy sized OPI Avoplex cuticle oil on my bed side table and every other night will apply (brushes on) & massage some in whilst watching TV - no brain er & easy to do.

My manicure pretty much takes less than 30 minuets to do & that's not much time to invest to have fabulous nails.