Nailing painting your nails at home
I get my nails done at a salon now, but before this I used to not be allowed to wear nail varnish to work, so I would often just paint my nails on my days off. Which meant I got pretty good at giving myself a good set of nails that looked nice and smart.
Here are my tips for getting gorgeous nails at home, without needing to be particularly good at doing nails!
DIY nails
1. Keep it simple.
Keep your nails short and neat. They’re much easier to shape and paint, and I actually think short, neatly painted nails can look really chic.
2. Get rid of old nail varnish.
Nail varnish goes gloopy and horrid as it gets old. You can add a little nail varnish thinner to bring it back to life, but if it’s really thick and gloopy, I’d just get rid of it. I think you can always tell when someone has used old, gloopy nail varnish because it doesn’t go on smoothly. I recently cleared all mine out, as I had ones still from my uni years!!
3. Three swipes!
When you paint your nails, use three swipes of varnish, one down each side and one down the middle. Try not to keep going over the same bit, as this is when you start moving the polish around and getting a thick, uneven finish.
4. Two thin coats are better than one thick one.
Let the first coat dry for a couple of minutes and then add a second. It will give you a much smoother, more even finish than trying to get all the colour on in one go.
5. Don't worry about getting it perfectly on the nail.
If you get a bit of polish around the edges, don't panic! Let it dry and you can tidy it up with a cotton bud dipped in nail varnish remover. Or just have a shower later, a lot of the bits on your skin will come away then.
Don’t worry about removing the paint if it doesn’t look nice, you can easily redo it.
Have a few easy colours you love.
I always really loved Rimmel 60 Seconds for this because they’re inexpensive, come in loads of colours and are great when you want to switch your nails up without making it a whole thing, as they are so easy and quick to dry and use.
Gel nails!
These are such an easy way to get that “I've made an effort” feeling without actually having to paint your nails. There are loads of different colours, patterns and finishes now, and you can just stick them on, file them to shape and you're done.
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