How to Do Manicure at Home

Most of us often forget to take enough care of our hands. While facial and hair care is often considered to be an important part of our beauty regimen, we often neglect the task of keeping our hands beautiful. Manicure is the process that helps us do the same and it’s of great importance as properly shaped nails and well-groomed hands add a great value to our personality.

While doing a regular manicure at a professional salon sounds promising, it demands a lot of effort, time and money from your end. Moreover, you might not get the desired results even after shelling out a lot of money and you never know, the chemicals might react badly on your skin. This is why doing a manicure at home is such a popular practice with most ladies. If you are not sure enough about doing it on your own, you can also seek professional help just to assist you in the process.

Doing regular manicures helps improve the blood circulation, soothes your stressed out body and mind, and helps remove the dead skin cells. It’s quite easy to perform a manicure at home and you don’t need to worry much about the arrangement.

Let’s take a look at the key ingredients that you have to arrange

Cotton balls or buds
A plastic tub or basin
A soft towel and a damp cloth
Baby Shampoo
Emery board or nail filer or clipper
Sea salt/rock salt – 1 tablespoon
Cuticle cream and cuticle stick
Lemon – 1
Anti-bacterial moisturizing soap
Rose petals (optional)- few
Moisturising hand lotion
Nail cutter/clippers
Nail polish remover
Nail file
Base coat and top coat
Nail polish
Nail brush
Warm water

You can easily do the manicure by following some easy steps

Remove the old nail paint – Take a cotton ball, moisten it with a good quality nail polish remover and rub it gently on your nails. Make sure to remove the nail paint from the base to the tip. After this, take some soapy water in a bowl, wash your hands in it and pat dry with a soft towel.

Cut and file your nails–Once the nail polish is removed, cut the corners of your nails using the nail cutter. Don’t cut the corners very sharp as it will lead to ingrown nails and pains. You can also simply trim the nails if that seems to be enough. After that, file the nails properly using the nail filer. Move the filer in a single direction and start from one edge, gradually moving to the top. You can choose a shape of your choice – oval, square or round.

Soften the cuticles–Next, you should take some warm water in a bowl and add a few drops of anti-bacterial hand soap to it. Prefer a soap with a bit moisturizer. Soak your fingers in the water for a few minutes as this will help soften your cuticles. Once you feel the cuticles are soft, take your hand out and pat dry using a soft towel.

Apply the cuticle cream – Rub the cuticle cream gently on all your fingers. You can do this using a wooden stick or a cuticle stick and push back the cuticles while doing this. After this, simply wash your hands in clean water and pat dry.

Moisturize your hands thoroughly – Take a good quantity of moisturizer and apply it thoroughly in your hands. Massage your hands until the lotion is completely absorbed. If there is any excess cream wipe it with a damp cloth.

Remove the cream from nails – While applying the moisturizer on your hands, there must be some remaining cream on your nails. Take some nail polish remover in a cotton ball and remove the cream from your nails using it. It’s important to do this before applying the nail polish.

Apply the nail polish – When it comes to applying the nail polish, apply the base coat, preferably from the base to the top, following the nail strengthening formula. Make it a point to apply the base coat on all the nails and let it dry for a few minutes. Next, apply a nail polish of your choice in smooth strokes. Consider moving the nail polish from the base of the nail to the tip. Usually, three strokes are required to cover each nail. Start with one stroke in the middle, and then apply one stroke on each side. Make sure a paper towel and a cotton ball, dipped in nail polish remover, are kept handy. These will help you fix any kind of mistakes promptly.

Apply the second coat – Once the first coat is properly dried, apply the second coat very gently, and let it dry properly.

Apply the top coat – Finally, once it’s dried completely, apply the top coat as it helps make the colour last longer. Make sure you take enough time to dry the nail after each coat as this will ensure less smudging. Once the final application is done, take an orange stick, wrap it in cotton wool, dip it in the remover and remove any kind of traces of polish that might be left on your skin. This will help the nails appear neat.

If you can perform manicure weekly, it can do wonders for your nails as well as cuticles.

A few additional tips to remember

If you want to make your nails look chubby, opt for a square shape.

Instead of shaking your nail polish bottle before applying, roll the bottle against your hand. This proves to really effective for mixing the nail polish well, without forming any bubbles.

If you would like to apply a home-made cream on your hands, you can make it by mixing glycerine and rose water. Take these two in the right quantity, pour into a bottle and shake the mixture well. Before applying this cream, make sure you wash your hands properly. You can also massage your hands using this mixture.

Scrubbing is undoubtedly an important part of the entire process of the manicure. If you want to apply a homemade scrub, here is how you can prepare it –

Things you need

white granule sugar
honey
olive oil
milk
lukewarm water
Take 1 tablespoon white granule sugar and add honey to it. Mix it well and your scrub will be ready.
Consider soaking your hand in warm water for around 10 minutes.
Next, add warm milk to the water and soak your hands in it.
Once your hands are soft enough, apply the scrub made with honey and sugar using a manicure brush.
Rub and scrub your hands gently as this helps remove the dead skin cells.
After scrubbing for around 5-7 minutes, wash your hands using lukewarm water.
Once done, moisturize your hands with a good hand cream.

While this is a standard scrubbing material, there are multiple other ingredients that work well as a good scrubber, when combined perfectly.

Brown sugar, vanilla, and honey scrub – Take vanilla extract, honey, and brown sugar in gentle quantity and mix them properly to make a smooth paste. You can also use cinnamon as an alternative to vanilla since this helps improve blood circulation and makes your hands glow.

Olive oil and sugar scrub – It’s a very basic and simple, yet effective scrub for your hands. Mix olive oil and sugar properly. Apply generously to your hands as well as nails. Massage in a circular movement for around 5 minutes and wash off with warm water. Don’t forget to apply moisturizer.

Coconut oil, vitamin E and sea salt scrub – Mix all the three ingredients, apply to your hands and massage properly. Make sure your hands are wet. Scrub properly to remove the dead skin cells. Once done, clean with warm water and pat dry gently.

Sugar and lemon scrub – It’s a very good scrubber to give a lighter tone to your hands. After mixing the ingredients and applying them generously, leave it for 5 minutes. Massage gently and clean your hand with water.

Some other homemade manicure packs that you can try out

Buttermilk manicure – First off, gather hot water, a brush, vitamin E oil, 2 cups of buttermilk, and ½ cup of orange juice. Take all the ingredients in a blender and blend properly. Then, soak your hands in the mixture and start rubbing your nails and hands after some time. This works as an ideal exfoliation process. Once you are done, wash your hands properly.
Sugar and honey manicure – Take warm water in a large bowl and soak your hands in it for around 15 minutes. Add few cups of milk to it and keep it aside. Next, take some honey and rub it on your hands, and then soak again in the milk and water mixture. Mix honey and sugar together and rub your hands with this for around 10 minutes. Once done, wash off with cold water. After drying your hands, apply Vitamin E cream.

Chickpeas flour and turmeric manicure – This mixture for manicure works as an effective tan remover. If you want to get rid of the tan, consider applying this taste while doing the manicure. Make a paste of turmeric powder, olive oil, yogurt, and flour. Apply it on your hands evenly and leave it to dry partially. Once dried, start rubbing the paste off gently. Keep a towel dipped in hot water handy and clean the hands using it. After the process is completed, apply almond oil on your hands to moisturize them.

Fruit smoothie manicure – If you are up for an extremely lavish manicure, this smoothie manicure would be the perfect choice for you. Gather some fruits like a small banana, 2 or 3 strawberries, some orange juice and take some yogurt. Blend all these together and create a smooth paste. Soak your hands in lukewarm water and then apply the paste on your hands. Leave the mixture to dry and wipe off the mixture with a wet towel. Massage your hands properly using vitamin E oil.

Honey egg manicure – You can create this mixture by mixing one egg, a tablespoon glycerine, a few drops of honey and some barely powder in a bowl. Clean your hands properly with cold water and apply the mixture to them. Once dried, rub off gently and wipe off with lukewarm water.

Lemon and tomato manicure–If the skin of your hands has become rough, this mixture can do wonders for you. Mix a few drops of lemon juice with tomato paste or tomato juice. Don’t forget to add some glycerine to it. Consider massaging your hands with this mixture once a day. Finally, wash it off with warm water.

Lentil pack manicure – Take 2 spoons of lentil, a pinch of turmeric and one spoon of honey. Mix all these together, grind properly and apply the paste to your hands. Keep it until it gets dried and then washes off properly.