Let's talk about at home manicures :)

When I was younger, I would often go to a salon to get a manicure, but as I got older it became just one of those luxuries that I could not longer afford. Don’t get me wrong, I still LOVE having painted well maintained nails, but it is just something done at home nowadays.

If you are a regular reader you know I am a BzzAgent which means I get opportunities to try awesome free products and share my opinions of them with people. I absolutely LOVE doing it, and my friends, family, co-workers, etc. love it too because I can let them know about products, and BzzAgent always gives me coupons or samples to share as well. For this BzzCampaign, I received a full size Neutrogena Norwegian formula hand cream for myself and 6 samples to hand out.

Anyway, I received some Neutrogena Norwegian formula hand cream to try. It is great for combating dry skin, I love it! But for those of you like me who like to have painted fingernails, this lotion also will not mess up your manicure. So I wanted to share some tips for a great home manicure. I don’t do anything special like you would get with a paid manicure such as soaking your nails, but this is still a treat to me.
The first step is to make sure you have totally clean hands and nails. You want to start by using some nail polish remover on your nails to make sure they are fully clean of polish and other dirt or oil. Then I always wash my hands paying close attention to washing the nails so you don’t have any remaining remover on them.

Then trim and file your nails so they are all uniform. My nails grow and break at different rates, so I don’t trim them all to the same size, but I make sure they are not jagged or splitting anywhere. I also clean under my nails.

Now its time for paint! I personally don’t use a base clear coat, but do apply 2 coats of color and then a top coat. You want to make sure to shake up the bottle well to mix it all before applying. Apply the first coat and let it dry a little to “tack up” as my husband puts it before applying the second coat. I let my color dry almost fully before applying the top coat. Then the waiting game because you want to make sure not touch anything for about 20 minutes so they can fully dry. And yes, even the ones that claim to dry in 10 minutes, I have never personally found one to actually dry that fast unless you use a nail dryer.

The greatest thing for me is that I have a husband who is very willing to paint my nails! Shhh…don’t tell him that I told you that ;) but he loves working on model cars, and painting my nails just gives him more practice for when he is painting them. So my number one tip would be to have someone else do the painting for you.

The final step after your nails are all nice and dry…apply some Neutrogena Norwegian formula hand cream of course! This will not only help to maintain your manicure, it will hydrate your hands like you never imagined.