Beauty Tuesdays: 6 Step At-Home Manicure

Today's Beauty Tuesday post revolves around nail care and at home manicures. Since weekly manicures aren't exactly in my budget, I generally take the matters into my own hands (haha) and do it at home myself. This way I can also try 100 colours of polish on without making any spa staff frustrated at my indecisiveness (or wasting polish). 

Here is my 6 Step At-Home Manicure!

Step One:

Exfoliate hands. I picked up the Freeman hand scrub from Walmart, and my only complaint is that it could be a tad bit more moisturizing. It is quite dry, but it exfoliates well.

Step Two:

Remove any old polish & oils off my nails. I use any nail polish remover - some are formulated for brittle nails, extra moisturization, etc, but I find they all kind of work the same. I got my Equate polish remover from Walmart (their no-name cosmetic brand).

Step Three:

Apply a coat (or two) of OPI's Nail Envy Nail Strengthener. This stuff does wonders at making my nails grow longer and stronger. While it is rather pricy, you can often times find it in salons in value packs (coupled with cuticle oil or a bottle of polish) so it's more of a 2-for-1 deal.

Step Four:

Apply two coats of nail polish. On Friday when I painted my nails I opted for the pink China Glaze shade above which is called Naked. I thought Naked would be, well, a nude shade rather than bright pink, but whatever works!

Step Five:

Apply a top coat. I never realized how important a top coat was, but it truly does wonders to make your manicure last. Plus it makes your polish look extra shiny! This Seche Vite top coat dries SO fast and adds a crystal-like shine to your nails.

Step Six:

Moisturize your hands once the polish has dried. Most spas and salons will do the moisturizing part before polish and just use extra remover to remove any oil and residue on the nails, but I prefer it at the end. It's like the finishing touch! Any lotion will do, but right now I am loving any of the body butters from The Body Shop. I actually came across this by accident while cleaning out an old purse. Treasure hunting!

Hands sans-moisture. Notice my owl pajamas? They are a hoot! Lazy Friday's at their best.

Of course, since my nails are still fairly short, they don't require a ton of filing or technical work. I do however make sure they are even with no jagged edges by gently filing them, and once a week(ish) use a nail buffer to buff out any ridges on my nails and shine then up if I'm going au naturel.

What are your nail care tips?

Favourite polish colour!?

I am loving anything bright for summer, although I am excited for deep fall colours. Dark inky blues, reds, woohoo!