Category — Nails

In America, little girls like to put decals onto their nails in all shapes and colors.  In Japan, girls of all ages decorate their nails with decals and even larger plastic roses or dangling items.  The difference between the countries is incredible.

There are thousands of possibilities with fingernails, and everyone has their own preference for what looks good.  Some like complicated designs, large decals, plain matte colors, shimmering rainbows… even words painted on! However, the question still remains — do plain or decorated nails look the best?

For a woman with an important job, decorated nails would look silly, wouldn’t they?  On the other hand, tiny little cherry blossoms in white would look gorgeous on the nails of a bride.  There is no “best” look.  It all comes down to the event or daily activities that you will be showing your newly manicured nails off in.  Every girl has the right to beautiful nails, so make yours the prettiest you can and always have fun!

Do you wear polish on your fingernails and toenails all the time? When you are changing your polish, have you ever noticed that your nails are turning yellow? Or that they may even be getting brittle and cracked? Even if you are careful and wear a clear base coat to protect your nails, they still may be becoming discolored and suffering the effects of constant polish.

Every once in a while, it’s a good idea to just let your nails go bare. No polish at all. Let them breathe. Remove all the polish. File them and buff them, and apply some lotion. Rub it into the nails and cuticles to soften them. Then go a week or two with no polish at all. Wear sandals and open toed shoes as often as you can, or just go barefoot around the house or at the pool.

Let those nails breathe some fresh air and catch their breath!

Even if you don’t regularly wear nail polish you can keep your hands and nails looking beautiful.

When you shower you should push back your cuticles while they are soft. Keep them healthy looking and clean for starters.

Don’t bite your nails! Keep your nails clean and file down rough edges. Keep a nail file hand so that you are not tempted to pick at them when you get chip or a crack. Absolutely do not pick at your cuticles – use a nail trimmer! Picking at your cuticles will cause them to tear and can lead to infection and swelling on your cuticles.

It’s best to try to keep your nails all similar in length, rather than having some of them longer than others. Sometimes a coat of clear polish will make them shiny and doesn’t need nearly the same upkeep that painting your nails with colored polish requires.

My boyfriend showed up at my house on the morning of my birthday and told me to get my shoes because he was taking me out for a birthday pedicure! I loved it! What a great gift and a special treat, especially because I do not regularly get a professional pedicure. If your guy is looking for gift ideas for your birthday – this is a great idea! And just as interesting was that the technician happened to be a man too.

What made it even more special was that he decided to get a pedicure right along side me. And believe me, his feet were in serious need of some TLC. He is a runner, so his feet regularly take a pounding and rarely leave his athletic shoes. It takes a special guy to put himself through a “beauty treatment”, but more and more men are doing this all the time. I loved that his nails look clean and healthier and the rough spots on his feet are now softer.

It makes for playing “footsie” with him even sweeter.

There is nothing more indulging than a professional manicure or pedicure! Not everyone can afford this kind of luxury, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve one! A French manicure is such a lovely treat on your toes. It makes your nails look super-healthy because the tips are white and the nailbeds are pink.

You can do this at home if you practice enough, although some agility and flexibility is necessary since you need to be able to reach your own toes! You need two bottles of polish – white and a peach or pink tone. You’ll also need a small paint brush and some nail polish remover.

Start by cleaning off all old polish. Next use the white and carefully paint at least two layers on the tips of your nails. Don’t worry about being extremely neat at this point. You will then clean up the line with your paint brush dipped in some nail polish remover. Don’t expect it to just all clean up at once, you may have to brush over it several times.

Finally, apply the pink/flesh tone color. You can paint it right over the white, OR you can paint it on sideways (it won’t show the lines when it dries). Then polish off the whole thing with a clear coat over all of it to make it last. With enough practice, you will be able to do a nice French Pedicure at home

My daughter actually did a science project on this topic last year. She painted her nails with two coats of polish and then added a clear coat to the top. Each day we took pictures and recorded the number of chips in her polish. She did it again without the clear coat. Then she repeated the whole process for a total of three times.

The results were very conclusive — the manicure with the clear coat lasted almost twice as long as the one without. It also looked shinier and better overall for a longer time period.

So, the results are in — Take the extra few minutes to put on the top coat of nail polish!