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Please note that I am not a professional of any kind so any information in this post is not meant to be medical, legal, financial, relationship or any professional advice.If you think a good at home manicure is hard to do, think again! These are some of the best tips for an easy manicure at home!
If you love getting your nails done but are finding it kinda pricey or time consuming, then an at home manicure might be the perfect solution!
Getting a manicure can feel therapeutic and be a great form of self care. And you don’t have to book an appointment at the salon to get cute looking nails.
With a few simple tools and good tips you can achieve an at home manicure in the comfort of your space.
We’ll go through everything you need to know to create the perfect manicure at home, from nail prep, to choosing the perfect color, and adding cute finishing touches that can make your DIY manicure amazing.
Whether you’re a nail pro or a complete beginner, we’re here to help you elevate your manicure game and unleash your inner nail artist.
With our expert tips and manicure tool recommendations, we’re confident you can achieve salon worthy results without ever leaving your home.
For a full list of important ways to prolong the life of your manicure you can download my “11 EASY TIPS TO EXTEND THE LIFE OF YOUR AT HOME MANICURE” guide from my free resource library by filling out the form below.
This post is all about tips for an at home manicure.
Best Tips For An At Home Manicure
1. Clean Your Nails
You’ll wanna start your at home manicure by cleaning your nails to give yourself a clean base to start with. Use a nail polish remover to remove any nail polish, oil, or residue. This will help give a smoother finish and help the polish last longer on your nails.
Using something like these nail polish remover pads make it super easy to clean your nails quickly.
2. Trim Your Nails If Needed
Next you’ll wanna use a nail clipper to trim your nails if needed. Try and invest in a good quality nail clipper because it will make your at home manicure a lot easier and will give a nicer finish. This one has really great reviews.
You can keep your nails long if you prefer, but keep in mind shorter nails don’t break as often as longer nails, and shorter nails are usually easier to maintain.
3. Shape Your Nails
After you trim your nails to your desired length, you should file them to create smooth edges and to prevent breakage.
An electric nail filer makes this SO much easier and quicker. But nail files work really well too. This nail file and buffer manicure kit is super affordable and comes with 6 of each.
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4. Take Care Of Your Cuticles
Cuticles can easily get overlooked in a diy manicure but it’s actually an important step. The way your cuticles look can make a HUGE difference in how your at home manicure looks.
First you should soften your cuticles by soaking your hands in warm soapy water for a few minutes. This helps soften them and helps to clean them. You can do this in a bowl or there are cute nail soaking bowls to really make you feel like your at a salon. This set comes with two nail soaking bowls and cuticle tools for a really affordable price.
You can then use tools like a cuticle pusher or cuticle trimmer if desired.
5. Exfoliate Your Hands
Using a gentle hand scrub to exfoliate your hands is a great way to not only feel like your at the salon, but to make your at home manicure look extra good.
Exfoliating your hands can help them look smoother and the better your hands look, the better your manicure will look.
This Vitamin C Shea Sugar Scrub has amazing reviews and the smell would be a really nice touch to a diy manicure.
6. Buff Your Nails
Buffing your nails gently before applying polish can help smooth the nail for a smooth polish application. It can also help the polish stay on your nails longer with less chipping.
But you should use something gentle like a nail buffer block. There are tons of affordable ones online. Ones like these buffer blocks that have different sides for buffing, polishing, shine, etc are great to give different finishes to your nails.
7. Apply Your Base Coat
Now that you’ve done a good amount of nail prep, it’s finally time for some polish. But using a good base coat before a color polish can help the color polish last longer and look better.
What base coat you use will depend on what type of color polish you want to use. If you want to use a gel color polish then you’ll need to use a gel base coat like this one.
But if you’re looking for a base coat for regular nail polish then this one from essie is a great one because it’s a base coat, top coat, and strengthener all in one.
But remember to let your base coat dry completely before adding your color polish.
8. Choose Your Color Polish
This is probably the most fun part of the home manicure. But before you choose which color you want, you have to decide what type of finish you want.
If you want gel nails then you’ll have to use gel polish, along with other tools that you can find in this gel nail kit. It’ll cost a bit more to get the tools you’ll need for a gel manicure, but if you’re someone who frequently gets gel manicures then this would save you a lot of money in the long run.
But if you want to keep it simple for now then you can just choose a regular color nail polish of your choice.
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9. Clean Up Any Mistakes
Before you move onto applying the base coat you’ll wanna fix any mistakes you’ve made. You can use a brush dipped in nail polish remover to clean up around the edges of your nails or they have nail polish corrector pens which make it super easy.
10. Apply A Top Coat
Finally it’s time to finish off the polish with a good quality top coat. Just like with the base coat and with the color polish, the type of top coat will depend on the finish you want. There are gel top coats as well as regular top coats. This top coat from Sally Hansen has tons of great reviews and dries super fast.
11. Moisturize Hands and Cuticles
For a nice finishing touch, you can moisturize your hands and cuticles to make your at home manicure look as good as possible. Use a good moisturizer for your hands and a cuticle oil for your cuticles.
This cuticle oil is very affordable and is SUPER popular. It has amazing reviews.
Like mentioned earlier, your hands are a big part of your manicure, the better your hands look, the better the manicure will look.
12. Take Care of Your Manicure
After all that work for the best at home manicure, you’ll wanna protect your manicure to help it last longer and look better longer. Things like wearing gloves while washing dishes or avoid biting your nails can help maintain your manicure for longer.
For a full list of important ways to prolong the life of your manicure you can download my “11 EASY TIPS TO EXTEND THE LIFE OF YOUR AT HOME MANICURE” guide from my free resource library by filling out the form below.
13. Extra Tools You Might Need For Your DIY Manicure
These are a couple extra tools that you might need for your at home manicure depending on your style and needs.
Everyone deserves to take time for themselves to make themselves feel good and an at home manicure is a great way to do that. It can be such a fun and relaxing form of self care that can be done in the comfort of your home. That’s why we really hope you enjoyed this post on an at home manicure and took away some tips to help you create your best diy manicure yet!
Whether you have been giving yourself at home manicures for years, or have never done a home manicure, we hope there was tips here for everyone at any stage.
So remember to take time for yourself to do the things you enjoy and that make you feel good. Comment below if you have any tips for at home manicures that you’d like to share!
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