My Normal Nail Routine

Hey guys!

So today I will show you my nail routine. I use these products every time I do my nails, and thought it was a good starting point in showing you nail art, etc.. It's easy to do!

To start, here are my main tools in addition to nail clippers:

From L to R: 4 sided nail file, regular nail file, acetone nail polish remover

To start, I obviously take my nail polish off. If it's regular polish, I just use acetone-based nail polish remover, and cotton balls (the remover was about $3.50 at Walgreen's). I normally don't use non-acetone, because sometimes I use a lot of glitter polishes and acetone is best for that in my opinion. If it's glitter polish, I use the foil method. If you don't know what that is, I can always show you how it's done in another blog. 

If my nails are crooked or something, I file them down with any file that I have handy. I find that Harmon's files are the best in means of nail shaping, but any file will do. The one pictured is from an old Sally Hansen salon effects kit (I always keep those files, you never know if you need a little one for a purse, etc). I'm currently growing my nails out from a square shape back to my almond nails, unfortunately I broke one and it looked stupid. 

Then I use a 4-sided file like this:

I get these for Christmas so I don't know the actual name, but they usually go for 5 bucks at a drugstore. There are some shaped like cube nail buffers, look for them. They have 4 sides; even out, smooth nail, buff nail, and shine nail. You use them in the order that they're numbered on the surface of the nail. If you do this, your nails look really good and polish goes on much more smoothly.

They look like this, give or take (there might be a bit of polish left over, make sure to swipe them again with remover to remove it):

At this step, I tend to work on cuticles. However, a few weeks ago I lost my cuticle remover so they're growing out (YUCK!) so I just use an orange stick to push the cuticles back. If I use this, I only use it once/month because it's not good to use the cuticle remover too frequently.

That's about it for the nails. After this I usually give them a good scrub in the sink, with a nail scrubber. This is important to make sure no fuzz is left on the nail, or nail remnants that could get stuck in the polish. I also tend to dry them with paper towels (If you paint your nails frequently like I do, I use the towels more than once). Then you're ready to polish!

I know this entry is kind of basic, but this to me is just like priming a canvas for a masterpiece therefore it's important :P