All Hail Pretty Nails

In grade 11, us Rhenishers went to a drama festival at the Artscape Theater. One of the workshops was about going for castings and what to expect etc, and I remember the leader saying that as well as taking 'mugshots' and portrait shots of you to keep in their portfolio, they also sometimes ask to take a photo of your hands.

If you have clean, shaped, moisturised hands and nails, you look a whole lot more professional than someone with nails chewed to the bone. Unkempt-looking nails can range from chipped polish, to different lengths, to visible dirt. You know the saying that actions speak louder than words? Looking after your hands and nails gives the impression that you look after and care about yourself. There really is no excuse for having unkempt hands and nails. It takes under half an hour to do, and I promise you, 9 out of 10 people will notice and comment on your pretty nails. 

Here's what I do to get nourished, pretty hands and nails:

1. remove nail polish and cut or file nails
Personally, I hate filing my nails because it makes me gril real bad. I recommend filing and/or cutting before soaking your hands because then your nails are very soft.

2. soak hands in hot, soapy water
I fill a basin with nice hot water - as hot as I can handle. This makes my fingers swell and wrinkle and somehow makes the dirt under my nails disappear. My favourite handwash is vanilla scented, but just use anything that will make your hands and nails feel and smell fresh. I also use my right hand and gently scrape the soap off the palm of my left hand and vice versa. This ensures that the soap goes under your nails. Make sure that all the nail polish is completely off your nails, then dab your hands dry with a towel.

3. paint your right hand first
This is my secret to perfect nails. I am right handed, so using my left hand to paint is awkward. It's even more awkward when my left hand's nails are wet. Try get your head around this: if you paint your right hand first, your left hand's nails aren't wet yet so it's less awkward because you don't have to worry about messing up your nails. Once your right hand is painted, you can paint your left. This minimizes the amount of times you paint with your left hand's nails wet. 

4. minimum TWO coats
My favourite nail polish at the moment is 'Essence' sold at any Clicks store for R20. R20 is NOTHING for nail polish! But as you can imagine, because it's cheap it's not great quality. I recommend buying a decent, more expensive clear top coat to seal it down. By doing this, you can buy many more colours at the cheaper price instead of buying one bottle of 'Essie' for like R100 - or more!
As a rule, I always put on two layers of colour polish. This makes the polish on the nail look less see-through or streaky.


5. don't be scared to mix colours
I don't mean literally in bottles, I mean on your nails. Sometimes you spy a nice nail polish and buy it on impulse, and only realize when you get home that it's really watery. In such cases, I use a colour that's similar as a base coat, then put one or two layers of the watery one over that.

6. DON'T TOUCH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, how I would LOVE to expose my HUNDREDS of friends who have this problem. The problem is not exactly ADHD, but it comes close! Once you have painted your nails, you need to allow them to dry PROPERLY! Go on the computer, watch TV, take a nap - anything that you don't need your hands for. And make sure you pee before you start painting, ladies!

6. moisturise, moisturise, moisturise
What guy wants to hold a gross dry and cracked hand? Moisturising your hands makes them soft and nourished. Clicks has stunning hand creams that are small enough to keep in your hand bag. While you're at Clicks, buy some hand sanitizer to pop in your bag as well!

If you are a weheartit.com regular, I'm sure you're aware of the trend of painting your ring finger nails a different colour. Here are two ways I did my nails recently. I prefer to use a similar colour on my ring finger nail. When I painted my nails turquoise, I used a pearly greenish yellow colour over my ring finger nails. When I painted my nails pearly white, I used glittery silver.

If you are unsure or looking for inspiration, don't hesitate to look to weheartit or your favourite celebs for ideas. Here are some pics I found of Jwoww and Snooki, as well as Adele (obviously):

Happy painting!
Roxy X