My
very first Mani Of The Week - or should I say MOTW? This looks strange.
Anyway,
I'm really fond of painting my nails and used to paint them several times a
week depending on my mood and how many new polishes I got between each time,
but now I have a full time job so I now just can paint them once a week on
either Saturday or Sunday. I don't have to worry about office appropriateness though as I'm the team
leader, so who's gonna mess with me *evil grins*
As
now it's summer, I am totally in love with neon colours and actually have just
bought a few more. Most colours in my collection are variations of green and
other cold colours, so I figured it was time to lighten the overall mood and
give my nails some fun twist.
This
week I chose a neon orange colour with a red undertone (you can see my little haul here), different from normal
neon orange with yellow undertone that you can easily find on the market.
Indoor it looks just a little fun and bright, but under the sun it's the bomb
and totally in-your-face!
I
kinda figured out how to perfect a manicure, which means the surface is smooth
without any bubbles. I learned how to achieve this the hard way. Below are the
steps:
1.
Apply a base coat: it not only
prevents any staining effect but also keep your nails from chipping much better
than having no base. It's basically like a face primer: to create a smooth and
even canvas for the products you're applying later.
2. Apply 2-3 coats of your desired colour
depending on the formula and the opacity. I find it generally easier to work
with shimmer / metallic / glittery polishes than with cream polish (no shimmer,
that is). Apply thin layers instead of a thick one so it will dry faster and
the latter coat will smooth out the former. Leave a little space between your
colour and your cuticles.
3.
Wait for the base colour to dry a little bit, then apply
your top coat to seal everything up and help your colour to last.
Make sure to wait a bit between the apply time if you want to add 2 layers of
top coat (which I always do). Also make sure that there are no bubbles inside
your top coat bottle, if there are, just wait for them to varnish. When you dip
the brush back to the bottle to get more product, do it slowly and carefully so
that the air won't come in too much to create bubbles. Apply top coat slowly
will also do the trick to achieve a smooth surface and even out the colour
underneath.
4.
Clean up the edges by using a cotton
bud for bigger mistakes and a tiny synthetic brush dipped in nail polish remover
to perfect the shape around your nails and cuticles. Me I use an old fine eye
liner brush for this step.
And
remember that practice makes perfect. I'm not saying that my nails look perfect
now, but they are much much better than how they looked like a few months ago:
 |
| Look at those cuticles! |
I hope you find this post helpful. Until
next time (I'm going to keep staring at my nails now)! :)
