Doing the nails

Preparing the nails

You will need

  • Nail clipper
  • Nail file
  • Cuticle trimmer
  • Nail oil (optional)
  1. Clip your nails to the desired length.
  2. File the nails into shape.
  3. Trim the cuticles with the cuticle trimmer.
    Be careful! It is easy to scrape the nail or to cut too much into the nail fold.
  4. Optionally apply nail oil.
    I don't usually do that and instead just apply the top coat right away. Some tutorials recommend it though. Try what works best for you.

Brands

I am using essie for my nail polish. It applies evenly, dries fast and lasts for over a week. You can paint over it once it gets flaky without problems.

An cool feature of their website is, that they show how each nail color looks on hands of light, a medium-dark and a dark skin color.

A brand I recommend against is essence. Their black nail polish took over an hour to somewhat dry. After going to bed four hours later, the nail polish was all dented and uneven. Overpainting dissolves the lower layer quickly and you are back to square one.

Applying nail polish

Applying nail polish is relatively straightforward.

You will need

  • A base coat
  • Nail polish
  • Nail polish remover and cotton swab, or ideally a nail polish corrector pen

Apply the base coat

The base coat is usually transparent, so it does not matter much if you paint a bit over the edge. Make sure that the nail is evenly covered. Small "holes" show as bumps through the color coat at close distance. Especially check if the tips of the nails are properly covered, because it is easy to overlook missing base coat there.

Wait for the base coat to dry

A good quality coat should dry quickly. You can wait about five minutes, then gently press against the nail with your finger to check if it is dry. If the base coat feels slightly sticky, it needs some more time to dry. Once it feels dry to the touch, it is ready for the nail polish layer.

Apply the color coat

Since this coat is visible, you will have to take some more care to draw in the lines. This can be tricky when painting with your non-dominant hand. Don't worry too much, you can still clean up the excess color later.

Try to be as quick as possible because the polish dries quickly and can form blobs when you paint over half-dried polish too many times. Being quick is more important than being precise.

Let the color coat dry

As with the base coat, this shouldn't take very long, and you can check by gently pressing against the nails with your finger and checking if they feel sticky. Don't rub or press too hard because that can smudge the coat.

Curing nail polish in cold water: I have seen some videos and articles that recommend putting your hands into cold water after applying the nail polish, so it cures faster. I have tried that with the cheap "essence" nail polish, to no discernible effect. My guess is, that the cold water lowers the viscosity of the nail polish, which makes it less runny and seem "dry", but does not cure it permanently.

By using nail polish of good quality, I only have to wait a few minutes for it to fully cure and I don't have to worry about setting up the cold water and getting splashes everywhere.

Do the clean-up

Once the color coat has dried, it's time for the clean-up. You can use a nail polish remover with a cotton swab to gently remove the polish from areas where you don't want it to be. The same is the case for a nail polish corrector pen. Be careful to not touch areas that you want to be painted. When you are working with the nail polish remover, make sure that it does not touch the nails of your working hand while you clean the other one, since it will happily dissolve all the nail polish you just put on.