A great way to boost your beauty quotient in the beholder’s eyes is to flaunt immaculately manicured nails. Applying a fresh and gorgeous coat of varnish on perfectly chiseled nails not only enhances the appeal of your petite hands but also heightens your persona by several notches.
Of course, you’d wish the coating on your nails outlasted the pedicure but alas it doesn’t nine times out of ten. So, till you’ve figured out how to make manicure last longer than two fortnights, these are some tips you could follow to keep the varnish looking as if you had applied the coat just minutes ago. Since the nails have to endure a lot all through the day, doing a top layering every alternate day for a long lasting manicure is not the way to go.
[Also Read: Manicure Hacks]
Manicure Care
Try all or some of these tricks in order to make the manicure last longer.
1. Toothbrush The Nails
No matter how bizarre it sounds, running the toothbrush over the nail face is one of the most effective manicure care hacks. Just as you use the toothbrush to retain the pearly whiteness of your teeth, you can use it for adding a sparkle to your fingernails too. Retrieve an old clean toothbrush or go for a new one and brush the nails after smearing microscopic scoops of toothpaste.
Source: californiasun.com
After you’re done brushing, rinse your hands under running water in a sink or basin. Going through this step not only removes invisible dirt or grime but makes the nails glow. Gently rub the nails with a pinch of vodka so that the varnish dries quickly post application.
2. Baseline Is The Key
Applying a deft base or foundation coat acts as a sealant for the topcoat of nail polish. What you’re basically doing by giving a base coating is preparing the ground for the topcoat application. Also, the first coat is usually reinforced with nutrients enabling the nail surface to smoothen, ultimately letting the manicure last longer.
Source: dadelandnails.com
3. Heat Control Matters
A majority of beauty salons take the tried and tested routes to speed up the drying of nail varnishes like using ultraviolent lamps. Sure the techniques dry up the coats super-quick but on the flipside, they end up chipping fast as well. Though the coat soon after application makes you feel it has dried up, it’s an optical illusion.
Source: ilpentolino.com
It takes at least 12 hours for the polish to harden and/or dry up fully. So, attempting to force dry by rinsing your hands in hot water, taking a sauna bath or blowing hard can come in the way of curing. Either use a hair dryer to expedite the process or if you’ve the patience just let them be.
4. Discard The Dip
When getting a manicure done at the beauty salon, tell your manicurist to skip the hand soak. Contrary to what you or the beauty expert thinks, immersing your nails in water eventually abbreviates the lifespan of the varnish, and is hence not a sound manicure aftercare technique. Soaking causes the nails to absorb water and expand. When the water dries up it leads to nails contracting into their original form ultimately resulting in chipping or cracking of the coat.
Source: triciastreasure.com
[sc:mediad]
5. Hand In Gloves
Unless you’re someone born with a golden spoon in your mouth, you cannot avoid routine chores. And on each occasion you scrub the bathroom or use the dishwasher, you make the nail varnish vulnerable to chipping or falling off. The chemicals in the soap or detergent and even water can corrode the polish and make it lose its sheen. The way out is to put on rubber gloves before you head to the kitchen or kneel down on the bathroom floor.
Source: goodhousekeeping.com
[Also Read: How To Get The Perfect Manicure]
Source: blog.allaboutwomenmd.com
Besides the aforementioned tips on how to make manicure last longer, there are a few more guidelines you can abide by, including opting for a quality nail-polish and allowing sufficient time for the varnish to harden naturally.
Feel free to share your thoughts, tips or tricks on manicure care with us in the comments below.
