Beauty | How To Lengthen The Life Of Your Manicure

Getting your nails done with your girls is one of the greater luxury's of being a woman, and making sure that the treatments last as long as possible is a must. Listed here are a few tips on how to lengthen the life of your manicure in order to reap the maximum amount of benefits from your money spent. I hope some of these tips help you out!

Directly after the manicure, be very careful with your hands in case the nail polish hasn't completely dried yet. One of the most frustrating things is getting a beautiful new manicure, and having it dent or smudge. Talk about a waste of money! To avoid this, you can ask your nail specialist for a little bit of oil to apply to each nail; this will help anything that your nails do come in contact with to slide away from the nail polish, instead of into it.

After your manicure, it is important to keep very good care of the cuticle area that your nail care specialist has worked on. Since they have most likely nipped off most of your cuticles, this area will often become dry and make your manicure look a lot less expensive. To help avoid this, applying a moisturizing lotion or even light oil can help re-hydrate cuticles and get them looking fabulous again. I use this trick about every day (if it's winter) and ever other day/every two days (if the weather is warmer). Moisturizing the entire hand area will also make your manicure look much more polished, so don't skip out on the creams!

A great tip to prevent chipping is to apply a clear top coat every couple of days. I have noticed that even salon-grade polishes can end up chipping just days after the treatment, so don't skip this step. This will help strengthen the entire polished area, helping you do your everyday tasks without having to worry.

Another great tip to help your polish from chipping, is to avoid submerging your hands in hot water. Since hot water softens the polish, it is a lot more prone to breaking at this time than any other (just like our hair!). It is inevitable that our hands will be in water when bathing or showering, but we can help it when we are doing other things. For instance, try wearing gloves when you do the dishes; it will protect the nail area, and it will also help keep your hands from drying out.

In case your polish does end up chipping too soon after your manicure, you can always cheat some length out of it. If you have a small chip(s) near the very tips of your nails, you can try to color match your polish shade and touch up. Do a very thin coat of your matched-color, and then cover the selected are with clear polish. While doing this, make sure that you do not create a 'color bump' (you spot on your color too thick, making the light catch on the place that you touched up).