Make a greater effort to take good care of your nails, and you will be thrilled with the way they complement your wardrobe and your own personal style. Consider the following tips as a way to enhance the health and quality of your nails.

Avoid Brittle Nails
Avoid using your nails as tools. This means no picking, scratching, digging, pinching, etc. You know who you are! Increase the amount of calcium in your diet. Use products containing alcohol, especially perfumed lotions, sparingly. These items can make nails prone to breaking.

Healthy Nails

Apply speed-dry nail polish when time is of the essence. Drink lots of water. Keep your body hydrated everyday to maintain healthy nails. Fortify your diet with FDA approved vitamins or supplements. Your fingernails count on you to be responsible with your health and your diet. Unless instructed otherwise by your physician, increase your daily doses of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium, folic acid, protein, Vitamin B12, and zinc. Touch up your manicure on a daily basis to prevent chips and cracks.

Nail polish tips

• Finish with a clear topcoat to add gloss and sheen. Start with a base coat to strengthen and protect the nails.
• Store nail polish in the refrigerator to maintain a smooth consistency.
• Try not to store nail polish in a room that becomes cold. The nail polish bottles may break without warning, leaving you with a big mess.
• Wear rubber gloves when you do chores that involve continual submersion in water or contact with harsh detergents or chemicals.

Regular nail care and an occasional manicure are the best ways to get beautiful nails. Neat, clean and well manicured nails add charm to your personality. Here is your own guide to get beautiful and attractive nails.

Remove old polish Remove cuticles

You will need some cotton balls and a nail polish remover (acetone) to get rid of the old nail polish. Take some nail polish remover on the cotton ball and press it on the nail for a few seconds. Wipe out the old nail polish with the same cotton. Make sure that you have removed the entire nail polish residue properly. Do not use nail polish remover too often, as it can harm your nails and cuticles.

Nail cuticles keep bacteria away from entering into the body. Proper care of nail cuticles boost the growth of nails. Invest in a cuticle remover and cuticle stick also known as orange stick. Push your cuticles behind with the cuticle stick after softening them with the help of the cuticle remover. Be careful while using the cuticle remover, avoid applying force.

Shape your nails

Make use of the emery board to give a nice shape to your nails. Maintain one direction and file nails from corners to the center. Sharp-corner square nail shape is now in. Long and oval shape nails look stunning but you need to be extra careful with them. If you really want to save efforts and time to manicure then rounded and short shape nails are for you. Just a few minutes of filing and you will get the desired shape.

Clean your hands

Soak your hands into warm soapy water to get your hands free of dusts, old nail varnish remains, dead skin and oil. A few drops of lemon juice into warm water would be the substitute to deep cleanse your hands. Dry your hands with towel. Now you are almost ready to get your nails painted.

Apply base coat

You are on your way to get glamorous nails. Varnish you fingernails or toenails with nail gloss. Nail Gloss keeps your nails sparkling and moisturized.

Apply nail paint

Now decorate your nails with colour or texture of your choice. Combining two shades of colours can give wonderful effects. Multicolor shades can also be used to beautify your nails. Start applying strokes of the nail polish from the base and work upwards.

To prevent nail enamel from getting damaged make sure that you wipe out excessive nail polish from the tips of the nails. Let the first coat of nail polish dry before applying the second coat. Application of two coats of nail paint gives the smooth texture and makes it appear even. Let the enamel dry completely. You can use a blow dryer to dry the nail polish completely and save time.

After this is done, apply top coat to prevent nail paint from chipping or cracking. Any transparent nail polish can be used to give the top coat. Top coat will help your nail polish last longer.