Do it Yourself Articles

The Perfect Pedicure

Getting a pedicure is a great way to feel like a rich girl but the problem is that you have to actually be a rich girl to afford professional pedicures on a regular basis. But you don’t have to be rich to DIY – do it yourself a great pedicure that will rival even the fanciest salons. Gather everything around you before you begin and you can even sit in your favorite comfy chair instead of the bathroom.

No matter where you decide to do your pedicure, set the stage before you begin. This is supposed to be relaxing, so use candles for the beginning and your favorite music. You will need a brighter light for the second half of the pedicure, so make sure you have one handy. Also, set up everything you need ahead of time so that you won’t have to interrupt yourself to rummage around looking for things.

What You Need:

• A basin big enough to put your feet in comfortably
• Your choice of aromatherapy oils, Epsom salts, or bath beads.
• Orange stick (for cuticles)
• Nail clippers
• Your favorite color polish
• A base coat polish and a top coat
• Pumice stone or pumice soap bar

Make It Happen:

1. First, you will want to soak your feet for about 10 minutes or so. This will soften them up and help ease the tension that builds up in your feet from standing and walking around. You can choice from a variety of products to put in the warm water basin: Epsom salts, aromatherapy oils, or bath beads.
2. Use the orange stick to push back your cuticles. Be gentle, but be thorough.
3. Use the pumice stone to exfoliate your feet. Take care to get the backs of your heels and the sides of your big toe as well as the ball of your foot and the bottoms of your toes. Take your time.
4. This is the step that will really make the rough spots on your feet go away and keep them soft and pretty for those strappy sandals.
5. Dry off and massage your feet, ankles, and calves with lotion. Peppermint lotions energize your skin and lavender lotions are good for before bed.
6. Clip your nails so that they don’t stick out past the nail bed. Don’t clip the corners, though. Even though it will make them more rounded, you will end up with painful ingrown toenails.
7. If you’re on your way to bed, skip the polish for now. And if you wear polish on your nails 24/7, go ahead and give them a break for a day. If your nails don’t breathe, they turn a yellowish color, get brittle, and crack.
8. If you do want to polish your nails, you can make it last longer by apply a base coat and applying each polish starting in the middle of the nail and working outward. Let it dry completely before applying a thin coat of color. Make sure that one is dry before applying a second, thin coat of color. When that is dry, apply a top coat. Each layer of polish will take a few more minutes to dry than the last one. Don’t be tempted to use a hair dryer to hurry it along. It won’t help. Cool air actually works better, but you don’t want dust in the air to get stuck in the polish.
9. Touch up your polish every other day or so to keep it from chipping and give yourself another DIY perfect pedicure every week.