Manicure

Manicure is a cosmetic beauty treatment for hands and fingernails. Manicure treatment can treat only hands or fingernails or both. You can do it yourself at home or a manicurist will do it for you at his or her salon or spa. The word manicure is derived from the Latin word manus, which means hands and cure, which means care.

Purpose and Benefits of Manicure

The main purpose of the manicure treatment is to improve the look and feel of your hands and fingernails. Another purpose is to clean, strengthen, shape, make attractive and sometimes even dress your nails. The other benefits associated with manicure include:

• It improves the health and texture of your hands and fingernails.
• It helps in preventing hang - nail formation.
• It may help in treating sore or broken skin if present around the nails.
• It helps in preventing nail damages like fragile tips, cuts or splits.
• Massage that often accompanies manicure helps in improving the health of the skin by increasing blood circulation.
• By improving the health of the skin, it discourages the wrinkling of the skin on hands.

Tools and Supplies used for Manicure

The most common manicure tools include:

• Bowl of warm water
• Nail cutters or Nail clippers
• Nail brushes
• Nail filer
• Nail buffers
• Cuticle knife and clippers
• Cuticle pusher
• Orange stick

The most common manicure supplies include:

• Cotton swabs
• Liquid soap
• Cuticle remover
• Cuticle cream
• Cuticle oil
• Hand and body lotion for massage
• Nail cleaners
• Nail polishes
• Nail polish remover
• Sanitizing sprays
• Hand towels

Procedure of Manicure

1. Remove your old nail polish with the help of nail polish remover using cotton swabs.
2. File your nails using a nail cutter or a nail filer to desired shape in one direction.
3. Put some liquid soap in warm water and soak your hands in it for few minutes. This will help in softening the cuticles.
4. Clean the cuticle using cuticle remover.
5. Rub some amount of cuticle cream on cuticles.
6. Push the cuticle back with an orange stick or a cuticle pusher.
7. Massage your hands with a moisturizing hand lotion.
8. Apply a base coat and let it dry for a minute.
9. Apply first coat of the nail polish.
10. When the first coat of the nail polish is dried, apply the second coat for deeper color. Always start with one side of the nail and cover the nail in three strokes.
11. You can clean the left stray marks using a nail polish remover dabbed in cotton swab.
12. Allow the nail polish to dry thoroughly and then apply the top coat of the nail polish.

After completion of the manicure procedure don’t forget to sanitize all the tools and supplies using sanitizing sprays. Dry them and store them until the next manicure procedure.

Different Types of Manicures

There are many different types of manicures available. The steps carried out during any of the manicure types are same. That what distinguishes a type from another is the different shaping of the nails and application of different oils and creams.

French Manicure: This is the most popular type of manicure. It involves the application of clear or nail-colored nail polish on the body of the nail and pure white nail polish at the tips of nails. The nails are shaped round, oval or square as per desire.

Paraffin Manicure: In this type of manicure, either your hands are dipped into wax or warm wax is rubbed into your nails. This will make your hands soft.

Hot Stone Manicure: In this type of manicure, hand massage is given by using hot stone therapy.

Luxury Manicure: This type of manicure includes the use of paraffin wax and heated mittens for softening and warming the hands and hydrating the nails.

Spa Manicure: This type of manicure includes few additional steps than the normal manicure like a hydrating mask or an aromatic salt rub.