My Nail Routine + Favorites

Hey Lovelies!!!

I'm here to tell you all about my current nail routine and favorite nail polishes and tools. I'm going to start with my favorite part which is the actual nail polish. I have a pretty extensive collection and I'm quite proud of it! However, I do have my favorites! And these are them!

For my finger nails, these are my five favorite colors:

♥ Sally Hanson Complete Salon Manicure in 470 Red My Lips

♥ Revlon Colorstay in 060 Café Pink

♥ Revlon Parfumerie in 090 Bordeaux

♥ essie in 754 Mint Candy Apple

♥ Sally Hanson Complete Salon Manicure in 817 Gold Roses *Limited Edition*

And the color that is on my toe nails 99% of the time:

♥ Sinful Colors in 854 Boogie Nights

Now let's get into the routine that I stick to (quite religiously...)

First, I start out by cleaning up my nails. I'll trim them a bit if they need it with nail clippers. The pair that I use are by La Cross, but there's nothing extraordinary about them.

Then after that, I file my nails with a nail file. I have no idea what brand this file is. It gets the job done like any other nail file.

After that, I like to push and trim my cuticles. I know... Trimming your cuticles is not the best thing to do but sometimes you just have to trim them. Plus I find that it's much easier to apply nail polish more accurately after doing this. For trimming my cuticles, I use a Revlon tool.

Then, finally, I like to buff and smooth my nails with this four-sided Trim Buffing Block (featured in my February Favorites). I think that this tool makes the biggest difference in maintaining your manicure for an extended time. You nail gets smooth after using it and it helps hold the nail polish in place with a smoother application.

I always use a base coat after I finish buffing and smoothing my nails and before applying the colored nail polish. This base coat is pretty good! It is very, very slightly colored a pale white which also helps the colored nail polish appear more opaque. And, base coats also work to prevent your nails getting stained by the colored nail polish. For a base coat, I use:

♥ Revlon Colorstay Gel-Smooth Base Coat

After applying two coats of my colored nail polish, I always finish it off with a top coat. I'm not completely satisfied with this top coat, but it works for now. I prefer quick dry top coats, but I'm trying to finish up this bottle before I buy another type (maybe Seche Vite...?). Anyways, for a top coat, I use:

♥ Revlon Colorstay Gel-Shine Top Coat

Typically, my nail polish lasts about a week on average. When it's time to repaint my nails, I use the Target brand (Up & Up) Strengthening Nail Polish Remover. I've tried so many different types and formulations of nail polish remover and, to be completely honest, this one works the best, in my opinion. And I use cotton balls to remove the polish. I've tried cotton rounds, but I don't feel like they remove as much as the cotton balls.

In the situation where I need to remove my toe nail polish but my finger nails are painted, I use the handy little tool. It is a little rubber UFO looking thing that my mom found at a store (I have no idea what store though...) Basically, you put the cotton ball with nail polish remover in the little cut out and it acts as a barrier so that you don't get any nail polish remover on your finger nails. It works so well! If anyone knows where this can be found, leave it in the comments below!!

So, I've gotten my four closest friends to stick to this nail routine too! Almost every weekend, the five of us get together to do laundry, paint our nails, eat a bunch of food, gossip, and sometimes watch a movie. After I painted all of their nails once, they realized how long their manicures lasted so now we've made it a weekend tradition.

If you guys are interested, try out this nail routine or something similar and let me know how it works out for you! And if you have any suggestions or recommendations for my nail routine or even nail polished to try out, please leave them in the comments below. I'd love to test out some new products! I hope you like this post... Until next time, stay beautiful!!!

♥♥♥