Nail Tech Secrets

Just like on your hands, you must make sure that all of the lotion is off of your toenails before you even begin to think about polishing them. Use a towel to get most of it off, pushing down your toenail towards your cuticle just like you did with your nails. Get into those [...]

Put each foot back in the bath for a moment, and wash off the leftover salts. Dry your feet off, then get out your favorite good smelling lotion or cream. Give yourself a great foot massage. You think someone else can give a good foot massage, well, you are the best. You know where [...]

Now you will move on to taking care of the bottoms of your feet. Remove that first foot from the bath again, dry it off, and grab your foot file. If you have chosen my favorite foot file, you grab the end of the file without the sandpaper on it, find the courser side, [...]

Next, you want to file your toenails. If they are very long, you can clip them down first, with toenail clippers, but generally, the file does a great job. Like on your fingernails, file in one direction only to discourage the layers of your nail from separating. With your clippers, clip off just the very [...]

Remove one foot from the bath. Put your foot either on the edge of the chair or on the side of the bath. With your cuticle pusher, scrape all of the cuticle skin attached to your toenails from the edge of your nail down towards the cuticle, being very careful not to gouge your cuticle [...]

Get comfy, put your feet in the bath, and relax for about 15 minutes. Read a book, or just close your eyes and enjoy your senses.

If you have polish on, remove it. If you are wearing polish on your nails, this can be a trick. Nail Techs are taught to put your chosen polish remover pads between your knuckles and scrub the polish off that way, but I prefer to put on some rubber gloves and do it. Also, [...]

In either a large enough bowl for your feet, or an electric pedicure unit, put some nicely scented liquid soap, maybe a drop of two of essential oil, and even some flower petals, if you happen to have some around. Light a candle or two. Fill the tub up with nice warm water, as warm [...]

[Ed. note - we are moving right on to the Spa Pedicure this week due to the news from Dallas that I reported yesterday about people being infected by Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria from pedicure baths. I hope you will forgive me if I stress cleanliness so much here, but this bacteria is [...]

Wrap your hands up in a towel to retain the heat for as long as possible, sit back and relax for 15-30 minutes (or as long as you feel like sitting there—the longer the better). When you are ready, just remove the plastic, the paraffin will probably slip right off with it, and throw [...]