You don’t have to spend your hard-earned cash on professional manicures to keep your nails looking good.  Simply invest in a few affordable items and you can do you very own manicures at home!  Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to give yourself a classic and beautiful French manicure.

What you need:
-a base coat
-a color coat (usually a transparent pink or beige)
-a top coat
-a tip polish (white or off-white)
-cuticle oil
-cuticle stick
-nail file

What to do:
1. Start with clean and unpolished nails.  If you have any polish on your nails at all, take some nail polish remover and clean your nails thoroughly.  

2. Dab a bit of cuticle oil onto your cuticles and gently rub it in.  Olive oil can substitute for cuticle oil if you don’t have any.  

3. File your nails to your desired shape.  To learn the right way to file your nails, click here. 

4. By this point, the cuticle oil should have worked its way into your cuticles and they should feel softer.  Dip your fingers into a bowl of warm water and keep them there for about 5 minutes.  This will soften your cuticles even more.

5. After your cuticles have soaked sufficiently, take a cuticle stick and rub it in small circles around your cuticles.  You should gently remove any excess that may be present; don’t be rough, and don’t try to remove it completely.  After you’re finished, gently push your cuticles back with the stick.

6. Cleanse your hands with soap and water to remove any oil or residue on your hands and nails.

7. Apply a clear base coat to each nail.

8. Carefully paint the tips of your nails with the white or off-white tip color you have chosen.  Brush the polish sideways across the nail in a sweeping motion.

9. After the tips have completely dried, apply the color coat over the entire nail.  A transparent pale pink or nude is your best bet.  

10. Apply the top coat after the color has dried.

11. Let your nails dry completely.  This can take about 15 minutes.  If you’d like to speed up the process, you can purchase a bottle of quick-drying nail drops and apply them to your nails.    

12. If you have any nail polish smudges around your fingers, apply some nail polish remover to a Q-tip and carefully remove the smudges.

Now that your nails are looking gorgeous, it's time to tend to your toes!  Learn how to give yourself a pedicure here!