How to do a happy coral manicure :) A quick, mini nail tutorial...

When you've had a long long week, and needed something to chill out, doing your own manicure might not always be on most people's chill list. For me, it is. Don't ask me why or how but over the years with all kinds of stress coming in and out of my life, doing my nails has become somewhat a relaxant for me (in lieu of literally taking chill pills :P ). I have also become a nail polish hoarder along the way...and this is way before I started on the makeup hoarding.

I started with the safe pink and nude variety and over the years, the colour choices have intensified along with the varieties now available in the market. Like with my makeup choices, am not fussed about branding and pricing with my nail product choices - the cheaper with reasonable quality, the better, although of course if I could afford it all the time, OPI is the bomb, let's face it.

There is something stultifyingly soothing when stroking on color onto my nails. I let go of all my other worries and concentrate on getting just the right stroke of color on that little space on my fingers (or toes).

So...after a long week with no time to do my nails last weekend, this is what I just got up to today...

A pop of coral on my fingertips! That's a page of Glamour mag in the background...btw, I love the model's makeup there too, especially the shading...but I digress...
Coral! As early as a year ago you won't catch me going around with all kinds of colour on my nails but this year, I've been on this color bandwagon.

I don't claim to be a nail expert but I do love how doing my nails make me feel exponentially better somehow. I don't use fancy stuff really, as you can see below:

Rimmel 5-in-1 Base and Topcoat, Sally Hansen polish remover, J&J's baby bedtime oil, and coral nailpolish from SaSa - that's all, folks :P
I start with getting rid of my old nail polish color with good 'ol Sally Hansen nail polish remover. A medium-sized bottle lasts me quite some time and the formula is kind to nails so it's good to get yourself one of these. Then I trim and file my nails as I need. Sometimes nails need a little buffing so it has a smoother and cleaner surface to work on, so I do that too (when am not too lazy).

Next apply the basecoat. The Rimmel 5-in-1 base and topcoat has seen me through countless nail polish looks till it's more than halfway through now. It's probably hardly more than RM10 at either Guardian's or Watsons and it works really well for lazy (and cheap) people like me. I mean, just one bottle to do like five things? Basecoat, topcoat, strengthens, smoothens, shines...yeah.

Then it's the first layer of nailpolish color. I got this coral nail polish from SaSa for like RM6.90...I have no idea what brand it is because the symbol on the bottle looks like a Chinese character but I do know the color is labelled as No 29 at the base of the bottle :P It truly is a lovely coral color and the quality is not bad at all since the first coat of color was already reasonably intense. I always do two coats, so the second coat came on after the first coat was dry. Then it's back to Rimmel to do the topcoat.

And why J&J baby bedtime oil you may ask? Firstly I like the soft lavender smell of this purple- bottled variant. Smells yummy. And in the nail context, I apply the oil onto my nails and cuticles to speed up the nail-drying process and also to moisturize the nails and cuticles. Learnt that trick from another girly girlfriend. Then leave nails to dry!

And that's all, folks! Happy coral manicure :)

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