Nail Prep

And there they are. No polish. Freshly filed. Right off my cell camera.

When it comes to nail shape I prefer mine to be 'squarely rounded'. Which means I just take the corner off the side as they grow out. I always use a glass nail file. It leaves a smother surface than emery or the metal ones and if you find good quality ones they can last for a pretty long time. I buy mine in a 5 pack from eBay.

Here's the acetone I use. Just your basic wallymart acetone :) 100% pure for those stubborn glitters! I also have a bottle of some with some vitamin e moisturizer. I use that when I know removal won't be a pain. 

After removal of nail polish I always wash and dry my hands thoroughly. DO NOT apply oil BEFORE applying your polishes! The oil can make the polish not bond to your nail surface, which in turn will make it not last very long (I use hemp oil and argan oil but mainly the hemp because it is a tad more 'oily'.)

Here's my base coats and a bottle of Sech Vite. 

L to R- Sech Vite dry fast top coat, OPI Natural Nail base coat, Kleancolor Calcium base coat.
I also use INM Out the Door as a TC on occasion :)

 

And here we are all base coated up! 

One coat of Calcium and one coat of OPI NNB. 

Not everyone uses the calcium but I do for that added strength and protection. EVERYONE should use a base coat! Especially with untried polishes! Trust me, if you've ever ended up with a set of purple or green (ew!) stained nails, then you know what I'm talking about! Not worth the risk! Always use protection ;)

Here are my clean up brushes that I use. 

I prefer the acrylic ones because if you get the wooden ones with paint on them and let them sit in the acetone guess what?! The paint comes off and can get on your fingers! Ugh! Quite a mess! Skip yourself the headache and get the acrylic types.

Also I don't have a picture but I use one of those black caps from an old acetone bottle to pour some into then dip the brush from that!

I'm also going to add that I take Hair Skin And  Nails Vitamins by Natures Way! They really help the growth rate and strength too!

And as a side note; most of my pictures are taken with either my camera phone or my Canon t2i with an 18-55mm lens :)

Well, I guess thats about it for the prep and clean up blog! If you have any questions or comments let me know and I'll be sure to add anything that comes to mind as useful information!

Have a nice day all!