BEAUTY

REST, RELAXATION, AND A REALLY CUTE MANICURE

HOW TO BRING THE SALON EXPERIENCE TO YOU

WRITTEN BY MADISON OBERMEYER

You have your work-fromhome routine down pat. You take walks to break up your day. You bought a laptop riser to help remedy your increasingly bad posture (we can only blame the makeshift desk for so long). But the one thing you can’t help but stare at as you type away on a seemingly endless schedule of deadlines and video calls is your picked-off, monthsold, chipped or even grown out manicure (and let’s not even talk about those cuticles).

While a manicure or pedicure is easily the last task on anyone’s to-do list during a global pandemic, let’s take a step back and analyze the situation— is it really just a manicure? Or is it taking 30 minutes of “me” time to meditate on your day or delve into that self-care routine you were supposed to start Jan. 1?

With salons keeping a tighter schedule or only allowing a few clients in at a time, perfecting the art of the at-home manicure and pedicure is your latest and greatest quarantine activity that, with our help, you’ll nail in no time! We spoke with KC beauty guru Lauren Shaw (@beauty.lo.down) to find out how we can polish up on our skills.

Create the Salon Experience at Home

Just because this is an “at-home” manicure or pedicure doesn’t mean you should deprive yourself of some of that glorious R&R.

“For an at-home mani/pedi, I love to put on music or a podcast and light a couple of candles,” says Shaw. “Doing your own nails can take some serious time and patience, so I like to create a vibe before I get started.”

Whether you add a few drops of your go-to essential oil blend into a hu-

midifier, put on some noise-canceling headphones, or even double up on the self-care with a face or hair mask, take this time to treat yourself (and focus on making your manicure look like it’s from a salon).

Don’t Skip out on Prep

Before you’re cozy, cuddled up in a plush robe, and surrounded by candles, make sure your at-home toolkit is up-to-date and filled with all of your favorite tools and products.

“I can't live without my nail file and cuticle trimmer,” Shaw exclaims! “I have to keep my nails shaped nicely and cuticles/skin around my nails well kept at all times.” This makes sense, seeing that the one step Shaw never skips is prepping her nails.

“I make sure I completely remove any polish that is already on my nails, trim around my cuticles and the skin around my nails, file them to the perfect shape, and buff the nail bed to help polish stay on longer,” Shaw explains.

Invest in Yourself—And Your At-Home Products

While you may be spending less money by not going to the salon, investing in products that will last—and that you believe in—is as important for your nails as it is for any other part of your self-care routine.

Over the past few years, Shaw has been educating herself on up-and-coming natural and nontoxic products for a mani/pedi. “I think it is so important to pay attention to the ingredients that are in the products we use and be educated on how they can affect us,” Shaw says. “I’ve found some really great nail polish brands, including ella + mila, that have branded themselves as companies that use only nontoxic and clean ingredients in their nail polish.”

If you’re interested in expanding your at-home mani/pedi toolkit to feature natural or nontoxic products, Shaw recommends keeping an eye out for polishes that advertise “17 Free,” which means they are made without ingredients like acetone, animal-derived ingredients, bisphenol-A, camphor, ethyl tosylamide, formaldehyde, and more. “In my experience, you do not have to sacrifice quality when it comes to products with clean, nontoxic ingredients,” Shaw says.

As for Shaw’s favorite color at the moment, “Once in a Blue Luna by ella + mila is a really pretty navy blue,” she says. While the temperatures rise and nature comes into bloom this spring, Shaw likes to warm things up a bit: “I love a light pink in the springtime, and my go-to color this spring will be Team Sweets by ella + mila.”

Self-care? Nailed it!

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