Forget making time to book your next mani-pedi, its time to get salon quality nails at home! Our favourite nail brands will keep your hands and tootsies buffed, polished and manicured to perfection, best of all, in the comfort of your home.
by Anna McDougall
Revitanail Nail Care expert, Mandi Levenah who counts Rihanna, Jennifer Hawkins and Miranda Kerr as fans, has put together her top tips for the perfect at home mani pedi kit.
Mandi Levenah: You will need:
• Revitanail Conditioning Remover Wipes ($5.95)
• A very smooth nail file (240 grit or higher)
• Revitanail Cuticle remover gel ($14.95) (weekly)
• Revitanail Nourishing Oil (2-3 times daily)
• Alcohol swabs (to remove excess oils on nail plate before applying base coat and polish)
• Revitanail Base Coat & Top Coat
• Revitanail Hand & Nail Cream
Don’t worry about any fancy ‘quick dry top coats’. It’s only the actual top coat that dries quickly; the polish underneath still needs TIME to dry. The only thing that dries polish is TIME, as each coat needs time for the liquid portion of the polish to evaporate. Applying a quick dry top coat too quickly prevents this evaporation process from happening, which is when you will get dents in your polish (or sheet marks if you’ve gone to bed!).
Tools to avoid in an ‘at home manicure’ are cuticle clippers (as you should never cut your cuticles), or any metal cuticle implements (which can easily scratch at the nail plate and weaken it). Never use those pedicure blades or foot files (as this will make the skin grow back coarser, drier and thicker than before).
ORLY smartGELS
With ORLY smartGELS manicure system it takes less than 20 minutes to complete a smartGELS manicure that offers high-shine, chip-free nails for up to three weeks. The system features a 39 bulb LED light with a timer for extra fast curing, a starter kit which contains the items required for application and removal including a primer, base+top coat, remover and tools and smartGELS colours.
RRP: $99.95 / $79.95 / $23.95 LED Light / Starter Kit / smartGELS colour, choose from 12 colours available from selected Pharmacies, Salons and spas
MAC Chamomile Mint Manicure Pedicure Range
What’s the point in having beautiful nails if your hands and feet resemble something close to a Hobbit’s? OPI’s Chamomile Mint range offers a Massage Lotion and Scrub exfoliator to get your paws in top condition. This moisturising massage lotion includes botanical extracts, vitamins and emollients for a lightweight moisturising treatment without the greasy feel, while the Scrub exfoliator is formulated with natural sugar crystals and botanical and chamomile extracts to help reduce calluses and dry skin.
RRP: $23.95, $29.95 available from leading beauty salons and David Jones stores Australia wide.
Nutra Nail Gel Perfect and No Mess Express Gel Perfect Remover
Rescu. loves Nutra Nail’s Gel Perfect for instant salon results minus the drying time and UV technology. It literally takes five minutes for the Gel Perfect to produce patent colour and shine in two simple steps. Be out the door in 5 minutes with no dings or smudges, just beautiful nails! Nutra Nail No-Mess Express™ Gel Perfect™ Remover packets have been specially developed to remove Nutra Nail Gel Perfect in just 2 minutes, no more damaged nails!
RRP: $24.99 and $12.99 available from nutranail.com.au