If you just don’t have the time to travel to a beauty salon, try to make it a regular part of your beauty routine to take care of your feet/hands and nails at home every week or so. Follow these easy step-by-step instructions from Marina, beauty therapist at The Beauty Lounge.

Your home nail kit should include the following:

Soft nail file, white buffing block, cuticle oil, hand moisturiser, nail polish remover, orange stick, top and base coat. These can all found at all good beauty stores and departments such as Boots or in Selfridge.

Try soaking your nails before having a bath. That way you will save time cleaning under your nails and the dry skin that stays on the ends of the filed nail will be removed otherwise the white buffing block is excellent for this.

When shaping your nails try not to be too harsh as it weakens the nail. The best shape is square with rounded edges, as there are no sharp corners to catch on your clothes, and it is an easy shape to achieve.

Once your nails are cleaned and shaped, it works miracles if you can soak them in warm olive oil for 5-10mins. The oil softens the cuticle and gives them the moisture they need.

The cuticle can then be pushed back at this point, with an orange stick wrapped at the tip with cotton wool.

Don’t wash the oil off - instead massage your hand cream into your hands. I really like the new Champneys Spa Treatments Vitamiracle Hand & Nail Cream, available from Sainsburys.

If you are going out but haven’t got the time to polish your nails don’t panic, remove any grease from the nail with polish remover and apply a high shine gloss. Your nails will look just as beautiful and healthy and will be dry within 1-2mins.

The easy mistake that we all make is try to paint our nails with not enough time for drying. We end up smudging them, taking the polish off or even worse not being able to remove those horrible red stains left around the cuticles!!!

I know it’s not everybody’s favourite but now is the time to take care of your toes and feet in preparation for spring; follow the guideline above, but also include these few extra tips.

Scrub your feet with a foot file on a regular basis – twice a week after having a bath. Massage your feet with your foot moisturiser mixed with a few drops of your favourite essential oil – this will not only relax you, but will also help you have a better sleep.

It is essential that you clean around the cuticle and under your toe nail at least once a week. This will help you to avoid fungal infections.

Sprinkle talcum powder to help keep them dry before you wear your socks/tights/shoes etc




A few extra tips:


If you can’t open your polish – run it under a hot tap
If you really want to paint your nails and dry them quick, once painted just relax for 5 mins and then soak them in cold water for a couple of minutes.
When you are not sure which colour to go for – light pink shades will always work.

To avoid getting yellow toes, try not to wear dark colours all the time and always apply a base coat. Sometimes nails can go yellow from certain types of medication – check with your GP
Mix pure lemon juice with a little bit of water and apply that on your toenails. This helps to keep toes cleaner without the yellow stains

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