You learn a lot about product, methods, and the ever-so-persistent resistance to change when you do personal grooming services on hundreds of strangers. It’s enlightening, inspiring, and ultimately wonderfully rewarding.

Here are the things I have learned about foot and hand grooming through experience.

1. Dry skin and callus are two different things. Cracks come from having both. You cannot get rid of cracks in heels by filing them. They need to be hydrated and allowed to heal. Once the dryness is dealt with, then you can deal with the callus. They will not go away by getting a pedicure once or twice a year. Consistency with hydrating twice daily and filing 2-3 times a week is the ideal. If it’s really bad, you can get a pedicure and have the esthetician do the hard work.

2. You can file callus wet or dry. Wet will get rid of more buildup, and dry will give a wonderfully smooth finish.

3. People always use too much product! Most spa brand products are more concentrated and should last a long time. Start the application where the skin is driest and then massage it into the rest of the foot. Foot lotions/foams are designed for the thicker skin on the bottoms of feet; they don’t need to be applied to the knee. The size of a dime of lotion and a walnut for foam is all you need per foot.

4. Soaking in water weakens the polish. Nails absorb water when they are soaked. Think of it like untreated, painted wood. The swelling and shrinking make it hard for the polish to adhere to the entire surface. So keep those manicures out of the dishwater! Alternatively, soak hands and feet before removing polish to make the process easier.

5. Neutralize the nail before polishing. If a base coat is applied on the nail overtop of lotion or oil, it won’t adhere properly and will chip off. Give those nails a little swipe with polish remover before you start to polish. Nails also produce their own oils so even if you think they’re fine, do it anyway!

6. Yes you do need Base and Top Coat. If you want the application to last. When you paint anything else and want it to last, you always prime and seal. This is no different!

7. Avoid the skin. Polish on skin will peel off as soon as it’s dry. It will also pull off and chip any polish on the nail that it’s attached to. Take an orange wood stick with a small amount of cotton wrapped around the end and clean up the edges with polish remover before it dries.

8. Polishes have personality. White polishes will always get goopy quickly — it’s something about the pigment that’s used. I’ve never gotten through a whole bottle. Blues, greens, and pinks usually need three thin coats as opposed to two. Glitter polishes last much longer, but are also harder to remove. Red is messy when removing. Hold a polish remover-soaked cotton ball on the nail for 30 seconds and then wipe towards the end of the nail. Don’t scrub back and forth. Let the remover soak through the layers and dissolve the varnish.

9. People will continue to use a product even if it doesn’t work because “They’ve always used it/My mother used it/TV said…” If after consistent and proper use for a month there is no change at all to the condition that you are dealing with, the product doesn’t work for you. This is ok. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad product, you just need something else. It makes no sense to continue paying money for something out of habit when you’re not seeing results.

10. Be consistent, patient and realistic! Manicures do not last as long as pedicures. The beach will destroy the polish on your toes. Yes it does take as much as two hours for polish to dry enough to wear shoes.  Let it be fun! Enjoy those bright colors and soft feet, but remember that everyday life also leaves marks. If estheticians could control physics and chemistry, believe me they would.

Have fun with your fingers and toes, let them be beautiful and pampered. These tips will help you get the most out of your maintenance at home, meaning that when you go for a pedicure, they’ll be able to focus more on the fun parts; perfect toes and lots of yummy massage.

-Sheena McCallum

Sheena has traded in years of working as an esthetician to become a Beauty Blogger for the Canadian online retailer of spa grade skin, hair care and makeup — Spa Boutique. They can be contacted at www.spaboutique.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter.

Tags: Beauty, manicure, nails, summer

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Beauty, Careers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.