How to: How I shape my nails

Hi everyone! How are you all doing? For today I decided to write a short little post about how I shape my nails, since some of you have been asking me about this. I'm sure there are many ways to do this, but this is mine :-).

Pictures are property of CND

Shape up! Ok, first thing to decide, is your desired shape. There are about 5 basic shapes to choose from: pointed, square, squoval, round and stiletto. In the past women always went with a rounded or oval shape. Nowadays the square and squoval (stands for squared oval) looks are really popular. A new trend however is the pointed and stiletto look. The stiletto thing is not really my cup of tea, I've seen them once in real life and I wasn't that thrilled about it, they just don't seem practical to me. I might stab myself while I'm sleeping. I do think they look very vixenlike when they're covered in ManGlaze hotness ;-). And they're great canvases for nail art. Most of the times they're artificial, I think I'd have to grow very long nails to achieve this look. On the catwalk we're seeing a lot of oval shaped nails, so I'm guessing that's going to be a trend as well. My nails are always hovering between squoval and square. They say nails are less weak if you file them like this, I'm not sure how true this is, but I've had way less breaks since stopped filing them round!

Wear a dark color I always try to shape my nails when I'm wearing a dark color. This way it's easier to see the actual shape of the nail. When I'm filing my nails without nail polish I always end up with crooked nails since my nailbeds aren't symmetrical at all.. And, they're not the same length either, so to end up with similar lengths, I'm ignoring my naked nails entirely ;-). I got this great tip from Kirsten from The Dutch Nail Blog, and I'm doing it like this ever since! Pssht this is Emerald Sparkle by China Glaze, don't you just love it?

Step away from the clippers Alright, tt's time to dig up your file! I'm not a fan of clippers, every time I use them, my nails split. So, after messing up a 1000 times and ending up with really short nails, I'm sticking with just filing, *foolproof*. If your nails are more on the softer side, clipping might not be a problem. I can't stress this enough, but please invest in a glass file, they may be more expensive, but they last you a very long time. You'll have less risk of tears and splits, when you're using a glass file. I use a fine buffing file too. I use this when I'm done shaping, to soften up any hard edges you might have.

Let's start! When you're filing your nails, please don't move your file back and forth, it can cause damage. I often hear you're not allowed to file the walls of your nails, but the rebel in me decides to do so anyway. If I don't, I won't achieve the shape I want. As you can see in the picture, I always file in one direction, and that's the center of the nail. This way the edges remain the smoothest.

Tada, you're done! Now, I'm really curious to see what everyone's shape preference is! Please fill out my poll if you'd like to. I hope this was helpful to some of you, please take care and till next time!

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What shape do you prefer?

Pointed Stiletto Squoval Square Round