Busy Mom At-Home Manicure

Like most moms, I’m often too busy to find time to pamper myself. My weekends are too jam packed to fit in a professional manicure, and weeknights are full of caring for the kids and dinner prep.  If you’re a busy mom like me, you know that an at-home manicure is usually the only option.

My friends at CVS made it a lot easier to get the perfect at-home manicure by giving me a gift card to partake in their ‘fill your bag’ promotion (continue reading to find out how you can win your own $50 CVS gift card!).

I bought this awesome 6-piece mani/pedi kit, which can give me the perfect at-home manicure in a lot less time (and cost) than a professional manicure. You can give yourself a spa-quality at-home manicure in less than 20 minutes. Here are my 12 steps for a busy mom at-home manicure.

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1. Remove Your Old Nail Polish

If you have any residual nail polish on your fingers, remove it before you begin your manicure.

2. Soak Nails in Warm Water

In a small glass bowl, soak your nail tips in warm soapy water to moisten your cuticles and loosen any dirt that is under your nails. If you’re short on time, even a minute will do the trick.

3. Push Back Your Cuticles

Once your cuticles are moistened, use the cuticle instrument to push back your cuticles

4. Trim You Cuticles and Nails

If you have any hangnails or torn cuticles, use the cuticle trimmer to even out the cuticle. Use the nail clipper to create the desired length of the nails and remove dirt from under the nail beds.

5. Shape You Nails

Use an emery board to shape your nails in the desired shape.

6. Exfoliate Your Hands

Using a scrub, exfoliate your hands to eliminate dead skin cells and prepare your hands to best receive moisture. (I made this super simple scrub mixing equal parts pure coconut oil and granulated sugar—it works great and smells awesome!)

7. Moisturize Your Hands

‍Using a moisturizing hand or body cream, massage the lotion into your hands, wrists and fingers. Give yourself a mini hand massage; you deserve it!

8. Prepare Nail Bed

Once you exfoliate and moisturize, you need to remove any excess oil or scrub from the nail bed before you apply your nail polish. Take one more quick swipe over your nails with nail polish remover to get rid of any excess oil or scrub.

9. Apply A Base Coat

If you’re like me, you might invest in a dual base and top coat formula. Apply one thin layer of base coat before moving onto the color.

10. Apply Two Color Coats

Apply one thin coat of nail polish to each nail and then apply one more coat to each nail for a total of two coats. If you are unhappy with the color saturation, you could try for a third coat, but beware of clumpiness!

11. Apply A Top Coat

Apply a thin layer of top coat to seal in the color and help keep your manicure fresh for up to a week.

12. Clean Up Mistakes

If you made any mistakes, tear the majority of the cotton off of a q-tip and then dip the stick into the nail polish remover. Run the stick along the mistake to remove a small amount of nail polish at a time.

13. Allow Time For Your Nails To Dry

Don’t undo all your hard work by not giving your nails sufficient time to dry. Give yourself at least five minutes to let your nails dry. Even better, up to 30 minutes to ensure they are completely dry. I try to avoid heavy activities after a do a manicure, so I usually do them right when I put my kids down for a nap or right when I put them to bed at night so I have ample time for the nails to dry.

Want to try your own home manicure? You can find all the nail supplies you need at your local CVS, and with their current ‘fill your bag promotion’ (now through August 8th!), you can save 30% off in-store and online on over 3,000 CVS exclusive products including: CVS brand, Gold Emblem, Beauty 360, Total home and Caliber products.  Find out all the details here.

For your own chance to win a $50 gift card from CVS, leave a comment below (or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram) telling me, what is your favorite way to pamper yourself?

*Entries must be received by 11:59pm on Sunday, July 26th. Winner will be selected at random from all valid entries. Winner will be contacted via mode of entry (ie. via email or social media).