You might think that a clean manicure starts with the polish itself. Actually, that is a secondary step. A clean manicure is already underway long before you ever pick up a color, during the step where you are prepping the nail plate. This step, however quiet, matters a lot. If the nail plate isn’t prepared correctly, your base coat will look uneven and you will have a harder time with the rest of the process.
The first question to ask is: is your nail plate clean? Take a look at the top surface of the nail (the nail plate), under good light. Is there dust? Old product residue? Oil? Moisture? Or is the free edge rough? Even a tiny bit of dust can leave a streak in your base coat. It’s important that you do not rub your fingers too hard or scrub, but you should use a lint-free wipe with cleanser (or remover) to clear away dust on the nail plate. Also, use a soft brush to clean up dust from filing around the sides and near your cuticles. The end goal of this step is to leave you with a clean and smooth surface for your base coat to lay on top of.
If you have not already, now is the time to shape. Do the shape before the final prepping steps, so that your shaping tools and filing dust do not settle on your clean and dry nail. When you do this, make sure you are firm and steady with your hand when shaping the nail. Also, check the shape from the front. It’s easy to miss one small rough area or jagged spot that catches on the base coat or polish, and can leave you with an uneven finished result when you hold out your finished manicure. Take care not to go too hard into your corners when filing, which can also create uneven results on either side of your nail.
When it comes to the skin on your cuticle and sidewall, you will need to use caution and care to get the most out of it. While working on your basic skills with cuticles, keep in mind that this isn’t the step where you need to be hard-handed or really work at the skin. You are practicing awareness and careful work at this stage. If your course of study instructs you to use a cuticle pusher or orangewood stick to work on the cuticle, your tool movements should still be gentle, and be aware of the border where the nail ends and skin begins. If your nail plate and surrounding skin is not looking right, perhaps it is irritated, painful, looks diseased, or has a condition, you do not want to try to fix it, and in no way should this type of skin be ignored. That is outside of your basic cosmetic lesson.
For a useful exercise, prep three practice tips (or three real clients’ natural nails) and do not put on color immediately. On the first one, check only the free edge and do a careful prepping of it. On the second, go in and wipe over the nail plate to make sure there is no leftover dust, and that there are no smears or shine. On the third, do all three and apply just the base coat. This is the one you compare against when checking how your base coat is laying down on the nail plate. If the base coat seems to puddle in a certain spot, or skip over an area, or looks streaky, you will need to either do something to fix the problem (perhaps you have been using too much of the product, or not enough, or too much pressure, or your nail plate was not clean enough when it was being prepped).
Also, be mindful of how much of your products you are using for your prep. When your nail plate is too wet, it will affect the laying-down of your base coat as well. The dust is another problem. Before you put on the base coat, give the surface a moment to dry. Also, keep in mind that it is better to use less polish than you think you need on your brush when laying down on the nail. And, make sure to lay it down on top of the nail, not at the cuticle line, which can result in flooding the surface before you even have a chance to start on the color coat.
When you have correctly prepped your nail plate, it should look clean, dry and be ready for that thin coat. And that doesn’t mean it has been scraped or irritated or overworked. You should look for the difference your prep makes in your finished coat: when the base coat goes on evenly and with more glide, when your color coat is less patchy or has fewer spots to clean up, and when your clean-up work to get the edges even on the finished product is a little easier to manage. Before you even begin your actual manicure prep and polish, pause and ask yourself: Is this nail ready, or am I just in a hurry to get to the color?