Pedicure procedure-- Scrub/Clean your nails and Feet

Old (or new) toothbrushes can substitute for nail brushes. Just keep in mind some are harder than others. If your skin is more delicate, go for soft to medium bristles. The stiff/hard bristles may scrape your feet.

A cotton wrapped orangewood stick is an excellent, safe way to for clean underneath nails

After the foot soak, any dirt under the nails and other places should have loosened up. Wrap the tip of your cuticle stick or pusher with cotton to gently and carefully remove any dirt you see underneath your nails. Many leave this step out of their how to do a pedicure guides, but cleanliness must be addressed as it is very important.

Get your nail brush and scrub your nails and feet. Underneath nails is an excellent place for bacteria to hide. Be sure to scrub underneath the free edge, the nail plate and around the nail fold. Also scrub your soles, paying special attention to your heels, in between your toes and the tops and sides of your feet.

This part may get very ticklish. If you can’t stand the scrubbing with the brush because you are too ticklish, use a bath towel instead.

Pedicure procedure--Cuticle Treatment

Precautions: Be careful not to cut or scrape “live” flesh, instead of your cuticle.

Tip:

A cotton wrapped orangewood stick is an excellent cuticle pusher.

Wooden (eg. orangewood) and plastic cuticle sticks are less abrasive than metal ones

If you are comfortable using them, liquid cuticle removers may be used, but they are dangerous if you use them incorrectly. Want to know how? Confused over where the cuticle actually is? Read “Cuticles and Removers“.

I recommend after soaking, using a cuticle stick or cuticle pusher to push back the cuticle towards the nail fold. You have to look closely to see where it begins. Usually after soaking (and bathing) excess cells begin to flake up at the edge of where your cuticle starts. As you push back firmly but gently towards the nail fold, more “dead cells” will begin to flake up. This is the excess cuticle skin that we will clip or scrape away.

If you don’t have cuticle nippers you can use your cuticle pusher/stick to scrape the excess off of the nail plate. This all becomes easy because you soaked first. This keeps you from painting over excess cuticle skin that will most likely just flake up in a little while ruining your new coat of polish. It also helps eliminate the white, flaky excess cuticle cells that accumulate on your nails, improving their appearance when unpolished.

Pedicure Procedures --Foot Soak

Precautions: Any unit that circulates water can be a breeding ground for very dangerous bacteria. Bacteria that can lead to amputation or even death! Be sure whenever you use one, or any pedicure vessel for that matter, that it has been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected to avoid pedicure infections.

If you have any open sores on your feet or legs, don’t soak. Soaking may help dangerous germs get to the wound. Consult your physician first, especially if you are a diabetic, elderly or HIV positive.

Tips:

Add about a quarter cup of milk to the foot soak. The lactic acid helps to cleanse, soften and deodorize the feet. It also helps loosen dead skin cells.

Always use heated water. As hot as you can bear. It soothes and softens much better.

You can add marbles to the bottom of the foot basin to rub your feet over while soaking.

Essential oils can be added to aid in relaxation.

Epsom salt is anti-inflammatory, will help you relax, soothes muscle pain and improves rough patches of skin - it’s also an emollient and exfoliator.

Epsom salt will also help stop that wrinkling effect when you soak your feet for long periods.

Use Epsom Salt in your foot soak!

Pedicure foot spas (foot baths), pedicure tubs and pedicures bowls are not all necessary, but if you already have one you can make use of some of the features if you want. Click the links to find out more about them.

Fill your chosen vessel with water so that you at least cover the tops of your feet. Try to cover as much as possible even past your ankles if you can. The Epsom salt will soothe those areas too.  You’ll want to use about a ½ cup to a cup and soak for about 10 minutes (30 minutes is great!).

There is no real strict time or dosage limit on this, just put enough for it be effective (about a ½ cup for a medium to large container). Of course if you are using an extremely large vessel, adjust your dosage accordingly. Using too much won’t hurt, neither will soaking too long (unless you're pregnant). So judge it by how much product you have (and how long you want your supply to last) and how much time you have to spare.

Essential oils add to the relaxation effect more so due to their aroma. Lavender and Jasmine oil aromas have been said, by experts, to increase feelings of relaxation and may even help you achieve a better, more restorative slumber when present during sleep. Lemon oil aroma in addition to helping with relaxation has been said to enhance one’s overall mood. Give them a try in your foot soaks.

Pedicure Procedures --Groom your nails

Precautions: Be careful with anything that has a sharp edge and comes close to your skin. Oh yeah, if you start seeing blood(or feeling pain) – STOP!!

Tips:

Use an emery board as your pedicure nail file instead of metal files that are notorious for ripping nails, unless you’re a pro.

With emery boards, the finer grade side is for smoothing around the edges of the nail while the rougher, coarser side is for shaping and shortening.

Use a safety nail clipper

The object of grooming your nails is to get them to the desired length while reducing the chances of getting foot problems like infamous ingrown toenails. To avoid ingrown toenails, make sure you cut your nails straight across and above the skin so that the nail corners are visible. Cutting too short is like begging your nail to grow into your skin. Once clipped, try to achieve a soft, rounded square shape by filing. With filing though, try to stroke in only one direction. Slightly round the corners but don’t take them lower than the middle portion of nail.

Pedicure Procedures --Remove Polish

Precautions: The chemicals used in nail polish remover are very harsh and will dry out your cuticles and nail bed, making your nails white, dry and brittle. Try to limit prolonged exposure to these areas and to your skin in general. Yeah, I know its hard keeping the polish remover off of your cuticles and other exposed skin, but it really is bad for them so do your best. Read our article on Acetone, Ethyl Acetate and Acetonitrile to find out more.

Tips:

Use a remover with moisturizers and vitamins. They will leave these behind after the harsh chemicals have evaporated.

When possible use non-acetone/alcohol removers to limit the drying out effect. They aren’t as effective though and may not be able to take off darker colored polishes as well.

Use a lint-free cotton cloth to avoid those fuzzies left behind by cotton balls.

Get your material of choice saturated with polish remover and rub over each toenail. For hard to remove spots, soak the material, press and hold firmly for a few seconds over these areas then wipe away. Repeat until all the trouble spots are removed, making sure to re-soak with remover before each press-and-hold sequence. This ensures a fresh batch of remover to dissolve the hardened polish. Noticed stains or yellowing on your nails? Read this page on how to remove nail stains.

Needed Pedicure Supplies

Nail Polish Remover

Cotton

Nail file or Emery Board

Epsom Salt (at least a ½  cup)

Cuticle Stick or Pusher (cuticle pushers and sticks can be wooden, plastic or metal)

Foot soak tub (Foot bath, pedicure tub, pedicure bowl, pedicure foot spa or some other large vessel)

Towels

Nail Brush (old or new toothbrushes can work or a bath towel if you’re ticklish)

Mechanical Exfoliant (Loofah Sponge, Pumice Stone, Foot File or even a Ped Egg)

Chemical Exfoliant (Foot scrub cream of your choice)

Foot Moisturizer, with emollients

Base Coat, Top Coat (clear nail polish can be substituted, and in many cases base coat can substitute for top coat and vice versa)

Nail Polish (color of your choice)

Pedicure

A pedicure is a set of procedures that are performed on the feet to treat or prevent negative health conditions and to enhance their overall appearance.




I will be posting more in details about pedicure steps and procedures. Keep following this blog.