Painting your nails is as easy as 1, 2, 3!

I find that one of the most common questions I receive are something like the following,  “How do I paint my nails so they are neat?” or, “How do you not get polish on the side of your nails?” or, some other variation of this question. While I am flattered that I receive compliments on my nails, I think that everyone should know that I am far from perfect with regards to the subject. If I am in a hurry or just lazy my nails will look horrible; so instead of rushing through the process I try to plan out the time when I do my nails so that nothing will interrupt me and I won’t feel rushed. In addition to taking precautions to ensure that I have the time, and won’t be interrupted a little trick or two couldn’t hurt.

Whenever I paint my nails I try to use the “3 stroke” method. I first heard this phrase coined on the Makeup Alley Nail Board and haven’t looked back since. It does still take time and practice to implement it in your regular nail routine but, after a while you will find yourself naturally leaning towards this method.

The goal is to avoid your cuticles by creating a barrier between where you apply polish and your cuticle. This picture demonstrates exactly what I mean:

I made a video specifically to address this issue. I hope you enjoy!