YOUR MANICURE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 100, 23 May 1941, Page 44

YOUR MANICURE

| a position coined the phrase about having everything at her fingertips, nails have been an important part of woman’s social and economic equipment, Shakespeare’s Hermia found them useful weapons, and though the custom of using them as such is now obsolete (except metaphorically), the present trend towards longer nails may be indicative of a return to the old habit. But, whatever their function, let us exploit to the full the decorative value of nails, Ten years ago, naturelle and colourless were the only two shades of liquid nail polish available. Now you can get twenty-two different shades, : There are seyen stages in a good manicure, 1. Soak the hands for several minutes in warm, soft, soapy water. : 2. Remove the old varnish, using acetone or ethyl acetate. (This can be bought very cheaply from your chemist, so there is no need to buy it bottled as "polish remover"), 3. Using an orange stick or toothpick, push back the cuticle, If it proves stubborn, apply some cuticle-remover on a pad of cotton wool. Don’t cut the cuticle and don’t use any steel instrnument for shaping the nail. 4. .Using a long flexible file or an emery board, shape the nail as required. If you do housework or typing, it’s bad policy to have points projecting a quarter of an inch, So unless you're a professional glamour girl, I advocate a rounded point that projects only slightly beyond the finger tip. 5.. Clean beneath the nail. 6. Polish the nails briskly with a buffer, using powder or paste polish, 7. Apply a moistened nail white pencil beneath the nail tips. If you don’t use nail-lacquer, you can stop’ at Stage 7. Here are some more hints for those who do: Apply your varnish in long, even strokes from nail base to tip, doing the right hand first. You can either apply varnish to the complete nail or you can leave the half moon and the nail tip white. (I prefer this). If so, remove the fexcess varnish from the tip by wiping before it has time to dry. If the whole nail is varnished, there is no need to use nail-white. But whether you use varnish or not, never omit the preliminary buffing. Select the colour of your varnish with reference to the colour of your frock and the colour of your lipstick, and with a bias in favour of the less obtrusive tonings. Deep, emotional reds are dangerous rather than dramatic except for evening when you’re wearing white, If you’re a person who hasn’t much time to spend on her nails, colourless varnish is the best, for nothing looks worse than cracked, chipped or outgrown varnish, but with colourless polish this is not $0 noticeable, ; (Next Week: Your Feet) . | before ‘the first applicant for ¢