From the moment you get engaged to your wedding day, your hands will be on show a lot, which means you’ll want your nails in top condition to proudly show off your sparkler, both for your friends and family when you’re first engaged, and on the day of your wedding when it’s accompanied by a wedding band. Here are a few tips to ensure you have perfect nails.
The good news is nails grow fast. You can go for stubby, raggedy non-nails to gorgeously long ones in as little as three months. However, if they’re not strong or they’re prone to splitting, you might need to start prepping them earlier.
If you’re a nail biter, it’s time to buy a treatment to help you stop right now. Beauty therapists can do wonderful things but they’re not miracle workers and they can’t work with what’s not there.
Get a regular professional manicure in the three-month run-up to your wedding to keep your nails healthy and well looked after.
Don’t forget about your hands! Make sure you have hand cream in your handbag and get into the habit of using it a least twice a day.
Trial false nails before committing to them on your wedding day. You definitely don’t want to give yourself any new beauty treatments for the first time on your wedding day.
If you’re getting a polish, make sure you buy more than one bottle of your wedding colour. You’ll want one for the salon and one for your emergency kit – and before you say you’ll use the one bottle for both, do you really want the stress of forgetting to pack the polish and then being faced with a chipped nail?
Book your wedding manicure and pedicure a month before your wedding day to avoid any disappointment about fully booked salons.
Don’t get your wedding manicure done more than two days before your wedding. You want it to look as fresh as possible.
Nail problems
Chipped nail: Don’t panic. If you do get a chip, use the tip of the brush to fill the chip and let it dry for a minute. Then brush a second coat over the whole nail and when that’s dry, top with a thin topcoat of clear polish.
Broken nail: Make sure you have an emery board in your bridal emergency kit to file a broken nail into shape. Crisis averted.
- Jenny Darmody