Pretty Finger Nails.

New Zealand Graphic, 6 April 1907, Page 42

Pretty Finger Nails.

DIRECTIONS FOR THE AMATEUR MANICURIST'. If a woman’s hair is “her crown of glory,” then, assuredly, says a lady manicurist, her hands are her sceptres of power, for the expression of a hand is as individual, as powerful to charm or' to displease as is the faee of its owner. There is a wonderful personality about hands, and the manner in which a hand is kept adds to or detracts from its personality. No matter whether a hand be attractive or repulsive in itself, the proper tapering of the nails and their careful trimming and polishing gives to every hand—good or bad—an air of good breeding—a symmetry is acquired merely hy the use of a few implements of manicuring and habits of cleanliness. A woman ean, if she chooses to give the time to it, manicure her own linger nails as well as this ean be done for her by a professional manicure. That is, if her nails are simply normal, healthy nails. FILING THE NAILS. The amateur will find it easiest to tile her nails when they are dry and hard, after which they must be soaked. There is a lot to la* considered in tiling the nails. In the first place, most of us have stiff files with elaborate silver handles, which are now- relegated to other practically useless articles of the dressing table. The best manicure file is a pliable, springy, thin file, without any handle. This sort of file gives with the nail and manages to work around the edges neatly right, into the corners. The nail must be tiled evenly and in a rounded shape. The pronounced almond shaped nail is not in vogue just at present. It is a nuisance to piano playersas well as to players upon stringed instruments—and it seemed made to be broken and to wear out the fingers of gloves in a single wearing.

After the nails are filed it will be found that some of them will have a little raggedness of edge. This is rubbed off upon a little strip of emery or sand paper provided for the purpose. .Sometimes a sharp rubbing around the edge of the nail with a bit of chamois leather will rub oft' the raggedness left by the file, and which seems caused by the separation of an inner and outer shell of the nail, as though it grew in layers.

This pari of the work finished, the professional manicurist plunges the hands which she is treating irfo warm or tepid waler in which is well-mixed glycerine, rose wafer, and some of her own secret preparations for improving the texture of the ends of the fingers and softening the nails. The lingers rest in the water during most of the work. An ordinary ling r bowl generally serves for this purpose. TRIMMING THE CUTICLE. When a woman manicures her own hands it is obvious (hat she cannot hold one band in water while she works upon the other. She may let them rest for half an hour or more in the water, or she may try a plan which amateur manicurists, whose time is limited to not more than an hour for purposes of manicuring, find eminently successful. The other plan is to rub well around the nails and under the cuticle, as far as one’s fingers may do this, some simple ointment or merely vaseline. Rub this in thoroughly and smear.it over .the nails. Try io keep the ointment on the nails until each one lias been treated. The grease quickly softens the nail and its cuticle, and makes it ready for the easy insertion of an instrument for pushing up the cuticle. If your nails are well kept this instrument will not need to be used often, for the more the cuticle is broken around the nail and the more its edges require to be clipped the worse for the delicate appearance of the nail. A little metal cuticle knife is gently inserted under the cuticle and moved round so as not to sera tell the nail nor ent the flesh, but merely to losen the cuticle. This is a work of delicacy and care. After the cuticle has liecn loosen-

ed it is clipped. Nails should never b« trimmed until after t they., have- bee* softened by water (>r ointment.' . - X After the trimming and loosening of the ••cuticle it is often pushed back gently and firmly with an orange stick. Amateurs will find the orange stick all that is necessary for the average well-kept nail, and its constant use will prevent .the necessity of the cuticle' knife, a risky; instrument in unskilled hands, and sure to be detrimental in the end to the fingers. Everyone knows that constant trimming of the cuticle' makes it thick and tough and far from as dainty as that cuticle which wrnerely pushed baek every morning with an orange stick.

But there are different hands, just as there are different dispositions in women, and the hands of some require severe treatment in order to keep them decent.

After the loosening, pushing, and trimming of the softened eutiele, the nail is ready to be cleaned if sueh a thing is required. The manicure inserts the point of an orange stick under the nail to elean it. White powder, too, is inserted in this manner to give a white finish under the nail- the powder being brushed away afterwards—and rose tipped linger ends are achieved in the same manner, rather than by any process of nature. But who would disclose the secret of her rosy finger tips? And who will deny their beauty when seen to blush through translucent, pearly-tinted nails? THE FINAL POLISH. So much being done —and the 5 -? little things occupy at least three-quarters of an hour—the nails are now ready to be burnished and polished. The woman who manicures her own nails will spread them out upon a towel and gently dab upon eaeh one a.bit of pink ointment. This she will rub well over the nail until it is a muddy fed colour. With a buffer she will rub and rub until she is tired and her nails take on a glossy pink, which is a forecast of what they will look like when she has finished. With a bit of old linen she will wipe off as much as she can of the pink paste. Usually it all comes tiff. Then, with another and perfectly clean buffer she will polish her nails until they glimmer like the inner side of a tinted sea shell. Last of all the manicure gently rubs the orange stick around under the eutiele to remove any trace of paste or. powder which may remain. The amateur usually washes her hands, which, if her nails are well polished, does not affect them. At this season of the year fingers require to be more frequently manicured than in warm weather. The nails become hard and the eutiele less soft and pliable. A few touches every morning with the orang.’ stick and a few rubs with the buffer every two days, with the use of the file every other day, will keep one’s nails so trim and pretty that a real prolonged process of manicuring need not be gone through more than once a week. This occupies an hour when ointment is used on the nails by the amateur, and more than that time if they are soaked in water. Never, cut the nails with scissors, if it is possible to avoid it. Cutting tlie nails makes them blunt and unlovely upon the edges. But, just the reverse should be the ease with a young child’s nails. Trim them with the scissors. They are much too soft to be helped by, filing, and the little tender fingers are frequently bruised and injured' by the file.