What is a pedicure, what happens and how to make it?

Speaking about the beautiful appearance of a female figure, one cannot help but recall the harmony of her legs, which has been driving crazy more than one generation of men since the very time when female legs became the property of their eyes. Continuing this idea, it should be said about the condition of the feet and nails on the fingers of women. They must be in perfect condition. Special procedures aimed at their care and hydration are not just a tribute to fashion or the desire to look attractive, but also health care.

A pedicure is a procedure that involves the care of feet and toenails, which is carried out with a certain frequency. This cosmetic procedure is also therapeutic. In the process, keratinized cells are removed from the surface of the skin, various cracks on the heels, ingrown nails are treated, dry calluses are eliminated.

The following varieties of pedicure exist, the whole variety of which can be reduced to 2 groups - manual pedicure (performed by a specialist manually) and hardware (using a pedicure apparatus with cutters).

Let us consider in more detail the most popular types of pedicure.

The essence of the procedure is not only giving the legs a beautiful and well-groomed appearance, but also treatment. Such pedicures are performed using a medical device that gently and non-traumatically removes dead cells. Undoubtedly, this is one of the advantages of the procedure - the absence of injuries and open wounds on the skin. Another advantage of a medical pedicure is the use of not only nursing, but therapeutic compounds. Finally, only such a specialist with a medical education implements such a procedure, according to existing standards.

The keratinized areas are removed using removers - special formulations, for example, on organic acids that soften dry skin and seals, after which they are easily removed with pumice. If necessary, right during the procedure, the specialist will treat the legs (remove the ingrown nail, eliminate cracks in the heels). The medical pedicure ends usually with a moisturizer with antifungal and antiseptic effects on the feet and their massage.

One of the well-known, fairly versatile and popular types of pedicure. Correctly say - a classic edged pedicure. It involves applying softening cream to the feet and treating the nails (caring for the cuticle, giving the nails the desired length and shape).

After that, the legs are steamed in a bath with the addition of sea salt, sometimes extracts of medicinal herbs. Steaming usually takes no more than a quarter of an hour, after which keratinized areas are treated with graters and pumice. In the arsenal of the master there are several of them - with a larger abrasive and smaller. First, coarse abrasives, graters, and then more delicate tools are used. At the end of the procedure, a moisturizer is applied.

The effect of the procedures is noticeable immediately, and it is quite impressive. On average, the result is enough for a month. It is worth noting its efficiency - it will take about 40-60 minutes.

The procedure is carried out using a pedicure device with different nozzles. Changing the nozzles, you can solve various problems with the feet, eliminating, including rough skin.

A hardware pedicure is even suitable for caring for male feet, which are naturally coarser and drier.

Another advantage is the absence of cuts and other damage to the integrity of the skin, so we can talk about the safety and non-invasiveness of a hardware pedicure.

At the same time, the procedure itself takes a little time - about an hour, painless. In especially advanced cases, you have to do 2-3 procedures to have a tangible effect.

The European pedicure is also called unedged, and special creams and gels are used to soften the keratinized areas on the feet and fingers and remove the cuticle. This allows you to make the procedure safe and painless, but it can be ineffective on very advanced legs. Frequent and regular procedures will help to achieve a more pronounced result.

European pedicures start with applying removers and cuticle formulations. When the latter softens, they do not cut it off, but push it with an orange stick to the nail bed. Nails also do not cut, but use only a variety of files.

The next step is the removal of coarse skin on the feet (it just softens after a remover) using graters and nail files.

Of great importance during this procedure is given to the relaxation of the client. For this, a pleasant atmosphere is used (pleasant music sounds, aromatherapy is used). Dead cells are removed using scrubs, creams and various extracts from natural ingredients. Pedicure machines, scrapers and pumice are not used.A mandatory element of a SPA pedicure is a foot massage, performed manually by a specialist. In addition, masks moisturizing serums are applied to the legs. The procedure can be quite long, up to two hours.

Such a pedicure is also called anti-aging, because in the process of its use natural moisturizers and skin softeners with antioxidant effect are used. The cuticle in this case is not cut off, but is pushed back with a wooden stick. Instead of pumice and scrapers, scrubs are used, after application of which foot baths are provided. Softened keratinized skin is cleaned with a special rice block, after which moisturizing compositions, for example, with lotus extract, are applied. The procedure ends with a manual foot massage.

In addition to these, a number of salons offer their own types of pedicures, for example, acidic (using products based on organic acids), paraffin (using softening and moisturizing paraffin baths), fish (usually found in Egypt, in Thailand - small fish bite off rough skin) and others.

Female manicure can be coated and uncoated. In the first case, the nails are decorated with colored varnish, in the second - it is absent.

To obtain a high-quality result from a pedicure helps in many respects the presence of the "right" tools. Of course, it is different for different masters - for someone the set is minimal, while other masters use more tools. However, the basis for each remains unchanged.

For the cuticle, nippers and tweezers are used. The first are used to remove protruding corners, burrs. The second - to cut the cuticle. If an unedged pedicure is performed, then orange sticks will also be required.

For nail care (correction of length and shape) use nail clippers and scissors, files and grinding files. The pedicure pusher, which is a two-sided instrument with a curette and shoulder blade on each side, is designed to separate the stratum corneum, cuticle.

Pedicure scraper, grater and pumice stone can achieve smoothness of the heels, remove coarsened areas of the skin. They are of varying degrees of action - that is, directly to remove keratinized skin and polishing. Externally, these devices differ in the size of the abrasives.

Most of these tools successfully replace milling cutters on a pedicure machine. You can not do without it if the task is to conduct a quick and atraumatic pedicure.

In addition, you will need a basin for the foot baths. Today on sale you can also find electronic foot baths, which also provide the effect of a jacuzzi, and allow for water massage.

The safety of the procedure depends on compliance with the rules of antiseptics. By standards, most tools must be fired in special dry ovens or cabinets after each use. If you are doing pedicures in the salon, check if they use such a cabinet. By the way, after the disinfection procedure, each tool is wrapped in an individual craft package.

A number of tools should be disposable. These are orange sticks, various napkins, gloves of the master (by the way, any, even unedged pedicure, in the cabin should be done exclusively in them).

If a pedicure with a coating is performed, then varnishes and means for their removal will be required, and if gel polish is applied, then also a special UV lamp for fixing it.

The procedure also requires antiseptics, a softener for keratinized skin areas, moisturizers, scrubs, varnishes and bases for them.If foot massage is supposed, then it would be good to get massage and aromatic oil.

Features and stages of the procedure depend on the type of pedicure. In general, the process should include the following steps:

• softening (carried out using removers or steaming the feet in the bath);
• removal of keratinized skin areas (for this, special compounds as well as traditional scrapers and pumice stones can also be used);
• processing the nail plate (cutting the cuticle or moving it to the nail bed with an orange stick, giving the nails a suitable length and shape);
• foot care (applying masks and formulations, paraffin masks, moisturizing is mandatory at this stage, in some cases massage);
• decoration of nails if pedicure with coating is performed.

If you do pedicures on your own at home, then you can use the following step-by-step plan.

If there is an old coating on the nails, it should be removed first. Then you need to determine the length of the nails on the legs and cut them with pedicure scissors. An important point - toenails can only be cut in a straight line. The rounding of the corners is fraught with the ingrowth of the nail plate in the nail bed.

Finally, a file will help to give the nails a suitable shape. It is most correct to use the vitreous, since it does not violate the structure of the nail, and in addition, it is convenient to use and durable. To give nails smoothness will help a file for grinding.

To do this, pour water (temperature 38-40C) into a basin or a special bath and lower your legs into it for 15 minutes. For greater effectiveness, you can add sea salt, a decoction of chamomile, bark of duma and other herbs.

Using various additives, you can change the properties of the bath. So, if you add a couple of drops of essential oil to the water, the bath will gain a tonic and deodorizing effect.

You can add a couple of drops of iodine to it to strengthen the nails. The bath with sea salt has a deodorizing and relaxing effect, but it should be discarded if there are wounds and inflammations on the skin. From sweating feet, you can make a composition with the addition of a decoction of oak bark. After the procedure, thoroughly dry your feet, a waffle towel is ideal for this.

Steaming can be done before the nails are given shape and length, but it is important to remember that the latter can be cut and filed only after they have completely dried.

As a rule, the most coarsened area is the heels. To clean them, use a grater or rough pumice, which is worth a walk along the edges of the heels. It is in these places that the largest skin seals appear - corns. It is forbidden to use a razor to remove rough skin, scrape it with scissors, a blade. This is fraught with serious injuries, in addition, the skin removed in this way will be actively regenerated, which means that corns will appear again in a short time.

After using tools with a coarse abrasive, you need to take more delicate and polish the treated surfaces and the remaining (central) part of the heel. Fingers with fine abrasive can also be processed with fingers, but it is much more convenient and safer to use a special scrub for the feet. It can be applied to the entire surface of the foot (including on the treated heels) and massage your legs for several minutes. Then rinse your feet and pat them with a waffle towel.

After steaming, the skin becomes soft, so it's time to take care of the cuticle. First remove the burrs and protruding sections of the cuticle with special nippers. Then you can cut the cuticle or move it to the nail bed.In any case, it will be useful to blot the treated areas with a cotton swab dipped in an antiseptic solution.

To complete the procedure for treating the feet, apply a moisturizer. It should be rubbed into the skin with soft, but strong movements. It is good if the composition contains vitamins E, A, various natural oils.

If you plan to cover your nails with varnish, then you should first degrease them. This is necessary so that the coloring composition lay down evenly, because on the nails the remnants of creams could remain. For disinfection, a conventional nail polish remover is suitable. After that, you need to wait 10 minutes and wipe your nails with a dry cloth, and then proceed to apply the varnish.

Ideally, when decorating nails, the base coat is first applied, on top of it is the main colored varnish. Its amount is determined by the desired color intensity. At the very end, the nails are covered with a fixer, which will allow you to keep the pedicure longer. An important point - each applied layer should be given time to completely dry. For ease of application, you can use a special finger separator.

Make the coating more durable will allow the application of gel polishwhich involves the use of a UV lamp. To achieve a sock duration of up to 6 weeks and a high quality coating allows compliance with the application technology (using a primer, fixing each layer in a UV lamp) and the power of the lamp itself.

It is important to remember that gel polish dries out the nail plate, therefore, periodically (for example, every second pedicure) it is recommended to apply a special restoring and caring composition under the main layer.

You should immediately prepare everything you need for the procedure. Ideal if you use professional means of one line. Among them are funds from the Israeli brand Clearance, which are trusted both by professionals and those who do their own pedicures.

The main trend is, perhaps, beautiful and healthy feet. Today, to be considered a fashionista, it is not necessary to master nail art, it is enough to maintain smooth feet, eliminate dry calluses in time and look after your nails. As a decor for the latter, even caring compositions like “Smart Enamel” are suitable, which will give the nails a shine and a healthy look.

However, women's pedicure still has certain trends. Consider the most popular of them.

Such a pedicure can be called universal and simple in execution, but at the same time noble and stylish. The choice of shades is unlimited - it can be neutral, pastel (peach, pink) and bright colors. An important point - you should not choose the same color for the legs that is used on the hands.

Sophisticated nail art is a thing of the past, and rather simple drawings and patterns — peas, curls, unpretentious flowers — have come to replace it. Geometric patterns are trending. Today, stylists recommend combining patterns on the nails with a plain coating or French manicure. The drawing is performed not on each nail, but on 1-2 and serves as an accent.

The use of rhinestones is another hit of this season, but rhinestones require moderate use and thoughtfulness as a pedicure, and the image as a whole. It is recommended to use small rhinestones, laying out a pattern or drawing from them. As a rule, rhinestones are combined with a one-color pedicure and are used to design only the thumb. This allows you to make the design elegant, avoid absurdity and excessive shocking.

With the lunar pedicure, the nail hole is highlighted in a separate color. Such a pedicure has remained fashionable, perhaps, since its inception. But every season, manicurists offer new solutions for moon manicure.Today, a hole may not have a classical shape, but be triangular, square, double.

The hole, or “smile” on the nails can be contrasted with the main color or performed in the same gamut. You can decorate only the big toes with the holes, painting the remaining nail plates in a monochrome shade. Quite often, “pedicure with smiles” is combined with rhinestones.

Those who consider French manicure to be something boring and too simple simply have not seen its modern interpretation for a long time. Traditional strips along the edge of the nail today are made in contrasting shades, as well as using golden and silver rubs. French harmoniously combines with the “hole”, geometric patterns, there is a striped version of it, decorated with a pattern and rhinestones.

The ombre manicure, or the gradient, implying a smooth transition from one, more saturated shade, to a lighter one, does not give up its positions. Today, the technique is used not only within the same nail plate. Tone-to-tone stretching can cover all fingers at once. That is, a large one is painted in the most saturated shade, the index one is lighter, the middle one is even lighter and so on.

A delicate gradient can also be decorated with rhinestones or a pattern.

This option is especially good for the summer season, trips to the sea. However, you can choose it for those who want to bring bright colors to gray autumn-winter weekdays. As a rule, with this technique 2-3 different colors are used, which can be both close and contrasting. The combination of yellow and blue, violet palette, pink and mint, turquoise has already become classic.

The advantage of such a coating is not only its brightness and originality, but also its versatility. It’s enough to choose for the mosaic pedicure those shades of varnish that are combined with the color of your main pairs of shoes.

When choosing a shade of nail polish, one should take into account not only personal preferences and fashion trends, but also the skin tone. Young ladies with a warm skin tone are suitable, respectively, warm colors (orange, red, peach). It is recommended that owners of cold skin tones choose cold pink, lilac, blue, and blue. If this rule is not observed, unnaturalness, dissonance in the shade of the skin and painted nails cannot be avoided.

Experts recommend doing a pedicure once a month and once a week to maintain it, using almost smooth pumice stones, scrubs. For this procedure, you can not specifically steam the legs, but simply do the treatment after a shower or bath, because the feet are also softened at this moment.

When performing a pedicure in a salon, the price of nails is usually separately included in the price. For example, decorating one nail with rhinestones or rubbing can cost from 30 to 150 rubles. If you want to get an unusual pedicure, but save money, ask the wizard to use 2 or more colors. According to the price, it will look like a plain coating without the use of additional decor, but in fact, highlighting these or those fingers in different shades, you will get an original design.

For home pedicure, you can use special socks. The reviews suggest that such procedures will help restore smoothness even to “neglected” feet. Socks can be made of cotton fabric with a special impregnation inside or cellophane, also containing a softening composition. The former are usually worn at night, the latter for 15-30 minutes.

In choosing a fashionable pedicure design, you can try to draw inspiration from the stars. Of course, the options for their pedicure should be taken as samples, ideas, not trying to accurately reproduce what they saw.You may not have the right materials or skills at hand for this. In addition, personal care, in particular the design of nails, is a kind of act of creativity, an opportunity to show your own personality.

Bright, but at the same time delicate, turquoise-blue shade of varnish goes well with shiny shoes on an exquisite stiletto.

Looking for a win-win decor that is appropriate in any situation? Choose classic red in monochrome without rhinestones and patterns. You can "support" it with a makeup element or accessory, as Michelle Williams did.

Another traditional and at the same time elegant option is milk and powdery shades of nail polish. This is easy to see by looking at the stylish and sophisticated Penelope Cruz. The main thing is that they should not be in tone with the skin or lighter than it. A great addition to open shoes in beige, golden and brown.

Monochrome solutions using dark shades of varnish (black, dark chocolate, rich burgundy) seem to never go out of style. The secret of their popularity lies in their special charm and compatibility with almost any shoe. Elizabeth Banks once again confirms this idea.

You can pass for “fashionable little thing” by carefully choosing a tone of varnish to match the shoes. Undoubtedly, this is what Joe Lo did, collecting this stylish and bold image. True, when changing shoes, you will have to change the shade of the nails.

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