How to Buff Toenails in a Pedicure

Buffing the toenails is a very important part of a pedicure. In addition to helping you get rid of dry and dead skin, buffing smooths the ridges of the toenail surface, while ridding ugly discolorations from your toenails. Follow these steps to buff toenails as part of a pedicure.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Nail buffer
• Flat surface covered with towel

1. Familiarize yourself with the parts of a nail buffer. A toenail buffer has two parts. On the short end, you'll find a soft, sponge-like area. Use this for brushing away loose skin and nails. The long sides of the toenail buffer are fine grade buffers that you use to actually buff the toenails.

2. Place your foot with the sole side down on a flat surface covered with a towel. Use the towel to catch loose skin and toenail dust from the buffing process.

3. Rub off the top layer of a toenail using the long side of the buffer. You can either rub in an up and down motion on the toenail, or buff the toenail in a circular direction.

4. Brush off any loose skin or loose toenail cuticle with the soft, sponge-like side of the nail buffer.

5. Repeat the above Steps for all nine remaining toenails.

Tips & Warnings

• Toenails can turn a yellowish color if they've been unable to breathe adequately. If you wear toenail polish for a very long time, your toenails can't breathe and so you may have yellow toenails.
• Buffing can help remove some of the yellow discoloration from your toenails.