Pushing Back Nail Cuticles

Video Transcript

"The next step in prepping the natural nail is to pat the nails dry and then push the cuticles back. You want to push them back into a nice, uniform shape. You don't want to push too hard, though. After you've soaked the nails, if you soaked them long enough, it shouldn't be hard to push them back. If you had a buildup of cuticle on your cuticle pusher, just simply wipe it off with your paper towel. You want to go ahead and push the cuticle back on all ten nails. After you've pushed the cuticles back on all ten, you just want to go back and kind of dig under the nail a little just to get any dirt or debris that may be trapped underneath. You'd be surprised at what you can find under fingernails. On women, it's usually makeup. On men, it's usually food. You don't want to push hard, you just want to kind of clean out the underneath. There are a couple of different kinds of pushers you can use. The one I'm using is a metal cuticle pusher. It's got the scooped end on one end of it, and that's to push the cuticle back. On the other end, it's got a pointy slanted end and that's just to go under the nails and clean out any dirt or anything underneath the metal. The other kind of pusher that you have is a wooden Orange Wood stick. The Orange Wood stick is used by some people. After you use it once, you have to throw it away. It's not sanitizable. And this is what it looks like. It is a tapered flat end on both ends. And you can use this to push the cuticle back in to go underneath the nail to clean it, and that is how you push the cuticles back to prep the natural nail."