How to do a home pedicure: step by step

I think doing a home-pedicure and getting it to look perfect is one of the hardest beauty things to master, well at-least I never quite manage it (always my right foot that looks wrong) but to make the process as easy as possible I have put together a few how-to tips:

1. Scrub-off hard skin: using a foot-file such as Boots Smoothing Foot File (£3.49) is a sand-paper style file. If you have some seriously hard skin you may need something a bit more hardcore Boots Gorgeous Feet Foot File (£3.49) is a metallic 'cheese grater' style foot file.

2. Apply foot cream: see my 'Flip Flop Ready Feet' post for a couple that I think are fab.

3. Trim nails: so they are square and short. Nothing looks more gross than long toenails (and tacky, if it is done on purpose) Keep them square to help prevent in-grown toenails.

4. Apply a base coat: if painting nails a dark shade to prevent the colour from staining nails. Recently I have been using Mavala Protective Base Coat (around £8)- I like this one because it dries really quickly.

If you don't have a base coat you can just use a clear polish- something that creates a barrier between the dark colour and the nail.

5. Paint nails: go carefully, don't rush! Depending how flexible you are will make a difference how easy this is, but make sure you have good lighting and get your feet as close as possible so you can see what you are doing.

Yesterday, I painted mine a gorgeous deep purple/blue shade from Elegant Touch Professional (£4.95) called Dark Purple. It's an absolutely stunning colour but there is no hiding mistakes with something so deep- which is unfortunate as I totally messed up my right foot (as usual) so removed the colour and re-painted today with e.l.f. nail polish in Blush (a subtle creamy gold-much easier to disguise when I go wrong...).

The picture at the top is of the elf shade from the elf website- but it doesn't really show the true colour which is far more golden.

6. Use a drop of quick-dry solution: if (like me) you hate waiting for polish to dry. I have been using SpaRitual Andale Dry and Shine Drops- they work really quickly and all you need to do is drop them onto the nail with the built in pipette applicator.

7. Slick on a top coat: Again, like with the base coat- a clear polish can be just as effective- all it really needs to do is to create a barrier between the colour and knocks and bumps. But I have found the glossiest ever top coat though- anther Mavala product- Colorfix Strong Flexible Top Coat (around £8) so glossy and dries pretty quickly- fabulous.