Paint Nails with Your Nondominant Hand

Unless you are ambidextrous, painting both of your hands with the same amount of precision can be difficult. While some people skip the hassle of wielding the nail polish brush with both hands altogether by going in for a manicure, there are a few techniques you can adopt when painting with your non dominant hand, to match the accuracy of painting your nails with your dominant hand.

Steps

Prepping Your Nails

  1. Remove your current nail polish. Soak a cotton ball in nail polish remover, and gently rub the cotton ball on each individual nail to remove the existing nail polish. The cotton ball should be damp to the touch, but not dripping with nail polish remover.
    • You might have to apply a second round of nail polish remover if some polish or color staining remains after your first round of polish removal.
    • Dark nail polishes (black, blue, purple, brown) and polishes with red tones (red, dark red, magenta, plum) are notorious for being difficult to remove. These colors often require a couple rounds of nail polish remover to clear the nail completely of nail polish and color stain.
  2. Consider moisturizing your hands. Nail polish remover can dry out your skin and nails, so consider using a lotion or moisturizer on your hands after removing your nail polish. Once you have completely rubbed in the moisturizer, use a cotton ball lightly dampened with nail polish remover to run over your nail surfaces, removing natural skin oil and oils from the moisturizer.[1]
    • Only remove the oils from your nail surfaces, as the polish will stick better to an oil-free surface.
  3. Apply a clear base coat. Apply a thin, clear base coat to all of your nails using just enough nail polish to evenly coat the surfaces of your nails. A base coat helps prevent color staining, protects your nails from drying agents within the color coat, gives the color coat a surface to anchor to, and provides a smooth surface to paint over with your color coat.[1]
    • A base coat is a chance to practice painting with your weaker hand, and it leaves no evidence of mess-ups since the base is a clear in color.

Painting Your Nails

  1. Try using a forgiving polish. A sparkly or glitter polish requires less accuracy since the base of the polish is mostly clear with flecks of glitter added in. When painting with a glitter polish, the polish that runs onto your skin is most likely going to be clear, or a sheer shade, which makes it less noticeable for mistake.[2] Also, if a fleck of glitter finds its way onto your skin, it is very easy to pick off and fix the mistake.
    • Compared to solid colored polishes, mistakes with glitter polishes are harder to see, and less messy to clean up.
  2. Create a polish barrier for your dominant hand nails. Creating a polish barrier for your dominant hand is optional, but it could be very useful to people who are particularly unsteady with their weaker hand. This step is usually taken once your opposite hand has already been painted using your dominant hand. Use a Q-tip to apply a thin layer of petroleum jelly around your cuticle line, and sides of your nail bed.[3] This creates a barrier that will prevent the polish from sticking to your skin if you paint off your nail.
    • When all of your nails are dry, wipe off the surrounding layer of petroleum jelly and any nail polish color on the jelly, for an even, clean finish.
  3. Minimize the amount of nail polish on the brush. Open the nail polish and wipe one side of the flat edge of the brush on the inside of the neck of the bottle. Then, tap the other, opposite flat side of the brush (the side you didn’t wipe) on the neck of the bottle to remove any excess polish that could drip.[1]
    • Your brush should have a small dollop of nail polish on only one side of the brush, and the other side should be relatively free from polish.
    • The best nail polishing is done with a few light layers of polish rather than one or two gloppy layers. Light layers dry easily are less messy, and give you more control when painting on the nail polish.
  4. Find a comfortable position for your non-dominant hand. It could be awkward holding the small nail polish brush in your weaker hand, so experiment in finding a position that gives your support and comfort. Rest your elbow on a hard, flat surface to add stability to your hand while painting. Try to use your thumb and pointer finger to hold and grip the brush, using your middle finger for more support if need be.[4]
    • You want to hold the brush firmly but lightly, so your hand doesn’t shake with the pressure from your fingers.
  5. Paint your nail in sections. Place the brush in the center of your nail a few millimeters away from your cuticle. Touch the brush onto the nail, and push the brush up to meet the cuticle. Then pull the brush downward to the end of your nail, coating the entire middle section of your nail with polish. Repeat this process by adding a strip of nail polish on either side of the initial middle strip, to coat the entire nail in polish. Each side stroke will start where the first stroke did (in the middle of the nail), but they will follow the natural curve of the cuticle and sides of the nail.[5] Repeat this painting process with the rest of your nails.
    • Rather than moving your painting hand (your less coordinated, non-dominant hand) to paint your nails, let your painted hand (your more controlled, dominant hand) do the moving. Try rotating your dominant hand, and tilting your fingers their side to reach all surfaces of the nail with polish.[5] This allows for more control, and less movement with your weaker hand.
    • All your coats of polish (but especially the first coat) should be thin coats. You can increase the opacity of your nail polish with more coats of polish later on.
    • If you have applied too much polish to your nail, tap the tip of the brush on the inside neck of the nail polish bottle to the remove excess polish on the brush. Then try to spread out the rest of the polish that’s already on your nail.
  6. Try painting your nails by dragging your dominant hand. Instead of maneuvering your weaker hand to paint your nails, keep your weaker hand still in one, steady position, holding the brush, and pull your nail underneath the brush to cover it with paint. Have your weak hand resting on a hard surface (like a table) as you hold it still, and paint the your nails by dragging them underneath the brush.
    • This method requires no movement from your weaker hand, while your dominant hand does all the controlled movement.
  7. Paint your thumb nails last. Allow your thumb nails to remain free from any nail polish until the rest of your nails are painted. Your thumb nails can be used to help clean up the rest of your nail edges by swiping and scraping along the sides of your cuticles and nail beds, precisely removing any excess polish.[1]
    • If you have wide thumbs, you may need to add more paint to the brush while painting, in order to coat the entire nail. Remember, you want thin coats of polish, so even if you have to dip the brush into the nail polish again, only add a little bit of polish.
  8. Apply the top coat. A top coat seals your polish, and gives a shiny smooth finish. You only need to do one top coat layer, but make it a good one by covering all areas of your nail, including the sides.
    • To help your polish last longer, try swiping the top coat over the front tip of you nail. This helps prevent the tips of your nail from chipping.
    • Again, just the like the base coat, the top coat clear in color. Any mistakes you make painting the top coat with your weaker hand, are less visible.

Cleaning Up

  1. Use nail polish remover to remove stray nail polish. If there is any remaining polish on the skin on the sides of your nail or on your cuticles and above, use a Q-Tip or a synthetic brush with a tapered edge to clean off the excess polish.[1] Dip the Q-Tip or synthetic brush in the nail polish remover so it’s soaked, and then tap it on a paper towel. This ensures that the Q-Tip or synthetic brush is saturated with remover, but not dripping. Slowly run the Q-Tip or synthetic brush’s edge along the side or top of your nail to take off any unwanted nail polish. Wait for the remover to quickly dry.
    • A synthetic brush with a taped edge is useful for getting into the nooks and crannies along the sides of your nails.
    • It is very important to make sure there isn’t too much remover on the Q-Tip or synthetic brush, or else it will take off more polish than you want.
  2. Use a nail file to remove stray nail polish. Use the nail file to gently rub off and “file” away dried nail polish on the sides of your nail. The friction from the file will gently remove the nail polish remaining on your skin.
    • Be very careful when using this method. The file can brush up against your actual nail, and mess up your polish.
  3. Practice. With practice, holding the nail polish brush and painting with your non-dominant hand will get easier and easier.[2] You can even try writing with your non-dominant hand in your free time to get more comfortable using that hand.
    • The key is to get comfortable with the pressure and stability needed to create precise, even strokes while painting your nails.[2]
  4. Finished.

Tips

  • Paint your non-dominant hand first, so your nails on your non-dominant hand have time to dry while you paint your dominant hand. This drying time between coats will help with creating smooth, smudge free nails.
  • Use the washroom before you start painting your nails. It sounds silly, but it's tricky trying to move around and undress with wet nails.
  • Try and paint your nails in an area with decent lighting. This will help you catch any mistakes that you might miss with poor lighting.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NArz5W11DVc
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 http://www.shefinds.com/2015/how-to-paint-your-nails-with-your-non-dominant-hand/
  3. ↑ https://www.birchbox.com/magazine/article/how-to-paint-your-right-or-left-hand
  4. ↑ http://stylecaster.com/beauty-high/how-to-paint-your-nails-with-your-other-hand/
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 http://www.lacquerized.com/2010/05/how-to-how-i-paint-my-nails.html
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