How to do a hardware pedicure yourself to get your feet in order?

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Even during their school years, girls tried to do pedicures on their own. After rummaging through my mother’s cosmetic bag, we took a nail file and the brightest polish to make our toenails more beautiful; for us it was a real pedicure. However, as we grew older, we learned about other tools and ways to care for our nails and foot skin. Since then, there has been a need to know how to properly perform a pedicure and what to expect in specialized salons.

What is pedicure

Pedicure is a comprehensive care for the nails and skin of the feet. This procedure not only gives the toenails an aesthetic appearance, but also prevents the development of various foot diseases. That is why it should be performed regularly, at least once a month.

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There are several types of pedicure, which differ in the way they treat nails:

• classic pedicure using a set of tools and thoroughly steaming the feet before the procedure;
• medical pedicure, which is performed by professional podologists to eliminate dermatological problems;
• hardware pedicure, including smart pedicure, which is performed by a device and allows you to preserve the results of care for a long time;

Smart pedicure - what is it?

Smart pedicure is a pedicure without the use of keratolytics, creams and other products. It is done using a smart disc that removes rough skin from the heels in a matter of minutes.

The smart disk rotates at high speed, but the abrasive gently affects the skin without injuring it. The result from such a high-tech pedicure is better and longer than from any other. It may seem that such a disc cannot be disinfected due to its structure, but do not worry. The disk is easy to disinfect, and replaceable files are always disposable.

This procedure can only be carried out by a certified specialist who knows how to properly work with the client’s foot, what abrasive is suitable for his foot and other subtleties.

How are smart discs different from abrasive caps?

• As described above, the diameter of the disc is larger than the diameter of the cap, for this simple reason the disc is able to cover a sufficient surface of the foot. Processing is faster.
• During operation, the disk is not able to heat up. The client will not feel any burning sensation. The cap may burn unpleasantly in some places.
• Due to their composition, disc attachments do not injure the epidermis as a whole and are not capable of leaving the so-called “tearing marks” that occur after a cap.
• The disc is suitable for working with soft skin of the feet. The cap in this case will not be appropriate due to the risk of injury.
• Using the nozzle, you can not only get rid of dead skin, you can also polish your heels and other parts of your feet. Polishing allows you to completely clean the feet from any remaining roughness and due to it, skin will slowly grow in certain places. It is impossible to do this with caps.
• Disc abrasives are cheaper than caps. The price for one cap varies from forty rubles; abrasive can be found for three to six rubles. Good savings.

How professionals do a classic pedicure

In the master’s office, he has a full range of tools with which he will treat your feet, taking into account the type of skin and the condition of the nail plates:

• Any type will benefit from a hardware pedicure, which requires special cutters and equipment. This type will help to quickly make the legs smooth and soft, the main thing is to choose the right rigidity of the cutter;
• If your feet are very delicate, it is better to refuse the classic one in the salon, giving preference to the European one. The essence of European pedicure is no cutting tools. Wooden or orange sticks are used to treat the cuticles, and the feet are cleaned with brushes;
• For rough and normal skin, a classic pedicure with scissors, files and nippers is suitable;
• Those who want to improve their skin or cure their feet from existing diseases should resort to a medical pedicure. During treatment, the master will use special products that penetrate deep into the skin and have a healing effect.

A professional pedicurist always carries out the procedure according to a strict algorithm:

• Treats the client's feet with a disinfectant. After it dries, it determines the client’s skin type in order to choose the right care and not injure the skin;
• Pushes back the cuticle with an orange stick and applies remover to the foot for 2-4 minutes. At this time, the master prepares the steam bath by adding salt to the water;
• While the client's feet are steamed for 15 minutes, the master prepares tools suitable for the type of feet of the visitor;
• Now you can start cleaning your heels using a special wet brush. After the rough layer is removed, the master polishes the foot with a softer grater;
• After cleaning, the master trims the cuticle and corners of the nails, which may cause discomfort to the client, and evens out the edges with a nail file;
• The next stage of cleansing is exfoliating the remnants of the stratum corneum using a special scrub. After washing off the scrub, the master shapes the nails and treats them with nail files;
• The master should secure the result with cuticle oil and foot cream, which must be rubbed in with massage movements;
• The last thing to do is apply a decorative coating.

What is the minimum set a beginner needs to work?

In the kit, a novice master should have a complete set of attachments to perform all pedicure tasks. The set includes:

• grinding attachments of different hardness and size;
• needle-shaped diamond cutter;
• silicon carbide caps on a rubber base;
• carbide nozzle “drum”;
• diamond in the shape of a cone;
• ball-shaped diamond cutter with blue cut;
• diamond cone, flame and bullet with red markings.

To gain initial experience, it is advisable to purchase cutters that have blue markings and smoothed corners.

Attention! For additional polishing and buffing of the natural nail, you can purchase silicone cutters and sand caps.

How to make at home

At home, the algorithm will look similar. If you don’t have a remover at home, start the procedure by steaming your feet in a bath of salted water. Soak your feet in water for 10-20 minutes, depending on the degree of roughness of the skin of your feet.

After steaming, take care of the cuticle. Push it away with the pusher and then cut it off with the other end of the tool. Be as careful as possible to avoid cutting your skin with the tip.

The next step towards well-groomed feet is to remove rough skin and polish the feet. Use a wide 100 grit file if your skin is quite rough. After treatment, shape your nails with nail files and cut off the edges of the nails with scissors. If you wish, you can also additionally clean your feet with a scrub.

When all procedures are completed, be sure to apply the cream to your feet and distribute it with massage movements to soothe irritated skin.

Advantages and disadvantages

The main advantages include:

• hygiene and safety - subject to proper use of the device and attachments;
• efficiency – the skin remains soft and smooth for a long time;
• no need to steam your feet, which is contraindicated, for example, during pregnancy, high blood pressure, fungal infections of the feet and nails;
• there is no risk of injuring the skin - especially important for those who suffer from diabetes, when any wound or abrasion can lead to infection;
• you can even treat hard-to-reach places between the fingers, around warts, drill out subcutaneous calluses without injuring adjacent tissues;
• the procedure is completely painless;
• If you have a little practical experience, accuracy and patience, you can perform a hardware pedicure at home.

Among the shortcomings, only one can be highlighted: you need to be able to use the device with attachments correctly. If the master does not have enough experience or you are taking on the task yourself for the first time, you can easily injure the skin of your hands or feet, damage the structure of your nails, and generally cause a lot of trouble. Therefore, if you are not confident in your strength or the dexterity of your girlfriend, trust your feet to a professional master.

Useful information: many people are interested in how to choose and configure a milling machine correctly. Modern devices include up to 12 different attachments of different shapes, sizes and surface textures for treating heels, cracks, calluses, nails, cuticles, polishing and grinding. As practice shows, half is enough. What is more important is the power of the device itself. It should be at least 40 watts if you don’t want your hands to get tired after just one toe. The rotation speed of the cutter is from 10 to 20 thousand revolutions per minute. You can also use disposable cap attachments - some say they are more effective than stone cutters and more hygienic.

List: What you need for a home pedicure

Nail service professionals have in their arsenal a huge number of different tools: nippers, tweezers, stands, various files and scissors, sharpened in different ways. At home you can do without most of the gadgets, but you will need more than just scissors. What do you need to have in your kit for competent and high-quality foot care at home?

Foot massage bath

An indispensable tool for foot care. The bath will help steam your feet, making cuticles and calluses more pliable for removal, and at the same time allow you to relax and unwind. You can buy a steam bath at any salon that has accessories for manicure and pedicure.

If you do not want to purchase a massage bath, you can use a regular container or basin, filling it with warm soapy water. The effect will be the same, only without the additional functions that baths have. Prepare a towel to remove excess water from your feet after steaming.

Nail Polishing Machine

This tool with various attachments, also called cutters, can replace files, nippers and tweezers. With its help, the cuticle is removed, the edges of the nail are smoothed, the surface of the nail plate is polished and rough skin is removed.

Such a device can be found in different price categories, and, of course, the professional version of the tool will not be cheap. However, you can buy a semi-professional set and gain experience in finger processing.

This machine will help you do a hardware pedicure or manicure at home. To do this, you do not need a whole set of attachments, like from a specialist in a salon; buy only those cutters whose rigidity suits your skin type.

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Scraper

A scraper is an excellent tool for dealing with rough, dead skin on the feet. The device is a razor in a convenient attachment to make the grooming process safer. But even in this case, you need to use the scraper very carefully to avoid cuts.

Use this tool only when the roughest file does not help remove the stratum corneum from the heel.

Pusher

It is best to have a double-sided pusher: with a spatula at one end, move the cuticle, and with the tip at the other end, remove it from the nail plate. Usually pushers are made of metal, but there are also regular wooden sticks that are safer for the nail, however, metal ones are considered more effective.

Nippers/tweezers

Nippers with pointed ends of a triangular shape allow you to efficiently cut off hangnails and cuticles due to their tight fit to the skin. You can even trim your nails with straight-shaped tweezers.

Files

For proper nail care, it is better to purchase files with different types of coating: from the coarsest with 100 grit to treat the toughest areas of the foot, to soft ones with abrasiveness up to 1500 grit for delicate care of the skin of the feet.

Scissors

In most cases, they can be replaced with the same nippers/tweezers, but it is useful to have pedicure or manicure scissors with rounded ends in your arsenal to efficiently trim the thin and flaky free edge of the nail.

This is a minimal set of tools that will help you make your feet well-groomed and beautiful without visiting a specialized salon. Some of the devices are interchangeable, which allows you to save a little but still achieve the desired result. But still, if you want to become a professional pedicurist or have a good reputation, then you should pay attention to the health of your clients and choose a pedicure hood for yourself.

For those who want to delve even deeper into the issue of foot care, we are talking about products that will carefully prepare the feet for further processing:

• liquid for removing corns;
• cuticle softening liquid;
• foot scrub;
• softening foot cream after care.

Review of tools for SMART pedicure: features, purpose, selection rules and cost

Now let’s talk about the most commonly used tools used by smart pedicurists. And let's start with the main thing, which is the disk.

Basic discs

All discs for smart pedicure can be divided according to several criteria: grain size and abrasiveness, purpose, as well as their density and diameter. Stalex discs also come in straight and beveled versions, and they can be made of steel or plastic. Choosing a suitable disk is an individual matter. It depends on the client’s age, foot condition and other nuances.

To treat feet, discs of different diameters are used, according to which each product is assigned a marking or name:

• Baby. Such discs are used to treat children's feet. Their diameter does not exceed 10 mm;
• S. Such accessories are usually used for small work, mainly when processing fingers. The standard diameter of S size discs is 15 mm;
• M. This is a medium-sized universal nozzle, suitable for any manipulation. its diameter reaches 20 mm;
• L. This attachment has a larger size, so it is optimal for treating heels. The diameter of such a disk is 25 mm;
• XL is the largest attachment and is perfect for men's pedicures. its diameter is 30 mm.

Note! The size of the discs is selected individually depending on the place of application (toes or heels) and taking into account the rigidity. The correct selection of accessories is extremely important, so for this it is worth taking into account the characteristics of the skin, and also the order of application (coarse-medium-polishing).

Files

Files for smart pedicure are distinguished by their abrasiveness (grain):

• for rough skin that is in a critically dry state, use files 80 and 100;
• standard files (after rough grinding) are marked 180;
• Sponge discs are used to polish feet. They are characterized by an abrasiveness of 240-320).

On a note! The best option is Stalex brand files. All products of this brand are made of silicon carbide and coated with a thin layer of silicone.

The instrumental basis for performing a smart pedicure is:

• file made of surgical steel;
• a router, usually with a collet press and a rotation speed of at least 25,000 rpm.

Each master chooses for himself which tool to use. In beauty salons, for pedicures, they usually choose a milling cutter and put on a “disc-base” attachment. A steel file is also practical and is usually included in standard SMART kits.

What other accessories are used? Usually this:

• sponges;
• oil;
• skin softener such as Multi Baster.

On a note! Specialized stores have a large selection of sponges, molecular oils, various smart candles, gels and creams for skin care. But you can’t do without a skin softener. It allows beneficial bioelements and other cosmetics to penetrate the skin as deeply as possible. Removes dead skin, moisturizes and nourishes it. Also used as a cuticle remover.

Librederm Foot Care serum, Korean Jigott Snail Moisture Foot Cream and Topicrem SOS Creme Reparatrice Pieds healing cream were recognized as the leading home care products. If the procedure is performed correctly, you will use salon services no more than once every 1.5 months.

Smart set

The beauty industry is developing rapidly and now you can get a professional pedicure at home by purchasing a special Smart set for it. Do you dare to do a smart pedicure yourself? Specialized departments and online stores are simply teeming with various devices and sets. All you have to do is choose the most suitable one.

The standard kit usually includes:

• base-file (surgical steel);
• a pair of disks (usually universal size);
• files of standard and premium type (several pieces of each with different abrasiveness);
• sponges;
• molecular oil;
• universal multi booster;
• Toolkit

Note! Depending on the cost of the set, the kit can be supplemented with micellar wipes, smart candles, skin shampoo, organic oils and other products and additional accessories.

Stalex

The world's leading and largest manufacturer of professional tools for craftsmen is Stalex. And this brand also has a series for Smart pedicure. Discs, sponges and files from Stalex are high-quality, highly specialized, they are used by almost all manicurists and pedicurists. Discs from Stalex do not injure the skin, performing grinding thoroughly but carefully. All of them are presented in 2 versions - matte and glossy. Stalex files are also presented in 2 types: standard (black) and premium (white). The only difference between them is how convenient it is to peel them off the disk.