Something simple that Gabby Callen’s mom did for her when she was four years old that she now does every two to three weeks is paint her nails.

“After watching my mom do it for so long, I thought I would try it on my own,” Callen  says, “I remember I would practically cover my whole fingers with pink nail polish.”

Thus, Callen had to learn two important skills when painting her fingernails: patience and determination.

“I would get so frustrated when my fingers were drenched in polish, but my mom would come sit next to me, prepared with a bottle of nail polish remover and Q-tips, and would work her way along my fingers, gracefully scrubbing off all the excess paint,” Callen recalls. 

“I can save money and don’t have to make frequent appointments to get them done,” she points out, “honestly, you don’t need a professional nail kit or be a skilled artist.” 

She would also recommend buying a pack of nail polish on Amazon since it’s budget-friendly. “I usually get a pack of twelve, and it’s around $15 when I purchase them off of Amazon,” she says.

Callen also instructs, “Before you start painting your nails, place a bath towel on a flat surface to lay your hands on. Then grab nail polish remover and some Q-tips, but be cognizant that nail polish remover ruins wood–I’ve learned that the hard way. If the remover ever reaches wood, wipe it off immediately with a towel to minimize the damage. Then, you can start painting.”

When you paint your nails, only get a tiny amount of paint on the brush starting from the cuticle and working the way to the tip, using slow and long strokes when painting to ensure the application of the paint is smooth and neat.

Drying will test your patience but is a key step to making your nails look clean and elegant. “When allowing the paint to dry, make sure you don’t touch anything and your fingers are spread far apart so that the paint won’t smudge on something,” Callen mentions, “find a small fan if you want to speed up the drying process.”

Callen admits that it took her a lot of trial and error to make her nails look pretty, but it ultimately taught her that practice makes perfect, and with beauty comes a lot of time and effort.