You’re getting this in no particular order, because I have to keep order 90% of the time in my life. This is the one place I can be a scatterbrain, and so that’s how it’s going to go.

1. This manicure is really great at standing up to heavy labor, hard work, and hand work. What it doesn’t do (much like me) is dishes. Wear gloves. If your nails get soft from the water, even under 334 layers of dip, they can flex and bend from being softened by the heat and water. Flex is the enemy of the dip manicure. Everything else? All systems go.
   
2. Never pick. NEVER PICK. NEVER EVER PICK. Seriously. Don’t pick. Picking is for tomatos. And sandwiches. Not that we’re inundated with those around these parts… Mmmm…tomato sandwiches…
3. Speaking of sandwiches, clear layer sandwiches are your best friend for heavily pigmented powders and chunky or glittery dips. (There’ll be a post about that in the future.) And possibly a video! (Ohhhhh. The anticipation, I know!)
4. Dip manicures take time. Mostly time to remove the old one because you’ve gotten bored with it in my case, but they take time. There’s a lot of steps to get one that looks really good, but you’re only doing it once every week or two. I usually binge watch something, and hey, it’s a good break from cleaning the chicken coop or something, right? Get all the kiddos and pets settled, go pee, get something to drink, and settle in.
5. Dip powders don’t look anything like what they’ll look like on your nails in the jars. Get some of those little nail swatch swab things, and paint them, then match up a label on the the swab and your jar with a Sharpie. Yes, you will eventually have 500 jars of dip powder, just save yourself the time and admit this to yourself up front, and set up with a system from the beginning. What? I’m only speaking for me? Lies! It’s all lies!
6. Paint your nails on a manicure mat or something. You will spill some powder during the process. Or (not that I’m speaking from experience or anything) acetone on your nice painted desk. Make sure whatever you use is easy to rinse and non-porous. Silicone is great, especially if you’re using glitters as it helps to reduce the amount of glitter that you’ll be finding for the next 20 forevers.

And for now, that’s the tips you get. I might update this post as time goes by. Or I may make a new one. Depends on how scatterbrained I am at any given time!