I remember writing that I refused to clean away my first manicure I got in Beijing, because it was so well-shaped, and that I could never get nice nail shapes when I cut my own nails.

Subsequently, I viewed and posted MissChievous's video on how to get salon-style manicured nails at home. And I also pointed out that she uses a glass file instead of the common cardboard one.

I went out to look for a glass file, and as heaven would have it, it was only days after when I shopped in Sephora, that I saw the glass file! Was it a coincidence or what?

So this thing is a good $16, but I bought it anyway. All I can say is that I am so loving it right now, I leave it on my desk, besides my laptop, and I use it every few days whenever my nail chips, to smoothen out my nails. So worth the $$$!

About the secret, yes, I found out that as long as you file your nails properly, everyone can get really well-shaped salon style nails! Quite amazing.

For people who do not put nail polish, or only use gloss, you may not notice it. But if you paint bright colours on the nails, you'd definitely see the obvious bad shape if you do not file the nails. Especially if you use nail clippers instead of nail scissors (which I do, because I am scared of scissors). And we all know that nail clippers are shaped a certain way, so you can't cut absolutely perfect curves, there will always be kinks and angles...

Angles are not healthy in the sense, they are prone to chipping and tearing off.

Scientific Fun Fact On Why Smooth Nails Are Better: (Do skip this if you don't like Science, and think you wouldn't understand and don't want to understand Science (even though I've tried my very best to use layman terms). It is boring. :PPP)
Materials are not perfect. The metal body you see on aeroplanes comes with micro defects that your eyes can't see (although the percentage defect is extremely minute such that the metal board is safe enough for use on airplanes, otherwise a lot of innocent lives will be taken, people would be scared of flights, and no company would insure air travel).

So the micro holes/cracks will wear and tear over flight time, and cracks would widen into maybe a sort almond shape or the shape of your eyes (basically a shape that has sharp, angled ends instead of a perfect circle). What engineers used to do in the 1930s, is that they would simply take a drill that's about the same size as the length of the almond shaped crack, drill in, create a perfectly round circle (even though it means making the hole bigger!), and that's it! The airplane is ready for flight again!

I know, it sounds scary now, but that was the way people worked in the 1930s- 1950s. Present day quality control have more stringent criteria, and do not advocate drilling holes to ease the cracks. Reason being, a crack does not propagates (grow) as fast if it were perfectly round without sharp edges. Hence filing is good for nails! As long as you file well, and make a smooth edge, and not try to use your nails to pry open bottle caps, the good colour and shape will last a lot longer. This is also why they advise to file in one direction and not zig zag back and forth, as that would cause ridges (which are essentially micro zig zags), that are prone to chipping.

A simple daily life experiment you may do to prove this, would be to use a hole puncher to punch a hole in a piece of fabric. And use a scissor to cut a slit (fold up the cloth) in the fabric. Try pulling apart the fabric. The one with the slit would most likely tear aaalllll the way down, while the one with the hole punched perfectly round hole would stay strong and wouldn't tear.

This theory is also applicable to your milo packets. Notice the slits? Those are for tearing (obviously). Same goes for the zig zag top of the potato chips bag. Sharp edges/slits propagate cracks and materials failure (tear), while perfectly smooth ones protect the material.

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Yup, so now I am hooked onto glass filing. I'd file whenever my nail chips so that they don't chip further. How about you? Do you use a cardboard one or a glass file as well? What are your thoughts on nail filing? A must?

PS: I own a normal cardboard file from Jericho Dead Sea Cosmetics Nail Kit, which I find really not as good as glass.

My laptop can't connect to the phone. =((( How to upload pictures for you? I am trying. Sigh. Irritating.