The 90/10 Rule Will Make Your At-Home Manicure Look Professionally Done

What, might you ask, do most of us have in common with a bunch of middle school girls at a sleepover? We all try, over and over again, to nail the perfect at-home manicure, and we all end up doing rudimentary work, at least 95% of the time. (The middle schoolers just have less to lose and more talent to start.)

Doing your own nails comes down to mastering the mechanics. To get the salon-worthy look, you need good polish, the right tools, and the know-how when it comes to wielding them. Luckily, salon-turned-nail brand Olive & June is here to assist.

Not only did the brand condense your at-home manicure into "five totally doable steps," but it enlightened us about one important thing: filing. It's called the 90/10 rule, and we're wondering how something so simple could have once been so, so stupefying. (Once...as in, last week.)

The 90/10 rule goes like this: "90% of the shaping work is done with your nail clipper; 10% is done with the file." Make sure to use flat-edge nail clippers before filing to help achieve your desired shape, and you're on your way to a perfect at-home mani.

Anyone who has dipped their toes—pun intended—into the DIY nail realm knows just how easy it is to accidentally over-file your nails until you're left with jagged edges, too-short tips, and a decidedly downtrodden spirit.

Focusing the attention on filing just the tippity-top of your tips saves us from ourselves, to which we say, "Please, save us!"

But Olive & June didn't stop there. It now offers three different nail kits that will make you want to delete your manicurist's number. Each comes with its own selection of tools, polish, and genius accessories to help you pull off the ultimate salon job, including a grippy rubber circle, called The Poppy Handle, that slides over the polish brush holder to make painting with your non-dominant hand way easier. Genius.

So next time you're gathering up the courage to start clipping and filing, remember the 90/10 rule. It's here to keep you focused (read: keep you from getting distracted by that Hallmark marathon), stop you from filing your nails into oblivion, and help you achieve your best squoval nail shape ever.

Manicures are a bit like the old expression, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Don't you agree?