As part of the British Nail Bloggers group we've decided to start doing some specific posts on various subjects or particular questions, the first one is What is your nail care routine?
I'm a bit nervous about this post, mostly because I think it will show me up as a bit of a nail blogging fraud, my nail care routine is minimal to say the least, when I read other nail blogs I always feel a bit guilty about the amount of time and effort the girls put into their routine and keeping their nails looking good, I really do the bare minimum with mine. It doesn't seem to do them too much harm.
I have very few rules when it come to looking after my nails but the ones I do have I stick to pretty religiously, they are;
- Jewels not tools, don't use your nails for picking, pulling or scrapping things. If you treat your nails well then they'll look good, if you use them for all manner of tasks then they're bound to get weak and ragged.
- Wear rubber gloves when washing up, always! Again, if you treat your hands and nails well it will show.
- Moisturise, moisturise, moisturise - hand cream, hand lotion, cuticle cream any or all of the above will keep your hands soft and well moisturised which leads to less dry, flaky skin and hangnails.
As I said my routine for my nails is to do as little as possible to them, although I paint them most nights I rarely file them and I don't often apply special treatments. Much like the skin on my face I find the more I mess about with my hands and nails the more likely I am to develop problems.
When my nails get too long or one breaks I cut them all down as short as they will go and then give them a quick file until they are the same shape as the end of my finger. I find that gives the most natural nail shape as my nails grow.
I don't tend to file in between times unless it's to smooth off a ragged edge, as soon as I break one nail I cut them all down and start again, I know some people hate having nubbins (very short nails) but it's not something that bothers me and I quite like the change of length.
I do, as mentioned above, moisturise a fair amount using a variety of different products. Every time I paint my nails I finish off (after they're touch dry) by rubbing my hands and nails with a good quality hand cream or treatment, usually LUSH's Lemon Flutter Cuticle Butter or The Body Shop's Hemp Moisture High Balm which you can see a full post about here. Lemon Flutter is by far my favourite product for moisturising as it smells lovely and really does seem to do my nails good.
I do find it a bit greasy for during the day though so in my handbag and on my desk I keep tubes of Vaseline hand cream which I love the smell of. This stuff keeps my hands soft without leaving them greasy.
Another product (or should I say tool?) which I use regularly are Cuticle nippers:
I find these great for tidying up little bits of dry skin around my nails to stop them catching of pulling. I know a lot of people say you should never cut your cuticles or the skin around your nails but I find that as long as I am careful and don't go over the top it does my hands a lot more good than harm.
And that is pretty much it; treat your hands well, moisturise often and trim off any loose or dry skin to stop it pulling. Not exactly the comprehensive routine of a nail guru but it seems to work for me! I know I'm lucky in that I have pretty strong, well behaved nails which tend to grow fairly easily but I do thin that in part it's also down to me not messing about with them too much, sometimes in the nail world less does seem to be more (except where glitter is concerned then more is always more).
