How to have Beautiful Natural Nails

So since starting this blog, I’ve had a lot more comments on my nails. I’ve gotten a lot of nice comments over the past 3 years or so – my favourite was a random girl at uni asking where I got my nails done and then seeing her shock when I told her I don’t get them done >_<

When I was younger I was a nail-biter, my nails (and the skin around them!) always looked very sad and torn. When I reached the age of about 15, I decided it was time to put an end to it! I am not a nail expert, nor do I actually know very much about nailcare – I’ve never researched it and I don’t use fancy products or strange techniques. But for those of you who have expressed an interest, here is how I look after my nails.

1. Drink milk! It sounds silly to say it, but I never realised that most people I know don’t like drinking milk. I love milk, I absolutely adore it, I could drink a million litres a day. I don’t of course. My solution is to drink a small glass of milk every morning! Milk is your friend, but too much milk will lead to white spots on your nails; if you stick to just a small glass a day, all you end up with is natural white tips – who needs a pricey French manicure?!

2. Buy a cuticle cream – it will keep the skin around your nails from becoming tough and nasty-looking, especially if the work you do is rough on your hands and nails. I’m currently using Cath Kidston Rose Cuticle Cream and it’s working a treat. I’m not too sure where you can buy it now, I got it on sale 6 weeks ago at Smith & Caugheys.

3. Hand cream! Absolutely the simplest and easiest part of nailcare. Everybody should be using hand cream or lotion anyway, otherwise your skin will be all dry 😦 And that’s no fun! I alternate with my hand creams, I have 4 different tubes at the moment. My favourite one for a light moisturising effect is the Q10 Hand Creame from Daiso – it only costs $3.50 and leaves your hands feeling fantastic. If you can’t find cuticle cream or don’t want to, use a thicker creamier lotion on your cuticles; I’ve got Body Shop Moroccan Rose Hand & Nail Cream, the Cath Kidston Rose Hand Cream (which matches the cuticle cream), and an Avon Moisture Therapy hand cream for extremely dry skin. I’m pretty sure Avon no longer has the particular one I have, but any of the Moisture Therapy products are fantastic.

So that’s the basics 😉 There are some other things I recommend too:

– Don’t touch your cuticles! I know that almost everyone removes or minimises (by pushing them down) their cuticles. I have never done this and I don’t plan to; I think natural ones look much softer and feminine – and isn’t the whole point of doing our nails to accentuate our femininity?

– If your nails are particularly soft, I recommend a calcium treatment. When I was younger (and poor… wait I’m still poor) I used Jordana treatments – the calcium boost is good, and so is the diamond hardener if your nails are soft and prone to flaking, chipping, or tearing. If you have a bit more money than me, MaSucree has started using one of the Sally Hansen treatments (I can’t remember which one) and she’s seeing results already.

– If you want a soft natural shape like mine, when you clip your nails, start by doing them straight across (as per usual). Then gently round the edges. They’ll grow slightly rounded instead of squared.

– Don’t have your nails polished all the time. I regularly give mine a break from any form of polish (even nail treatments). On average I have them painted 3-4 days a week, the rest of the week they are left completely alone! Here are my nails first thing this morning – I haven’t even hand-creamed them yet >_< I’ve just noticed that my ring finger nails always end up longer than the others… weird.

So you tell me – do my methods work? Miss MaSucree is trying to follow my… quite frankly relaxed “nail regime” and she says she’s seeing results already.

How do you look after your nails?

-Del xx