I must confess, I am guilty of neglecting my nails for long periods of time until they start to annoy me so much that I need a full on professional manicure. I'm trying to get into the habit of doing short little manicures more frequently to avoid the mess and dryness that my hands are often in. Woops. This post is by no means a professional manicure and I have no experience at all, this is just what I like to do to try and look after my nails and keep them in good condition.
Personally I can't bare my nails to be too long. After they grow past a certain point, they start to actually hurt - is this really weird or does anyone else know what I mean? So the first thing that I do is file them into shape, I tend to go for quite square and straight nails but rounded at the edges.
Once they're all lovely and even and shaped, I'll then use a buffer to even out any ridges and smooth down the nail. Most of the time I just use a cheap buffer from Boots for this, they all tend to do the same job. I'll then go in with cuticle scissors to tidy up the edges around my nails. I would definitely advise to be careful when doing this, don't get trigger happy and start pulling off loads of skin!
I then like to go in with a nail strengthener as my nails tend to get very dry and brittle and peel very easily. I recently tried the OPI Natural Nail Strengthener after finishing a bottle of their Nail Envy. It did an okay job at stopping my nails from peeling and breaking, but not as good a job as their nail envy. I thought after this disappointment that I would then branch out from OPI and try Essie's Millionails. I found that it helped to keep my nails healthy and strong almost as well as OPI's Nail Envy. I apply two coats of this if I am just wearing it alone of one coat as a base coat for nail polish.
Then to hydrate my awfully dry hands. I like to massage a small amount of the Sally Hansen Vitamin E Nail and Cuticle Oil into my nails and finish off with a hand cream. At the moment I'm using the Morris & Co Shea Butter Hand Cream which is really hydrating, not too greasy and smells beautiful.
And that's it! Like I said, I'm definitely no professional and don't have a lot of patience and this little routine is quick and easy enough even for me.
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