Hand & Nail Care
[ 21 June 2007 ]
I have had so many requests for this article, & finally, here it is! I’ve made it into a three-parter: handcare at home, how to give yourself a manicure & how to choose a manicurist.
Handcare At Home
I never used to take very good care of my hands. I was always biting my nails, so I thought that my hands were beyond help. Why bother? Finally, sometime last year, I removed a whole lot of anxiety from my life which also had the pleasant side-effect of meaning I was no longer interested in biting my nails. They started to grow & I didn’t really know what to do with them, so I started going for manicures & then taking care of them myself.
I have always had very soft hands — soft enough that when people shake my hand, they usually comment on it. I think partially that’s genetics, but there are probably a few other contributors. Whenever I wash my hands, I try to use very gentle soap. Since working at Lush Cosmetics, I have been unable to go back to generic, supermarket-bought soap. I loathe the stuff, it stinks & it dries my hands out. A lot of the ingredients in those standard soaps are nasty, so I do my best to avoid them. My favourite Lush soaps (in case you’re interested) are Honey I Washed The Kids, Rock Star & Alkmaar.
I also try to keep my hands out of water as much as possible. Your nails swell when exposed to water & then shrink back, which can make your nails more brittle than they should be. Use gloves when you do the washing-up or any other cleaning around the house: a lot of those cleaning products are NOT meant to hit the skin.
Other things you can try include:
Cuticle cream — I adore Lush’s Lemony Flutter, & when I worked in the shop, I applied it every day & saw an ENORMOUS improvement. (The key is in consistent usage.)
Hand moisturiser — I like good old cocoa butter, I don’t really think there’s anything better, & try keeping a bottle with you at all times for best results
Putting Vaseline on your hands before you go to bed & sticking them in a pair of cotton gloves
Dipping your fingers into a cup of warm olive oil for a few minutes, then rubbing the oil into your hands
Giving yourself a weekly manicure (see below)
How To Give Yourself A Manicure
In my experience, this works best if you’re somewhere warm & relaxing, with good music & a decent chunk of uninterrupted time.
You will need:
Cotton balls
Nailpolish remover
A nail-file
A small bowl
Cuticle stick
A clear base/top coat of polish
Nailpolish
Remove all traces of old nailpolish with a cotton ball & a bottle of nailpolish remover. If you’ve been using cheap nailpolish, you might find that your nails are a bit stained. (My favourite nailpolish, Maybelline’s Cherry On, is like this.) If this is the case, do it thoroughly! Just give them a good going over & it should be okay.
File your nails next. The shape you make them is up to you — some people like a sharp tip, but the most popular shapes are a rounded-off square or an oval. File in one direction only, try to avoid going back & forth if at all possible. Make sure they feel smooth. If you have a file which will buff or shine your nails, use it!
Put your hands under running water. Use a little bit of soap & make sure you clean your hands properly. You really need to make sure all the little nail fragments are gone, so that your nailpolish goes on smoothly.
Take a small bowl & fill it with warm water. Soak your fingers (including your thumbs) for ten to fifteen minutes. Some people will put something in with the water, like olive oil, but this is entirely up to you. When you’re done, dry your hands off on a towel.
Push back your cuticles with (you guessed it) a cuticle stick. Hopefully they will be nice & supple after all that soaking, but if not, you might want to use some cuticle butter to facilitate the process. Please don’t clip your cuticles! Ever! It’s a very fast & efficient way to get an infection due to bacteria & fungi.
Okay, time for the base coat! Use something clear. Start in the middle of your nail at the cuticle, moving the brush toward the tip of your nail. Then do one stroke on either side. Do every nail, then let it dry.
Now it’s time for the normal nailpolish! I advise picking an exciting colour! Yes, you could go with traditional pale pink, which is certainly a good classic, but why not try midnight blue, glittery silver or neon pink? (If you don’t like it, you can always take it off again!) I am an OPI nailpolish addict, & I love their Night Brights & Garden Party collections, but your mileage may vary. Another tip — try buying your nailpolish on Ebay. Usually bottles of OPI cost $20 here, but I can buy them on Ebay (including shipping) for about $8. Awesome.
Apply the nailpolish the same way you did the base coat — start in the middle, brush toward the end, then do either side. Let it dry off. You might find you need to do a couple of coats.
Now apply a top coat! I use the same stuff for my base & top coat. The top coat will help prevent your nails from chipping & it will make your polish last longer, so if you can be bothered, it’s definitely worth doing.
Congratulations, you’re done! (If you wanted to give yourself a French manicure, here’s how it’s done.)
How To Choose A Manicurist
If you’d rather have someone else do all the work — & I don’t blame you — getting a professional to attend to your nails is the way to go. It can be a very relaxing way to spend half an hour.
To find a good manicurist, do some research online or if you have a friend who gets regular manicures, you should ask them where they get theirs done & what they think of the service.
As with anything other than the bare necessities (like paying your power bill), I am a strong believer that you should only give money to people who make you feel great or in exchange for an excellent product… so when you walk into a nail salon, if you don’t feel good & comfortable, just leave. Good service is really important to me. If the staff at one salon aren’t pleasant to you, don’t worry, there are a million other people dying to take your money who will be good to you!
Other things to keep in mind are whether they clip cuticles (BAD!) & whether they sterilise their tools. You can ask them this over the phone if you like. A lot of salons will give you the tools they used to take home with you, which I think is marvellous. The manicurist (& the client) should both wash their hands with antibacterial soap before starting (or the manicurist should wear gloves).
When you’re ready to take the plunge, just go in & ask them for a manicure. They will usually give you a few options, like a full polish or a French polish (white tips) or just a basic shape. Take your pick, have a seat & enjoy!
Finally, use your discretion in terms of what you think the service is worth. In big cities you can get a top-class manicure for $10, while in other places (like Melbourne) it seems impossible to get a manicure for less than $30.
Extra For Experts:
Things You Shouldn’t Do (If You Care About Your Nails)
How Can I Stop Biting My Fingernails?
Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala
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OPI is a great nail polish and usually around $10 here. However I am a Chanel Vamp (Rouge Noir) girl so I shell out $27. Heh.
What would you consider a good base/top coat cuz even my expensive stuff tends to get minor wear around the edges. But seriously, Chanel stuff is diehard, it lasts so long.
I love OPI, too! I bought Lincon Park At Midnight, which is this gorgeous dark plum with a tiny bit of shimmer…it’s amazing. I don’t want to ever go back to boring black. :)
Oh, and you have such great timing! I tried to do my nails today, but I used a bad bottle of nail polish. I’ll be sure to try out your tips!
If my hands are really dry and trashed, I put a nice face cream (I use Trilogy) on them overnight – something richer than my normal aqueous cream. Olive oil is great too.
What about the paraffin soak? I love the gooshy way it feels, but does it make a difference?
Kris — I’ve never actually tried a paraffin soak! I have no idea. Anyone else?
Wow… People actually pay $20 for OPI polish?! Here in the States its 7.50. I’ll definitely stock up if I ever move overseas!!
(Valerie—I like Lincoln Park After Dark, which is the same, but no shimmer…)
I just bought my own paraffin dip. When you use one, you put some moisturizer onto your hands first. Hold your fingers closed and thumbs out when you dip it into the wax . You want to dip two or three times to get your entire hand covered.
You’ll need some help with this, so have a friend put either plastic bags over your waxy hands or special mitts. Leave it all on for about 5 minutes.
Take the mitts off, peel the wax off, and you have super soft hands! It’s great for those who have chapped hands and cuticles, because it locks in moisture.
I usually play with the wax afterwards. It smells so good and feels good.
I’ve noticed OPI nail polish does not work good with OPI’s own top/base coats. It makes everything peel real easily. I use other kinds of clear coats for my nails.
My fav color at this moment: Purple With a Purpose.
I only pay $3.75 a bottle =D
Oh! I’ve used paraffin dip before!! Me and my best bud did it a few years ago at her mom’s. I loved it.
And I totally played with the wax afterwards too!
...there is nothing better than cocoa butter. I use it daily!
Its all fine and dandy if you have nail, but I have NO nail or as close as you can get.I have bitten them all my life.To the point that they hurt and swell.So many people have theories on how to quit and was hoping some of you might have some new ones.And if not how to quit,how to make them not look so manky.Other than wearing gloves or getting fake nails.
Eileen — Well, it’s $20 Australian, which is $16.94 US (given the current exchange rate)...
deanna — Ouch! I think fake nails would be your best bet, because then you can’t get to your original nails. I find that having a good, professional manicure helps deter me from biting them or chewing on them too — especially if it was expensive. I’m too mean to want to feel like I’ve wasted the money!
i love love doing my nails. i used to work (for a short time) as a manicurist (it was a hobby thing but i loved it) and now i usually give myself weekly manicures or i go to get it done somewhere when i want some pampering. my sister and i do crazy nailart on each other all the time.
for people with weak nails, i recommend using nailtek. it’s expensive but it works well. use nailtek 2 for weak, peel-y nails, and nailtek 3 for brittle nails. i get acrylic or gel nails done sometimes and nailtek is the only thing that makes the nails strong when you take them off.
i love OPI!!! i just painted my nails a hot pink called “you’re such a kabuki queen” from their japanese range.
about the paraffin masques, honestly from what i’ve seen from my old job, it feels wonderful the moment you get it done, but because people neglect their hands thereafter, the results fade away. i best suggest you invest in a good moisturiser and rub it in all the time!! rosebud salve is also one of the best things i’ve come across that keep those cuticles moisturised for hours. (you can use it on your lips too) i think in australia i’ve seen it selling at peter alexander.
Deanna – I also have bitten my nails all my life, but a year ago i put fake nails and use them a month or so. They were expensive ( 50$) so i forced myself to don’t touch my nails. A little trick i used is to left one nail to be bitted so if i feel really anxious i can only damage one nail.
Now i have really long nails and love to give myself weekly manicures (while watching Sex and the City and eating chocolate ^^). And of course i removed a lot of anxiety and feel better about how my hands look ^^
I needed this article so badly! This is lovely.
I recently removed my solar false nails after 4 years of getting them done, and my real nails underneath are a WRECK. They’ve been peeling off in layers but thankfully, they’re a little over halfway grown out by now and I’m trying to grow them out (I used to bite terribly, but I guess the 4 years of hard fake nails made me stop, because I don’t now), but they keep breaking because the false nails have made them so weak.
Just a few more weeks of breaking, and then I’m good to go. Yay!
This is gonna sound kinda cheap…
But does anyone in Wellington (NZ) know a good place for a manicure that will charge under $45?
Given Gala’s pricing guidelines (which I guess were probably in AU$...?), $45 seems a lot for something I don’t know if I’ll like, and which will probably only last 3 days on me anyway. :P
Cheers!
gilda — Ahh, yeah I’ve heard good things about Nailtek! My manicurist recommended it to me when I went there last, but couldn’t remember the name for the life of me. She said that the key to getting it to work was to apply it consistently, which makes sense.
Ritalin — I don’t know for sure, but what I can tell you is that hotel beauty spas are usually the most expensive. There are a lot of normal spas who do nails too but I find that it’s best to go somewhere that JUST does mani/pedicures. They specialise, so they’re generally better at it. I don’t have any recommendations, though I think you can get an OPI manicure at Kirkcaldies… Might be worth investigating.
Ritalin, I am yet to find somewhere fantastic in wellington :(. But im sure you dont need to be told, stay away from professionail, i have heard bad bad bad things about there, after having a bad job done on my nails there of course.
But you could also try Beyond Beauty (Petone) call 920 2636, its the WelTec beauty school in Petone.This week manicures – $10 (1hour)
Thank you Gala and Sarah! I will look into both those options.
Professionail horrifies me – the stench that comes out of that place! When I googled them, trying to find if they had a website, the first hit was a page about the Department of Labour bringing action against Professionail for their suspected use of Methyl Methacrylate (MMA) in their fake nails. MMA is banned for cosmetic use in NZ and it can cause skin irritation, respiratory difficulties, and nail damage and deformities!!
Yuck! Avoid!
As an ex-nail technician there are a couple of trade secrets I can reveal.
1) If you suffer from weak nails (even if you don’t this is good), cut them with clippers or nail scissors, avoid filing them at all costs. They end up super strong.
2)When/if you do file your nails, never (ever) buff the ends flush. i.e. when there is the thin straggly residue left on the nail after filing, rub it off by hand, dont use the nail file down over to remove it. It instantly opens the layers of the nail and causes peeling.
3)Use a facial exfoliant on your hands once a week and it keeps them uber-soft and silky, plus helps moisturisers soak in better.
Last but not least,
4)use Jojoba oil or Sweet Almond oil on the nails. Use a drop on each nail every day and rub all over the nail (ideally with no varnish on) even under the tip. It keeps the nails strong but flexible which stops them cracking and peeling.
For me, its the little things that count, having presentable hands is one of them.
THANK YOU Selchi! Those are fantastic tips, bravo!
Thanks for this article. :-D As of this weekend, I’m going to have amazing hands.
hey do you do nails cheap ?
this article is old but i just wanted to say any dark polish, whether “cheap” or not, can stain your fingernails.
thx.