NAILS NAILS NAILS

I love nail polish and I love trying out new colours and designs.  I am not a nail technician and I am still learning the dos and donts of this world but I want to share what I have learnt so far.  

I used to be a chronic nail biter but I think that was more down to my anxiety than a habit. I have managed to get a hold on that and have discovered I have relatively strong nails. However there are always things that you can do to keep them strong and long.  

Nail Care 101

1.  Square tipped nails will catch and break more easily than round tips.  If you wear your nails short then this won't be as much of an issue, but if you like to wear them long you will find that you will break and chip your nails more easily with a square tip.

2.  If you are a nail biter and you want to quit figure out when you bite your nails the most. I would chew at my fingers while watching TV or at the cinema.  When you have this figured out try and do something else with your hands, I was in my late teens and learnt how to make friendship bracelets, this meant that I couldn't bite my nails because I was using my hands to do something else.

3.  When I finally kicked the habit I found that my nails were flaking easily.  This was down to two things; the first was that the tip of my nail was damaged and so my nails would dry out.  The second was that I also used to chew at the skin around my nails (I know, gross) this meant that my cuticles were damaged and this effected the condition of the nail as it grew.  

3.  Speaking of cuticles, NEVER cut them. Use a good oil and push them back with a orange stick, but don't cut them, that will have the same affect as biting your skin.

4.  Try not to cut your nails as this encourages flaking, use a nail file. Now this gets a little complected so bare with me. Coarse nail files are not made for real nails, they are made for acrylic nails.  If you use then on your real nails you will damage them. Nail files have a grit number which identifies how coarse or fine the grit is.  Ideally you should be using one that is 240 or above - the higher the number the finer the grit.  I have a glass nail file that works great and can be cleaned and sanitised too. 

I think most people know this but don't file back and forth on the nail as this will weaken it too.  Always file in the same direction. 

5.  Use gloves when washing up whenever possible.  Nails don't like water, it causes them to dry out and flake.

6.  Use a good moisturiser regularly, whatever works for you.  At the moment I am using The Body Shops Almond Milk and Honey for sensitive and dry hands.  It works beautifully on my hands but I am finding I am needing something more moisturising around my nails.  So while this smells amazing and is great to throw in my handbag while out of the house when I want to moisturise the cuticles I will use something that is oil based.

7.  Always use a base coat.  ALWAYS. I don't care if the polish says you don't have to, if you don't want to stain your nails use a base coat.  

I like to use a treatment on my nails too.  So I do one layer of the 7 in 1 treatment from Barry M and their Base and Topcoat.  What this means is my nails are getting a treatment to help keep them strong and I am protecting them from staining.  Both of these polishes dry super quickly so it doesn't add much time to the process.

8.  When you are adding your colour, it will dry quicker if you apply 2 or even 3 thin coats rather than one thick coat.  Trust me this will cause less smudging later.

9.  Always use a topcoat this will stop the polish from chipping.

10. Never peal off your polish, whether it is a gel, acrylic or just a regular polish.  It will not do your nails any good. 

Tutorial

For this design you can use any colours you want I am using Barry M Gelly in Cotton and Orly in Electropop. You will also need a small dotting tool.  Don't worry if you don't have one you could use an unfolded hair grip (like in the picture below), a pin head or even the pointy side of an orange stick.

A few tips when using a dotting tool...
1.  Have a cotton wool pad soaked in nail polish remover close by and every so often wipe off the dotting tool.  If you don't your dots will get steadily bigger.  
2.  Depending on the polish you may have to use more than one drop of polish because as it dries it sort of goes stringy and gets harder to work with.
3.  Even though it is a fairly easy way to create patterns it does take practise, especially when using your non-prominent hand. 
4.  Remember this is supposed to be fun so choose a moment where you have enough time and you don't have to worry about having to leave the house or watch the kids.  

1. First I applied my base and topcoat, when that had dried I went in with the Barry M in Cotton. 
2. After that I tore a piece of paper out of an old notebook and put a drop of the pink on the page.  
3.  Using the small dotting tool I placed two dots one above the other, doing this means that it is easier to make the heart symmetrical.  
4.  Then I did the rest of the dots for the hearts.  
5.  At this point I got impatient and went in with the topcoat and smudged the pink slightly, learn from my mistake and wait for the pattern to dry before you put on the topcoat.  It doesn't look so bad in the picture but it's already driving me mad so I may have to redo them! 

I hope this is helpful, if you have any comments, hints or tips you can leave them below. 

XOXO