Melly's Nails & Hands Care, This is How I Do It...and a Cat pic too!!

Good Afternoon all my loves, today is my second blog entry that will cover what so many of my loves have been asking about, how I care for my hands and nails.  This morning I did get my second epidural for my back issues, need to relax the rest of the day, so, today gives me a good day to do this. Shall we begin love bugs :) 

Of course, a kitty must help Mom

In the above pics, I have shown all the products and tools I use.  I will not list them all now,  I will list them as I go. The painted jars are baby food jars decorated with nail polish that I keep my hand creams in on our coffee table, so much cuter than a bunch of bottles or tubes. Sorry for the funky pics, I didn't realize my camera was set for "fish eye" view, LOL.

Filing:
I file my nails once a week to keep them at my desired nail length, which is nails just past the nail bed.  I use a coarse side of the file to quickly take down the length, followed by the smooth file side to smooth any loose edges on the filed nail.  Only file your nails going in one direction. If you "saw" back and forth on your nails, they will become weak and break easier. The only time I use the buffer (the block to the left of files in pic) is for very gently smoothing my nails if during polish removal they get a little rough.  Do not buff hard, it will make the nail bed weak and your nails more prone to breaking.   I file with polish on my nails to see better to file to my desired nail shape. You are now ready for polish removal.

My nails after filing, this is the length I prefer and the length that works best for me.

Polish Removal:
I use felt to remove my polish, it's my favorite thing to use for remover as it sort of "scrubs" the polish off.  I buy full sheets of felt at the craft store and cut them into squares to use for removing polish.  I buy the large bottles of Beauty Secrets Acetone (at Sally Beauty Supply) and refill a smaller Sally Hanson remover to keep in the tray in my polish area.  Before removing polish, I ALWAYS oil my cuticles, I have found that oiling before removal helps to decrease acetone dryness around cuticles.  Once polish is removed I then go to work on cuticle removal.

Cuticle Removal:

Cuticle remover on nails

Remover on cuticles

Using an orange stick to push and scrape the gunk off.

The little "shavings" looking things is the dead skin/cuticle buildup

I use Blue Cross Cuticle Remover that I purchase at Sally's and pour into an old Orly bottle to then  brush onto my cuticles.  I leave the cuticle remover on for a few minutes, rub it in, then brush more on (I've found it helps to push the gunk away with an orange stick if they are a bit wet with the remover), then I use a wooden orange stick to push my cuticles back and get rid of all that icky dead stuff (last pic shows some). The ONLY time I ever use a cuticle v-shaped shaver (the brown and pink tool in the top pic of my supplies) is if there is just a little bit of hangnail that needs to be gently removed.  Be very careful with any kind of cuticle shaver or nipper as you can cut yourself and bacteria could get in your cuticles and cause an infection, using a remover and pushing them is usually all you should need to do once you get them in good shape and keep them maintained.  I only remove my cuticles this way once a week.  After I do all of this, next step is scrubbing and prepping for polish.

Hand Scrubbing:

Hand Scrubbing:
I use this Beauty Secrets Sugar Scrub (from Sally's) and rub into nails, cuticles and hands really well, then I wash my hands with soap, then use soap on the nail brush and scrub around and under my nails/cuticles.  Next, I dry my hands really well and polishing can  begin then for me.  I am going to skip over the polish application in this post, it will have it's own and now move onto my regime daily with my hand and nails.


Daily Nail/Cuticle Maintenance:

 CND Cuticle Eraser Cream

Sally Hansen Cuticle Massage Cream

Cuticle Oil

Cream to be rubbed in

Hand Cream or "Hand Chap" as I prefer to call it :)

Nicely moisturized and healthy nails, cuticles and hands

Products I Use:
Solar Oil Cuticle Oil, Mango Mend Cuticle Oil, Sally Hansen Cuticle Rehab, Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Cuticle Pen, OPI Avoplex Cuticle Oil, Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream, Sally Hansen Cuticle Massage Cream, CND Cuticle Eraser Cream, Poshe AHA Cuticle Care, C. Booth Body Butters (I use them on my hands, love them), J.R. Watkins Hand Creams, I Love Coconut Body Balm (I've only ever seen this at Rite Aid).

I start with an oil followed by one of my creams or balm, then a hand cream.  I use these products together many times a day to keep my hands, nails and cuticles cute, happy and healthy.

Bubbles and Glitter,

Melly