My Poor Paws.

Article by BR Kellie

Oh how I envy those with beautiful nails. Nails that grow long and strong, that don’t flake or break as easily as my willpower in a makeup sale. Oh how I wish I could look down at my fingers as I type this and admire curved rounded tips painted in a beautiful nude as my fingers dance over the keyboard. Yes, as you can tell, my nails are not my best feature. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate them. In fact, if you ignore the ridges going horizontally and vertically on my bed, I’ve two really lovely thumbnails… But the rest? Not so much.

I do feel I only have myself to blame though, as I’m not one for caring for my nails. Or my hands. While my face is slathered in lotions and potions every morning and every night, my hands and nails are ignored. Or, if they’re lucky, they’ll have excess moisturiser haphazardly smooshed into them. But there’s no tender loving care here, and I guess it shows.

But no longer! I am putting my foot down, and raising my gnarly nailed hand up in an oath that from this day forward I shall take care of my nails and my hands (since they’re there and I may as well) in the hopes of ending the constant breakage, in the hopes that I too can join the perfectly polished paws that I see being posted to Beauty Review’s photo wall.

But, um… how? So I’ve hit the books, well, the internet, and it turns out keeping your nails in tip top condition isn’t as simple as rubbing any old moisturiser into them. What’s worse, I’m going to have to create a whole bunch of new habits if I want stronger nails… starting with what I do after I go to the loo!

Apparently if you want strong nails, you’ve got to apply hand moisturiser after every hand wash, because water dries your skin, which then dries your nail matrix – the cells that grow into nails at the base of your finger or toenail - which doesn’t help with the chances of future splitting or cracking.

Next thing on the sleeker stronger nails list? Water – lots of it. And vitamins.  The big old giant throat constricting multi ones. 

Another tip for stronger nails was to soak nails in olive oil for 10 to 15 minutes daily – or massage your nails or cuticles with olive oil.

It also turns out typing isn’t great for your nails either as it causes wear and tear. But, um, if I don’t type I don’t work, and if I don’t work I have no money for beauty products – so typing has to stay in, but I will try and type with my pads rather than my nails. 

Those in the know – or the great ‘they’ as I like to think of the faceless strangers who give advice over the internet – also suggest that you stop using your nails as tools. That means no scraping dried food off the table top, no using nails as sticker peeling devices, no poking away at the crevices of my teeth with my pointer finger, which incidentally is always the first nail to go.

So how’s a girl going to turn her hands-off hand-care situation into a hands-on one? 

First of all I’m going to start using my Trilogy Everything Balm for something other than soothing mozzie bites, and I vow to you my Beauties that I will starting massaging the product into my cuticles after my shower in the morning and before bed at night. I’m also going to start working my way through my hand creams, making sure I moisturize after every single hand wash. I already drink two litres of water a day, so I don’t have to worry about that. But as for those vitamins that I hate taking so much? Well…. Let’s just start with the basics and see how things go. Maybe I’ll eat a few more fruit and veg and healthy things instead…

So tell me, are you as naughty at looking after your hands and nails as me? Will you join me in trying and we can change our ways together? Shall we do a challenge? One month of hand and nail care and we can report back any changes we see? Let’s see if we can’t nail this situation together! 

Don't forget - upload a picture of your nail art to the Photowall and use the 'Put Your Claws Up' tag to earn bonus Beauty Points!