How to Care for Your Nails in a Proper Manner - Get Healthy, Beautiful, Natural Nails!

The look of one’s hands, particularly the nails, can really affect a person’s image. Dirty, bitten and unpolished nails can often look unhealthy and unprofessional. Shape up the look of your nails and your overall image with a few simple tips and feel more confident about your appearance.

Oftentimes you walk into your local pharmacy or supermarket and come across formulas specifically designed for hair, skin and nails. While I cannot personally verify the results of these tablets, their purpose is to provide the body with the vitamins needed to improve the condition of your hair, skin and nails. This supposedly makes the nails stronger and grow longer faster. Taken once daily or according to the directions on the bottle, these tablets are a relatively inexpensive way to improve the condition of your nails.

Moisture is vital for every part of your body, and this includes your hands and nails. By using a moisturiser for hands and nails once to twice daily you should see improved condition and strength in your nails.

My pick is AVON Hand and Nail Cream, which smells good and keeps your hands and nails smooth.

Many topical nail applications are available in your local supermarket or pharmacy, in the nail polish section. These are designed to help your nails grow faster and make them stronger so as to avoid chipping, splits and other damage. To use these, simply paint them on every nail at least once daily and let them dry. They absorb right into your nails. Also available are special glue-like formulations that repair cracks and splits.

The nail surface can often be rough, and this is causes by natural ridges in the nails. A good solution to this is to purchase a good quality nail buffer. Nail buffers generally act in several ways:

-          One side, generally the coarsest side of a nail buffer smoothes the ridges that cause all the unevenness and roughness. Rub this side on all of your nails first.

-          Next, a finer side of the nail buffer gets rid of scratches and other small imperfections on the nail surface to create and even smoother finish.

-          Finally, the finest side of the buffer, which is almost rubbery in substance, shines the nail. After rubbing all the sides on each of your nails you will find them smooth, shiny and extremely healthy-looking.

If you dislike the look of natural nails and prefer to paint them, then here’s a method that will ensure you make the most of your nail polish and have your nails looking great.

1. Choose the right nail shade.

This depends on your skin tone. Warm skin tones go very well with brown and bronze nail polishes, while paler tones go great with dark shades of nail polish.

2. Push back cuticles.

With an orange stick, gently push back your cuticles so as to expose more of your nails and give the illusion of length. Don’t push the cuticles back too hard otherwise you risk damaging this very sensitive area.

3. Apply the nail polish.

When using the nail polish applicator, make sure it is not completely slathered with nail polish as this will create a thick, gluggly consistency of nail polish that will take forever to dry and is very easy to ruin. Instead, get a moderate amount of polish on the applicator and swipe it on your nail, in the direction away from the cuticle in 3 quick and clean strokes.

Once your nail polish has dried, additional coats may be applied if you wish for extra coverage. To protect your good work from being destroyed by regular wear-and-tear, use a clear top coat.

One good way to dry the nail polish fast is to plunge your nails into a bowl of ice cold water. This should make your freshly-applied nail polish dry to the touch.