Nail Care Routine

After many months of doing my nails every week I decided
they needed a much needed break.  I know
that some of you will be upset because I’m very well known for doing my nails
but every once in a while they need to breathe. 
I’m not sure if I will paint them for my blogger meet up this week or
not but I’m going to try not to and keep them naked for about 2 weeks.  So in the mean time I wanted to talk about my
nail care routine since so many people ask me how my nails stay as long as they
do when I’m constantly putting chemicals on them.  First of all I must say I think most of it is
genetics.  My nails and my mom’s nails
grow like weeds.  Of course when my nails
break, it’s not just a small crack it’s a very painful break that involves
bleeding and that is when I usually avoid that finger when making my nail
tutorials.  Anyway, here is a list of
things I use to help preserve my nails as much as possible.

Sally Hansen Maximum Strength Base Coat

I write about this in pretty much every nail art post.  Honestly, this stuff is a miracle in a
bottle.  I really think anyone who is
painting their nails even if it’s only once in a while should use this as a
base coat.  For how much polish and
chemicals I put on my nails they should be so yellow and brittle but they
really aren’t any different from when my nails are bare.  Even if you have terrible nails to begin with
just test this out for a few weeks. 

Push Cuticles

I personally am not a fan of cutting cuticles.  I’ve known many people who had really bad
infections because of this, also, it hurts! 
I know it’s not really part of nail care but it goes in part with the
manicures.  Even when I was getting my
nails done by someone else I always told them not to cut my cuticles. 

File

Make sure to file your nails.  Do not cut them or rip them off.  I read somewhere that it is rough to cut your
nails rather than just file them.  This
is also great when you have that one nail that you know is about to break.  The one that is already ripped and
lifting.  Depending on how close to your
skin this is, file it down.  I’ve saved
myself a lot of pain filing it down instead of ripping it.  Of course you’ll have a weird shape to your
nail but I’d rather have that than a finger that’s gushing blood and hurts.

No biting

This should really be a no brainer, but seriously don’t bite
your nails.  You can give yourself so
many bad infections and it’s a bad habit that should be broken.  I know life gets stressful (trust me I have
my own bad habits like stress eating) but you need to find a way to stop
biting.

Vitamins

I just started using vitamins, both for my regular health
and for healthy hair and nails.  So far I’ve
seen a slight difference but this has only been going on for about three weeks
so I’m not expecting to see a massive change overnight. 

Buffer

Make sure to buy a good buffer.  I use this whenever I’m doing my nails
because it smoothes everything out.  I
can’t say if this is actually good for your nails because I personally don’t
think it is but it does help with the manicure process.  Or even if your nails are all beat up from
gels or acryclics, in order to NOT get them stuck on everything buff them out
so that they are smooth again.

Eat Healthy

You’d be surprised what a difference eating healthy can
make.  Not even just in your body, but
everything else as well. 

Buy Quality Polish

I know this sounds stupid because nail polish is nail
polish.  However, I will say that I’ve
noticed I like to stick to the more expensive brand polishes.  There are a select few less expensive brands
that I will only usually use if there is one color I love and no other brand has
it.  A good example was about two years
ago I used this green for the kiwi design on my nails.  It looked great and only cost about $1 (it
was on sale).  Well, when I went to take
it off my nail was yellow.  I’m talking
the color yellow that looks like I was a smoker for 50 years and that, that
nail never saw the light of day and was always under polish.  It was downright DISGUSTING.  I was so embarrassed with that nail that I painted
my nails until it grew out.  After that
incident I’m willing to invest in some more quality polishes.  I think the best polish that isn’t as
expensive as OPI and Essie is Sally Hansen.

Hopefully this helped answer some of your questions!

**Please note I am not a licensed nail technician.  These are not recommended by any licensed individual these are just things that work for me.