City lights

All you ever wanted to know about brittle and split nails:

Over the years I heard a lot of complaints about brittle and split nails. Every time the same reasoning, excuses and so on. So here it is the brutal truth, never done before, hope you find my advise helpful. It’s all tried, and semi-researched. You’ll find no fairy tales here only facts:

First things first. The part of the nail plate that you can see, that is our constant troublemaker, is the dead part of the nail. And the free edge (the part that is standing out beyond the fingertip) is the oldest part of it! Why is that bit of information so important? Because dead things can not regenerate (vitamins don’t make dead things grow, a bit later on that)!

And that is why we have to take care of it to make it look good. Nails are not meant to grow long. It’s our human vanity and zeitgeist that made them into a fashion element we so desperately want to have beautiful and long. The nail is meant to protect our fingertip and that’s all. And that’s why it’s so hard to turn it into something that it’s not.

So if you want to have them looking nice you have to take care of it yourself. Well I’ll try to make it as painless as I can…which is not at all ;) You will suffer:

If you are sensitive to reading the hard truth I strongly advise you to stop right here, because what comes next will show you that you are

a) delusional and

b) you have at least one million excuses to your laziness.

First let me burst your bubble: There is no miracle potion to make your nails beautiful!

So here’s the question: What about all those vitamins we all like to take, that claim to make your hair shiny, skin radiant, nails grow fast and long etc…Well: you have to cut your hair from time to time because no amount of conditioner will get rid of split ends (hair beyond their roots are dead as well, that’s why they split at the ends, they can’t regenerate – the same principles as with nails apply here), you have to exfoliate your skin to make the most of all the products you’ll be slapping on (again you need to remove the dead skin cells to make the new skin look good), and you have to file your nails because no amount of pills will shape them!!! Vitamins help the living parts of the body, so yes you can take those pills to help the nails grow, but don’t forget that the helping ends the moment the nail grows out from under your skin and is exposed to the elements. Thanks to the vitamins they might become more elastic, harder and grow faster but that’s it. Beyond the cuticle the nail is dead and so it needs your effort, sweat and blood to look good. So what now?

Rule one: no pain no gain:

Depending on the state of your nails it will take one to four months to achieve the perfect nails and this doesn’t mean long nails, because you have to understand that just because you want it doesn’t mean you can have it. Sometimes your genetic makeup will not allow you to have long nails no matter what you do (bare in mind that the term long is a relative one) and the job you do has a major say as well.

Every thing you do with your hands, things you don’t give a second thought to destroy your nails on a daily basis. And so you need to take care of them on a daily basis. Drumming you nails on your desktop, typing, washing up, can opening, putting your hands into your pockets, opening your wallet, scratching your head… I could go on for ages. So every day your nails suffer micro abrasions that eat into your nail plate and cause the free edge to rough up. So what you need to do is file them daily to seal the edge, smooth it over, so it doesn’t progress to result in a split nail. Now you’ll tell me this is impossible, that your nails won’t grow because you’ll be filing them down every day.

That of course is not true. I will demonstrate to you in a video how to do it.

The point of this daily filing is just to seal the free edge – not to file the nail down to its root. They will take longer to grow that way, but because they will be sealed, they will not break and split that much. When nail splits you will automatically have to file more of the nail and you’ll find your self at square one.

So again, by filing them a tiny bit daily you allow them to grow long and healthy. By not filing them you allow them to grow whichever jagged way they want. And they will break and split regardless.

So now that you are filing them daily, a routine you have to incorporate into your lifestyle just like drinking your coffee, brushing your hair, and teeth and so on, it’s time for the next step.

Rule number two: you’re not a cactus you need to drink:

Your nails break and split because they are dry. When they are properly hydrated they will become more elastic, and so when you hit something with them they will rather bend and bounce back than break. How to achieve that? Massage cuticle oil into your cuticle and nail plate on a daily basis. Of  course depending on how brittle your nails are, you might have to do it more than once a day. Any oil will do, even baby oil. And doing it once a week is pointless… so either you do it right or not at. If you can’t find a minute to incorporate these two things into your lifestyle then I suggest that you stop complaining about having bad nails.

Once you got into this routine and stay true to it, you’ll find that you don’t have to do it every day. It’s a good sign. But remember the longer break you make the chance of the nails splitting increases. So I suggest that once your nails adjust, don’t go longer than 2-3 days without “sealing” your nails.  I call it sealing, because that’s what you actually do. You don’t file them down, but only smooth the edge over.

And that’s that.

So now you got yourself a nice daily routine don’t forget that your nails need a manicure once a week. For a “how to” look to my next post. With everyday manicure skip step: 9, 10 and 12

A few other facts.

If you fancy square nails, well there’s more work to it, and you have to be careful with them. Square nails have more weak points (just like in constructions, you can’t complain if something doesn’t work out if you go against the law of physics)

Your job. OK now this is something even professionals can’t do anything about. If you work hard, in a factory  trying to scrape stickers from CD’s. No one will be able to help you. So you need to consider that until you change your job or at least move to a different department, there will be no long nails! That’s it, end of!
Oh, and some people (a shockingly high number of them actually) will think that once results achieved you can stop your routine...no, it's for life.
Of course there are people that have beautiful nails without effort. Well then, to that beautiful minority: Congratulations!

If you still have questions, please ask.

New Year's Eve Glam

This is a home version of a simple manicure (with my personal tried advice). For a professional manicure you’d need a lot more than that (but to basically the same effect), so good luck:

1. remove old nail polish – any polish remover will do

2. push back cuticles with orange stick

3. cut any excess cuticle or hangnails with clippers – it’s ok to cut it if you are ok with it ;)

4. file free edge of the nail to shape – I use glass nail file for this as it is the best nail file, take it from a pro!

5. smooth the nail plate with fine sanding block or any polishing device you might    have. it will make the nail polish stick better and for longer.

6. apply base coat and let it dry for 1 minute – the base coat will protect the nail plate from discoloration from your regular nail polishes (but only to a certain extent, still base coat will make your nail polish look better, so it’ advisable to use it)

7. apply first coat of any nail polish of your choice and let it dry for 3-5 minutes

8. apply second coat of polish and let it dry for 3-5 minutes – always apply 2 thin coats of nail polish for best coverage results and colour intensity

9. apply nail art adhesive, let it dry till translucent (to buy on ebay i.e.)

10. dip the nail in any glitter of your choice

11. seal with a top coat – it makes the art shine and the nail polish lasts longer, let it dry – I use speed demon, drying accelerator ;)

12. if you want to go over the top, you can stick some Swarovski crystals on top with nail glue or any other superglue

13. apply cuticle oil to the cuticles and hands when nail polish is dry

FINISHED!

Now try not to do anything for an hour or so, you can read a book, drink coffee, watch movie…Therefore it’s best to do manicures in the evening before bed ;)

Few important facts:

• Your nails will seem to be dry in about 5 to 10 minutes, but with 4 coats of nail polish it takes up to 3h for them to be completely dry, depending on the nail polish you use, and how thick the coats are
• Absolutely no washing up for 3h, as warm water will soften the fresh polish and spoil all your work
• If you let the coats to dry in between the whole drying process will be much, much shorter,
• two thin coats will dry faster than one thick coat – so please don’t try to save your time by applying one thick coat, it’s pointless
• Old nail polish will take longer to dry, try to use fresh nail polish, discard any that is older than 6 months (some might last longer)
• If you are scared to use superglue on your nails because of the damage it might cause…you shouldn’t be using any of the products mentioned above, since they are all chemicals, all of them harmful to the nail plate in one way or another ;)
• And last but not least: you don’t have to go for the expensive products, although some are better than the others…try them and choose for your self.

Info on this particular manicure:

Q: Why I don’t use a ready mixed nail polish with glitter? (of the bigger sort that are called glitter slices, or hexagonal glitter) Since it would be quicker to simply slap nail polish on? Why do I bother with the adhesive, and all the mess?

A: Simply because the glitter slices would get lost in the nail polish, they would be covered by the polish, revealing only lumps of something in it. The way I showed you, makes the glitter stand out and shine as it is intended to.

December special

Nail art - randoms from my collection :)

Basic Manicure

Full Gel set

INFILLS - Basic infills after 3 weeks:

Konad stamping nail art - Konadicure

onad Stamping Nail Art™ was invented by Mr. Dae Tong – Choi. Konad was introduced in the Asian market in 2002. Konad Stamping Nail Art will stay on just like nail polish and you can use it again and again as many times as you want, unlike stickers and appliqués that cost the world or more a pack and are not reusable.