What is more important: beautiful or healthy nails? Does one always exclude the other? Beautiful nails don’t have to be long or painted in various colours. These days there is a growing tendency to take care of nails instead of decorating them. Sauté nails are less shining but have a natural, healthy gloss. Unfortunately, it is not enough to stop painting your nails to achieve it. Natural care requires more treatments than application of two coats of a nail polish, but done regularly will give surprising results just after a week. How to make our nails healthy and beautiful? How to do a manicure properly and what is Japanese manicure? Is a nourishing nail soak effective? If so, how to prepare it?
How to take care of your nails?
Every nail polish, be it hybrid, gel or acrylic, dries the nail plate and blocks the access of air. As a result, nails become brittle and begin to split. If you regularly paint them without giving them time to regenerate, you weaken their condition. For this reason, the first step to healthy nails is doing periodic breaks from nail polish (for at least 2-3 weeks).
We often weaken our nails, for example when we expose them to frequent contact with detergents and do not wear protective gloves. Before we do any housework, be it washing dishes or dusting, we must protect our hands and nails.
Do not forget about a healthy diet. In your menu, at least for the time of nail regeneration, there should be products rich in zinc, copper and silicon, that is, nuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds.
Beautiful nails – step by step
What should you do to make your nails look pretty? The first stage will be a manicure, and the next a nourishing nail soak, which will moisturise the skin and strengthen the nail plate.
Manicure
- Remove the old layer of nail polish with the use a nail polish remover without acetone. Then wash your hands with a mild soap.
- Use a paper or glass file to shape your nails. Do it in one direction only.
- Apply the cuticle softener or soak your hands in water with olive oil for a few minutes.
- Dry your hands and gently push the cuticles back with the orange stick.
- Remove the excess cuticle skin with the use of the nail nipper. Be careful not to cut it too deep as it may damage the nail matrix.
Nourishing nail soak
- Heat half of a glass of olive oil.
- Add the vitamins A + E from the capsules, it can be bought in ever pharmacy.
- Dip the nails in warm olive oil and keep for a minimum of 10 minutes.
- Wipe your hands with a paper towel. It’s best if you don’t wash your hands but instead massage the oil into your skin.
How to make your nails beautiful?
Every treatment needs to be done regularly if you want to keep the results as long as possible. For this reason, manicure and nourishing nail soaks should be done systematically, preferable once a week. What’s more, it is good to moisturise the nail plate with oils and serums. Just massage the product into your skin and nails, the matrix in particular.
You might use:
- castor oil that prevents nail splitting and brittling. It should be used twice a day – in the morning and in the evening;
- argan oil with anti-aging and intense moisturising properties. You can add a few drops of lemon juice to it and apply on tthe nail plates and whole hands;
- multi-vitamin nourishing serums – available in chemist’s. They contain a complex of vitamins and strengthening ingredients such as ceramides, keratin, calcium or fatty acids. Regular use prevents from nail splitting and brittling. Choose the ones with a brush so that you can massage the serum into your nails and skin;
- serums in the form of clear nail polish – they contain many valuable ingredients but can only be removed with a nail polish remover. Use these only after 2-3 weeks from the beginning of the regeneration process. They should be applied every day for 3 consecutive days and removed with a non-acetone nail polish remover. Then, after a two-day break, the application can be repeated.
On the other hand, you should avoid serums containing formaldehyde. Although they might strengthen your nails, they will also become dry and tarnished. Also, formaldehyde worsens the condition of the cuticles.
Japanese manicure
Japanese manicure nourishes dry and splitting nails. The treatment involves massaging a special moistruising paste into the nail plate. The paste contains vitamins A, E and H, provitamin B5, keratin, bee pollen and silica from the Japanese sea. This treatment makes the nails beautiful and shiny.