Keeping Your Nails Beautiful

If you've been exfoliating and moisturizing your hands, and using a cuticle oil on your cuticles, by now your nails have probably grown out and are ready for polish. In fact, you may have polish on them already. But is it staying there, or is it chipping off? And are your cuticles growing out of control? Then read on for some help in keeping your beautiful hands their most beautiful.

First, remove any polish that's on your fingers. Acetone is not good for your fingers or nails, it's highly flammable, and it just plain smells bad, so choose a nail polish remover that doesn't contain acetone. The first photo shows a Cutex One-Step Pad, non-acetone, for removing the polish from all ten nails. With one pad. What a concept! It also shows a bottle of Sephora by Opi nail polish remover with round cotton pads. Why pads and not cotton balls, you ask? They're much easier to use, they don't come apart and leave bits and strings of cotton in the half-removed polish, and you can get at least five nails done with one cotton pad. Try that with one cotton ball! So remove polish from your nails, and from the edges of your nails if you got any on your skin. Then wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water, concentrating on your nails.

Next, use a cuticle remover. The second photo shows one from NutraNails and one from Revlon; I don't notice any difference in performance or price between the two. Brush it along the cuticle line on each finger, and massage it into the cuticle. After about 30 seconds, use an orangewood or rosewood stick with an angled end to gently push back your cuticles. When all ten fingers are done, wash your hands thoroughly, and dry them, making sure that the nail and cuticle are completely dry. "Snippers" or cuticle scissors are a bad idea. Your nail beds, especially along the cuticle line, are one of the most germy areas of your body; if you cut too deeply and it bleeds, you're likely to end up with a bad infection.

When your fingertips are completely dry, use a base coat like Sally Hansen's Maximum Growth Plus (in third photo) that contains vitamins A, C and E. This will create a smooth surface for your nail color, as well as build your nail's strength and length. Wait until the base coat is completely dry on all ten fingers. Then you can apply a nail color, if you choose to. If you don't, then apply a top coat, like the Sephora by OPI shown in the third photo, or another layer of the Sally Hansen Maximum Growth. For the next five days, continue to apply a coat of Maximum Growth over your nails, polished or not. After five days, remove all the layers completely with polish remover, wash your hands, and give your nails a good 24 hours without polish, so they can breathe. Then start over with the cuticles (which, by the way, you can do as often as you like, if your cuticles are out of control), and a base coat.

There are lots of brands of nail polish, ranging from $2 or $3 to $14 or more out there, and ranging in color from clear to black, with every imaginable shade in between. So go out and pick one or two in your budget in colors you love, and don't be afraid to go a little wild, with bright purple, blue, or green - that's big for fall of 2010, and not just for Halloween. Enjoy the nails you've worked so hard to make lovely!