Nail Care and Maintenance 101: Nail Polish Removal and Upkeep Pictorial

My (REAL) nails the next day

 In this post I will go though part of what has become my nail routine. I have always loved nails! Nail polish I confess is one of my few toxic beauty vices. I am in the process of switching over to only using and buying nontoxic/less toxic nail polish bands (like OPI, Zoya, No Miss, and many others). But anyway lets talk about how I take care of my nails...

fresh nails the day after application. The this color "Midnight in Moscow"
 is by OPI. Amazing! 

I have been experimenting with not touching my cuticles with nail polish (this leaves a little space before the color starts)  simply to see if I like the way it looks.  In about three days my manicure looked like this.

 

but this was the straw the broke the camel's back!

Need I say that I absolutely (!!!) hate nail polish chipping? When I polish my toes my pedicure lasts for three weeks to a month easily. My nails are lucky to get three days without a noticeable chip. Especially since I currently wash my hair twice a week. however even when I am not washing my hair as much I use my hands alot. Because of this I usually stick to shear neutral better aging shades on my hands but I digress...  

So I am removing the polish

(yes, I take labels off of EVERYTHING.) 

Quick tip: next time you are out of nail polish remover buy a smaller bottle for travel. When the smaller bottle becomes empy purchase a regular or large one for refills.

 cotton rounds no, cotton balls? yes!

and thanks to the power of blogging...

 

My nails are clean and chip free! 

But wait! There's more!!!

there is still some nail polish on the inside of my nails.

  



 To get under my nails I take the edge of my cotton ball (soaked with remover) and cover a wooden nail stick.

 Next I oil my cuticles.

 

I have a cuticle oil bottle that I fill 90% with my carrier oil of choice (extra virgin olive oil, no particular reason I just have it at home) and 10% with rejuvenating essential oils such as rosemary, peppermint, and tee tree ect. 

I don't push back my cuticles right away! I give the oil time to loosen them up while I file my nails to prefect the shape and make sure my nails do not have any jagged edges which can catch and cause a tare.  

I am experimenting with using a crystal nail file. I use regular ones for my toe s. 

I file all finger nails with slow long strokes in the direction

of my thumb, and I file my thumb nails with slow long strokes in the direction
 of my finger nails.

 Simple right?

 Now my nails are already in the right shape. However as the nails grows minor shape imperfections become more and more noticeable. That is why longer nails tend to look less manicured. Nail shape is very important to maintain beautiful nails. A good nail shape is what takes "wow her nails are long!" to "are they real?!" Another equally important thing is to keep all your nails the shame length.  Buy that I mean if one of your nails breaks cut all your nails down to the same length (then file of course)! It happens to everyone but we must still keep our nails the same length! It looks so much better. This goes back to the simple wisdom of being gentle with your hands (something that I still struggle with!) to prevent breaking a nail. When you do have to cut your nails to make them all one length, do it and than STOP thinking about them. Thinking about how long your nails where will only make them grow slower. Trust me.  

Now, how I get my nails to grow long? Other than the fact that I don't use nail hardeners (not I that disapprove of them but I now that the wrong one will hurt more then it helps) It is a combination of three things. 

My diet

My natural nail shape and thickness

My nail bed size

You diet will effect your nails in every way and the shape of your nails will effect the way they look. I have a naturally medium to large nail bed size which means that when my nails are cut down as low as possible I will have an ok amount of space to polish. My nails are neurally strong, but that changes if my diet become bad. The shape of my nails (which can be determined at the starting point) is a wide oval that's not perfectly circular. All these things contribute to the way my nails look and the way I file my nails.  It has taken me awhile to find the nail shape I like best. More about that in another post.

Now to push back my cuticles

 Firmly and gently push back the cuticles. 

 That's it! 

I don't do anything else (if I wanted to polish my nails I would run the cotton pad with polish remover over them again to remover excess oils). I leave the oil on my cuticles and let it absorb. 

I hope this was a helpful post about basic nail care I will uploading a videos about nail care and nail polish in the coming weeks...