Tag: Cuticles

Back to natural nails – Bliss Kiss Pure Nail Oil

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Less than three weeks ago I received my first Bliss Kiss Pure Nail Oil order and I’ve been using it daily since then. I ordered the Starter/Refill Kit and grip pads for opening the oil pen. I’ve seen so many convincing photos and read so many great reviews that I was very excited to try this product myself.

As you probably know, I’m going back to natural nails after having gel nails for over a year so my nails are not in a best possible condition and I can use all the help I can get. On this blog post you can see two week result on my left hand cuticles after using Pure Nail Oil.

Today I’ll show you the before photo along with the first three days of using Pure Nail Oil on my right hand nails. After I received the package I immediately removed my manicure and went for naked nails for three days. Pure Nail Oil comes with good instructions and I tried to follow those as well as I could.

The before photo is taken right after I removed my manicure so the nail polish remover probably added some extra horror dryness on my cuticles. I also hadn’t used cuticle remover for a bit and that shows as well. You can see the damaged part really well on my ring finger nail and it really looks like it could use a serious amount of moisturizing. That is what I’m trying to grow out and have healthy nails. There’s also some gel left on my index finger nail. These photos were taken over two weeks ago and this coming Sunday I’ll show you one month of growth on my right hand nails and you can also see the condition they are in now after using Pure Nail Oil for three weeks. But that is for Sunday’s post :)

Regardless of how bad my nails and cuticles look in the “Beginning” photo they were moisturized daily using lotions and CND Solar Oil. This is just how easily drying my skin and nails are. Use nail polish remover once and all the moisturizing goes out the window.

So here is the horror I started with…

 

Pretty, eh? :P
No, not really ;) So you can imagine how much Pure Nail Oil my nails and cuticles took in during these first three days. During day one I kept applying the oil like once an hour and it all went in so fast. After a couple of minutes my fingers and nails didn’t feel oily at all. So I kept adding the oil all the time and I was stunned how fast it absorbed. I didn’t use a huge amount at a time, just a drop.
The difference between Pure Nail Oil and Solar Oil was clear to me from the first application. Compared to Solar Oil this one absorbs super fast. Solar Oil also make my skin and cuticles feel kinda rough during application where as Pure Nail Oil makes them feel nice and smooth. Pure Nail Oil also makes my finger tips silky smooth. With Solar Oil I always need to use cuticle balm/cream to get the soft result. Pure Nail Oil is enough alone.
So needless to say I was excited already after day 1. The next morning I took “Day 1” photo before applying the oil. So in this photo it’s been about 12 hours since the last application of Pure Nail Oil and I have washed my hands at least a couple of times.

Quite a difference! My nails and cuticles looked different and they felt so smooth and well moisturized. During day two of naked nails I kept applying the oil quite often. Not as many times as the previous day but it was quite a few times then too. Still the oil kept absorbing fast and it was obvious my nails and cuticles still needed some extra care.

So here’s the result on the morning after “Day 2”. Naturally not such a dramatic change anymore but I was still able to see and feel improvement. This photo was also taken in the similar situation as the previous one, about 12 hours after the last application of Pure Nail Oil.

 

 

So I continued applying the oil for the third day. Now I didn’t really need to apply the oil as often as day one and two. I used just a drop of oil for each hand and massaged it in a few times during the day. I left my nails naked for the night so I could take my third and final photo the following morning.

And here’s my three days result of using Bliss Kiss Pure Nail Oil. I can still see clear improvement on the condition of my cuticles and compared to the “Beginning” photo the change in just three days is HUGE!

 

 

Since the three days of nail nakedness I’ve been keeping my nails polished and I’ve applied Pure Nail Oil on my cuticles a few times a day. I drop a tiny bit of oil on my thumb and then press my other thumb against it. Now I have a small amount of oil on both my thumb finger tips and I just rub it on all of my cuticles. So a little drop few times a day takes you a long way with Pure Nail Oil.

My manicures on my right hand now last up to three days which is long enough considering the condition my nails were in. The tips still have damaged part to grow out too. After I remove the manicure I apply oil on my nails and massage my nail beds and cuticles till the oil is absorbed. Sometimes I add another drop and repeat the massage. After all the oil is absorbed I wipe my nail with Cleaner liquid (alcohol) and do my next manicure.

Only time will tell if Pure Nail Oil is the answer I’ve been looking for to help my easily peeling and breaking nails. I will know for sure after all the gel and damaged parts have grown out. Right now I’m extremely happy with Bliss Kiss Pure Nail Oil and it’s hands down the best nail oil I have ever tried. NailCareHQ.com has a sale coming up first week of July and I really need to stock up on this oil so I never run out of it :D

 

 

***Pure Nail Oil was purchased by me. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

Sally Hansen Cuticle Rehab

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Happy Saturday lovelies! Instead of nail polish I have Sally Hansen Cuticle Rehab cuticle oil to talk about today. This is not your typical cuticle oil. Cuticle Rehab comes in a tube with a brush and has gel like formula. I have been testing this for a while now and I absolutely love it!

This is perfect for daily use to keep your cuticles pretty all day long. Small tube is easy to carry in your purse/makeup pouch. With the gel formula and the tightly closing cap there’s pretty much no risk of this leaking into your purse ruining everything in it. There’s no knocking the bottle over and having oil go all over your desk or clothes. Very easy and safe to use when ever your cuticles need a little love and care to look beautiful and well moisturized.

Application process is quick, easy and mess free. Just squeeze the tube lightly to get some gel in to the brush and then apply it to your cuticles, rub the product in and you’re good to go. This moisturizes your cuticles instantly but doesn’t leave them sticky or oily. Even if you massage the product into your nails and cuticles it doesn’t leave your fingers oily either. The scent is just lovely too, fresh and “green”, not too overpowering.

I use this at least couple of times during the day or when ever needed. I still use thick cuticle cream at nights but this has been a perfect addition to my cuticle care needs. I have young kids and I’m constantly washing my hands. I hate it when my cuticles look dry by noon and this product offers a significant help keeping my hands pretty. I can just apply it and move on! No need to wait for it to dry or wipe excess oil off my fingers.

If you have dry cuticles problem and you find oils too messy to use during the day I highly recommend you give this product a try. I know I love it!

 

 

 

***Sally Hansen Cuticle Rehab was sent for review.

How I take care of my hands and cuticles – Part 2

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Here’s part two of my three part post for how I try and keep my hands soft and smooth for these cold winter months. You can read the Part 1 here.

Last time I talked about hand soaps and scrubs. So now that the hands are washed and exfoliated it’s time to talk about cuticle care. Main thing for me is to always keep my cuticles well moisturized and pushing them back regularly. If I don’t push my cuticles back they tend to get stuck on the nail bed and tear. That’s painful and horrible looking on swatch photos. I usually just use my nails to gently push the cuticles back while in the shower or after using the scrub when the skin is soaked a little. I never push back dry cuticles cos that is just painful. If I’ve been lazy taking care of my cuticles I sometimes use products like OPI Avoplex Exfoliating Cuticle Treatment or CND Cuticle Eraser before I push them back.

I have a thin UV-gel layover protecting my own nails and help them grow to the length I like to keep them at. So I need to fix that layover regularly. When I do that I pay more attention to pushing my cuticles back and for that I use a metallic cuticle pusher. If you use this you have to be GENTLE or you’ll do more damage than good. In my opinion this is an unnecessary tool if you’re not going to apply gel or acrylic on your nails.

 

 

For moisturizing my cuticles I mostly use Lush Lemony Flutter nowadays. I also like Burt’s Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle cream a lot. Both work wonders for my cuticles. Sometimes I also use cuticle oils like CND Solar Oil. I also apply the oils under my nails to moisturize the nail tips under the gel layover.

Like my hands, my cuticles also dry very easily. These are the products I use to keep them in a good condition. On the winter months I need to use more of these products and the daily use is very very important. On the third and final part of my skincare posts I will be talking about lotions and more about my skincare routines.

 

 

 

***All products mentioned on this blog post were purchased by me.

How I take care of my hands and cuticles – Part 1

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Winter is coming, weather outside is getting colder and air inside is getting drier. So I thought this would be the perfect time to tell you how take care of my hands and the products I use. This is going to be a three part post and I’ll start it off with hand wash and exfoliation.

My skin is quite sensitive and dries up very easily. During summer I can slack off and not moisturize my hands daily. When winter arrives it’s a whole another story. I have to be almost religious about moisturizing. If I’m not the skin on my hands will have bleeding cracks on knuckles and cuticles. Very painful and looks horrible too. I have two little kids, two dogs and I spend a lot of time at horse stables. I wash my hands a lot and they have to go through plenty of things during an average day. So on this three part post I show you some of my old favorites and some new to me products too to help me keep my hands soft and smooth. Some of these products might not be available internationally but I bet you can find similar products all over the world

 

I will start with hand soaps. I’ve noticed that regular soaps make my hands very dry and make my cuticles crack. So I’ve turned to more natural soaps. One of my favorites for every day use is Urtekram Brown Sugar hand soap. It dries my hands a lot less and my cuticles don’t crack using this soap. It washes my hands clean and the scent is very mild. This is the one soap I keep buying all the time.

 

Photo from urtekram.com

 

As a new to me product I got to test LUSH Sultana of Soap bar soap that was recommended to me by the lovely ladies at LUSH Finland. This one is perfect for my dry hands. The lather feels so creamy and this leaves your hands feeling very nice after the wash. The dry, tight feeling I usually have on my skin after a wash is gone and the scent is absolutely lovely. The scent is quite strong and stays on your skin for some time. I’m very sensitive to some soap scents but this didn’t seem to be one of them. I tested this a couple of times at nights too so that I washed my hands with this right before going to bed. I sleep with my hands close to my face and I got no reaction at all even if I could smell the scent pretty well. You can use this soap on your whole body as well as your hands and as a big bonus it makes your bathroom smell oh so lovely!

 

 

I also like to exfoliate my hands regularly to remove the dead dry skin and help moisturizers work. One of my favorites is an organic sugar scrub. I think this is only available in Finland but I bet there’s a lot of similar products available in your area.

 

Photo from here

 

I also got to test LUSH Ocean Salt scrub. This one has quite a soft and smooth, almost creamy texture but it still exfoliates efficiently. Ocean Salt scrub leaves my skin feeling very soft and smooth. I even tested this without using lotion right after scrubbing and there was no tightness or dryness of the skin. This has a very freshening citrus scent that stays on your skin for a bit but doesn’t really smell through after applying the lotions. This is actually a facial scrub and there will be a post of how this works on my face coming up in a near future.

 

 

Here was part one of “How I take care of my hands and cuticles” and I do that by paying attention on the hand soaps I use and choosing the more gentle ones. Also, I don’t forget to get rid of that dead skin and I regularly use scrubs to exfoliate. On part two I will be talking about cuticle care and products I use for that.

 

***LUSH Sultana of Soap and Ocean Salt scrub were sent for review. Other products mentioned on this blog post were purchased by me. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.