Dry Damaged Nails & Cuticles? Here’s How You Can Fix Them!
This Canadian winter has been cruel to my nails and cuticles.
This sometimes painful problematic condition has had me searching for a solution and I found some! I’m already noticing improvements in only 6 days!
Although the weather certainly isn’t helping it’s not telling the whole story!
Now, for a little disclaimer… I’m at ‘an age’ where my nails are most likely dealing with some hormonal imbalances. I am also a hard working full time makeup artist so my hands are in water often and I’m washing them all the time! I’m not always washing my hands with the most moisturizing soaps on the market either. So my dry cuticles and bad nails can’t be completely blamed on the harsh winter we’re having here in Toronto.
The past couple of months my poor nails and cuticles have really taken a beating. I used to have strong healthy nails but now my nails break easily and my cuticles are extremely dry. I’ve had to deal with hangnails and patches of dry skin around my cuticles that I’ve never had to deal with before.
Ugh….the struggle has been real my friends.
Like many of you, I put my hands through a lot everyday but I still want them to look nice! Even though like I nice finger nails, it doesn’t mean I want to flaunt long gawky nails! In fact I’m not sure how makeup artists work with long pointy finger nails. I can’t think of a more unhygienic or dangerous thing to be sporting when your hands are so close to a client’s face. Personally, I would run the opposite direction if I saw long nails coming near my eyes! But I digress…
So let’s take a look at my poor sad cuticles/nails 6 days ago. 
As you can see my nails are short and my cuticles are very dry. I’m even sporting a couple of hang nails! What you can’t see in this picture is how many of my nails have been peeling and splitting. I decided to cut my nails short in hopes the splitting and peeling would stop.
For the past 6 days I’ve made the following changes:
- I exfoliate my hands every night now before going to bed. I’m using Clarins Toning Body Polisher. (only because I love it on my body and it’s really doing wonders for my hands now too) I mentioned this product in a previous blog post including my favourite body skin care products for winter.
- I’ve started using the Amope Manicure Set. It was a gift for my birthday and I decided to give it a try. I’m really liking it. It comes with 3 attachments. One for filing, one for light buffing and the other for polishing nails to a high shine.
- I’ve started moisturizing my hands like a champ! I may be a little obsessed right now but I’ve started using various hand creams. Everything from high end hand creams such as L’Occitane Shea Intensive Hand Balm right through to Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion. I’ve put hand creams in every bathroom in the house, the kitchen and my purse and I’m using them throughout the day.
- I’ve also started using Avoplex Cuticle Oil On The Go every night before bed. This has made a huge difference to my cuticles! I love the fact it’s easy and quick to use. I picked mine up at Trade Secrets and it came highly recommended by the store manager. I brush the product on while in bed and then get down to my nightly reading!
- I’ve also started using pure almond oil on my nails and cuticles and massaging it in well. I’ve done this 3x in 6 days. It’s requires a little more effort and patience compared to my ‘Avoplex Cuticle On The Go Oil’ but the results are worth it.
Now here’s a look at my nails/cuticles 6 days later.
Cuticles are in much better shape! My nails are also looking more healthy albeit they are still short I feel confident that within the next 6 days they will look even better. Perhaps a little longer too! 🙂
Are you having trouble with your nails/cuticles this winter too? How do you deal with cracked nails and dry cuticles? Let me know in the comment section below. 🙂