How to care for your nails after your appointment!

Nail Care Tips
 If you paint your nails regularly, you will totally understand the feeling you get from a fresh coat of polish – especially when you get it at your favorite nail salon! There is something intrinsically rejuvenating about getting your nails done. However, there is also the cost and the time it takes to get it done. To get the most out of your nails, below are a handful of nail care tips you can follow in between your nail salon appointments.

Fix Chipped Polish
The most frustrating (and most common!) complaint that our patrons talk to us about is their nails chipping after a manicure. Some chips are so drastic, that customers have taken off the color right away or just live with the chipped nail. The best quick fix is to find a similar shade which temporarily masks the chip. This same fix can also be done for gel manicures, but we recommend coming back in for gel manicures since it may chip even more or in rare cases – even lift!

Tame Cuticles
In between appointments, we highly recommend “taming” your cuticle rather than “cutting” or “trimming” them. Cutting your cuticle is something that should not be done too often, and it is also easy to “tame” your cuticle. There are many ways to properly and safely tame your cuticle. The easiest way is to push back your cuticle very gently after a warm shower. There are also oils and creams available that you can purchase to push back your cuticle. Taming your own cuticle also diminishes the amount of time you spend at the salon as you have already performed that step at home. As a finale note, please tame your cuticle safely! The cuticle is important as it is a protective barrier your body created for a reason and is important for overall nail health.

Keep Nails Strong
Whether it is your natural nail or you acrylic nail, breaking your nails hurts – both physically and spiritually. If your nails are fake, we recommend not ripping them off all together. This can cause more nail damage and end up in more time and money being spent to correct the new problem.
Luckily, there are things you can do to protect yourself from the stress of a nail fracture in the first place. A great place to start is a health diet! Nails are composed of primarily protein and thusly it is imperative to eat a diet rich in protein. Great food products to keep in mind are meats, such as chicken, as well as non-meat protein products such as quinoa and almonds. There are also over the counter dietary supplements that a lot of patrons have had success using including Biotin (a vitamin B coenzyme) and other supplements labeled “for hair and nail care”. Research has shown that a prolonged dietary supplement treatment provides the best results – so stick to it! We’ve heard a lot of great stories from dietary supplements, but we have also heard that sometimes it takes between 1 – 6 months to see your desired result – so stick with it!

Avoid Harmful Ingredients
For the best nail care, keep an eye on the ingredients! There is not concrete research on the following ingredients, but we still recommend keep an eye out for the following:
formaldehyde
phthalates
toluene
triphenyl phosphate
xylene
parabens
In extreme cases, these ingredients have caused nausea, seizures, toxins, as well as hormone disruptors. Some of these ingredients have also been called carcinogens for they are believed to have caused cancer. Check the formula to protect yourself. Use at your own risk!

Jewels not Tools!
Be gentle with your nails. It sounds obvious but there are many times we use our nails as tools (and not the jewels that they are!). Are you going to wash the dishes or do gardening? Wear gloves! There are so many times where we can easily fall into the trap of using our nails as tools. We’ve all used our nails to scrape something or pry things apart. But we need to discipline ourselves to treat our nails better. Our nails are jewels and not tools and we to know they are too delicate for those tasks – use a proper tool instead.

Conclusion
At the end of the day, nails are a part of your body that you need to spend special attention to. Nails can get dehydrated and brittle so proper care and maintenance is highly recommended. We hope you’ve found this article helpful and gave you some additional factors to consider maintaining healthy, strong, and beautiful nails.