How do you take care of your nails yourself?

[macnab]

I just don't have money to spend on visiting a beauty salon so I need to sort my nails out myself. They are generally weak, they sort of split at at the tip and the skin around the top of my nail is very dry and cracked. Strangely enough, the cuticles seem ok. I have quite dry skin overall, and my hands can get quite bad so I regularly use handcream - currently using Dove 'intense nourishment' and also use La Roche Posay when I feel they need something extra.

Please recommend products that will sort my nails out - and detailed instructions on what to do with them please! I am useless when it comes to this sort of thing!

Give myself a manicure once a week with a file and buff. If I have time I also paint them using base and top coat which seems to have worked. I also use no 7 hand cream twice a day at least

I use one of the 3-step buffing files as the vertical ridges are getting very pronounced these days. Sort out the cuticles once a week.

As soon as I start wearing nail varnish I have to keep wearing it as it weakens them, then I get fed up and cut them short.

I don't do much myself as am addicted to Shellac at the salon (terrible at painting nails myself). However, my top tips include using some kind of oil (I use sample CND nail oils, but almond oil is supposed to be very good, also Flexitol does a fantastic cuticle cream that's greta for those dry bits around your nails. I use L'Occitane Shea Butter hand cream at least once a day which keep my normally gnarly hands in check.

If I am doing my nails, I keep them fairly short, shape with a glass file, buff using one of those 4 in 1 blocks, use Nail Envy as a base, an Essie nude colour (exceptionally forgiving for my cackhandedness), then Seche Vite over the top.

Thanks, I think I will have to invest in some oil to use on the nail itself and hopefully see an improvement. I do keep them short - but they're hard to grow anyway because of the breaking and peeling.

I'll look into almond oil or can anyone else recommend something good?

Sally Hansen Miracle Cure is really good for splitting or peeling nails.

I keep mine quite short and always use a Leighton Denny crystal file to shape and shorten them.

And Body Shop hemp hand cream sorts out any dry skin issues, even just used once a day before bed.

I keep my nails reasonably short, and use OPI Avoplex at least twice a day on my cuticles. This has helped enormously with keeping them soft and looking neat and has reduced the vertical ridges. I use OPI Nail Envy to stop them splitting, either alone or with varnish. About twice a week, I use an exfoliating scrub from Crabtree and Evelyn, and I use gallons of hand cream, usually either L'Occitane Shea or Crabtree and Evelyn. All my handbags have handcream and a nail file in them. What has helped is that the Avoplex is now kept out by my PC, along with the handcream so it's always there when I need it.

I clip them and then file using a glass file, rub in Vaseline at least 3x a day and paint occasionally and finish with No 7 top coat which dries like rock in seconds.

I recommend taking biotin, as high a strength as you can find in say Holland and Barrett. I've been taking it for 3 months now and my nails have never looked better. Also combine with most of what is said above too.

Last year I bought a uv nail lamp for £15 off Amazon (have since upgraded to LED lamp as it takes less time), and spent £15 on base gel, colour gel and top coat (£5 each Amazon again), so, for the price of one shellac/gel polish in a salon, you have your own kit.
All you need as well as that is some rubbing alcohol or even hand sanitiser on a piece of kitchen towel which Is what I used the first time,to clean the nail first then wipe over the sticky layer at the end, and you will have nice looking nails..they don't need to be long to look good and the gel polish helps the nails grow as they aren't as thin.

Here's a simple how to video, its dead simple honest :

My nails grow fast and get long but I prefer them short and squareish. I clip and then round with a glass file.

I use Essence base coat, normally a decent colour (Nails Inc VB at the moment) then a topcoat. Use cuticle remover every couple of weeks or so.

I oil my cuticles when I remember, that really really helps. Any oil will do.

This might be a bit extreme but changing my diet (to paleo) massively improved my nails, which were lifting and breaking really low down. They had white patches at the ends where they were lifting from the nail bed. I tried all kinds of treatments - including one I was recommended at a salon - nothing worked. They look perfect now (apart from the one I slammed in the hinge of the French door - ouch) and for the first time ever I have to clip them as they grow too long! I credit all the vitamins, minerals and essential fats I get now.

I buff with a Micronail buffer which is great, and I rub in coconut oil a few times a day. I used to get painful hangnails but not since using coconut oil. I leave my nails bare most of the time as allowing them to breathe is very important. Previously they looked so awful that I wore dark polish constantly, which wasn't good for them and was putting me in a vicious circle.