Nail and Cuticle Maintenance

  I’m linking this post to today’s Anti-Procrastination Tuesday.

It’s too bad gray days don’t give us an internal sense of joy.  I love the gray, wet weather of winter but that is not the default mood for the average northwesterner.

We just ended an exciting week of snow.  What was suppose to be a passing day or two, developed into a full-on storm.  As someone said, “what do you call a week off between Christmas break and winter break?”  Clearly, without extra schoolwork, no job to drive to, and warmth of a comfortable home, our house was full of winter snow joy.

So now that play week is over, I have to get myself back in order; ready to be in public.  My hands get trashed by being in water and chemicals.  I wear gloves whenever my hands are at risk of either.  These Aloetouch Nitriles are awesome!  I get the large so I can take them off and put them back on several times to save on using too many throughout the day.  (I can’t use my touch screen phone with them.)

By the end of the week, my cuticles are dry, cracking and sore.  My go-to hand cream is Gold Bond Ultimate healing lotion with Aloe.  Of course lotion can only do so much.  Eventually, I have to do cuticle maintenance.

The usual tool would be cuticle nippers.  I can’t use these efficiently. 

Usually I end up cutting myself.  Instead, I use the dremel tool that came with my nail dryer.  I think it is suppose to be for acrylic nails but I have found it does a beautiful job sanding all the rough spots of my cuticles.  The best part- doing this makes my nails grow straight and strong.  Of course, the skin on my hands and around my cuticles is pretty thick and tough from years of manual labor.  I don’t know how this would be for soft, gentle skin.

The only other step I like to do to keep up my nails is to buff them.  The concept is simple.  You start with the course side and work around to the smoothest side.  The end result is a beautiful, shiny nail.

Of course, I have to be able to keep up my hands and nails at home but I’m still looking forward to using my Groupon to try out shellac nails.  My efforts help my hands stay healthy but I want my nails to look fabulous for my daughter’s wedding.  Do you get your nails done at the salon?  Have you tried shellac nails?  What’s the difference with other “fake” nail treatments?

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