Nail Care: Cuticle Care (Moisturize)

MOISTURIZE

Hey guys!!

I thought I would put up a post about moisturizing your cuticles. If there's something regarding your nails that you should be doing everyday, it's moisturizing your cuticles. This is really important to keep your nails healthy because your cuticles protect your newly forming nails. Unhealthy cuticles can cause bacteria and fungus to grow which in turn damage your nails (eeek!). Dry, unhealthy cuticles also cause hangnails! Those aren't fun at all and sometimes hurt really bad. But don't worry if you have this problem! Moisturizing your nails is the key to starting to fix this problem. Also, taking hot showers and washing your hands with warm/hot water can dry out your cuticles, so it's a good idea to moisturize your cuticles with one of these products after you take a shower. Using a moisturizing hand cream after every time you wash your hands will also help.

Find a cuticle cream or oil that suits your needs and use it daily to keep your cuticles healthy. I'll talk to you about a few products that I have used in the past and use right now.

I owe my cuticle health to the three products that I am about to show you. I have been using them for quite some time and my cuticles have never been better.

I have been using a combination of these three products over the years!

My favorite product: Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream

 

This cuticle cream is more balmy than cream-like and is not waxy at all. And considering the small size of the container, this lasts a really long time and you can easily put it in your purse and keep as your on-the-go cuticle cream. The great thing about this is that you only need a miniscule amount for each nail to perfectly moisturize it. It isn't oily and absorbs very quickly (within minutes). The name, Lemon Butter, is apt because it really does smell like fresh lemons! I love the scent! 

The bad thing about this is that the cream isn't easy to get out of the container. You really have to push the pads of your fingers into the cream to get some out. If you're like me and keep your nails long, when the cream gets lower in the container, it sometimes gets stuck under the nails and gets hard to get out. It also makes the surrounding skin shiny but that goes away after a few minutes. 

This one is definitely my go-to product.

** You can find this at any drugstore 

Second favorite product: OPI Avoplex Cuticle Oil

 

I use this one once in a while (I think once every 2 weeks). It moisturizes really well but you need to leave it on for a while for it to totally absorb. It also makes your skin look really shiny because of the oil. I wouldn't carry this one around with me in a purse because the oil sometimes gets stuck in the threads of the cap and leaks out. The scent is also nice! It smells like grapeseed! This lasts a while as well because all you really need is one light brush stroke per nail. 

** I usually get this from Amazon

Third product: Q-tickles Cuticle Oil

 

I haven't seen any reviews for this one in a really long time. I actually don't even know anyone that uses this but I like it. Considering it is supposed to be an oil, it's not really oily. It's more watery than Avoplex. I used to use this one all the time before I discovered Avoplex and Burt's Bees Lemon Butter. The moisturizing capabilities are sub-par but this does come cheap and you can get it in various scents. My favorites are mango and strawberry (the one pictured above is scent-less). 

** You can find this on Amazon or SallyBeauty

I have also used LUSH's Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter in the past. As far as moisturizing goes, it does the job. It's also creamy like actual butter so it's easier to use and take out of the container. Compared to Burt's Bees Lemon Butter, Lemony Flutter takes a longer time to absorb and is also very greasy. I tried to use this one right before I went to bed so that my fingers wouldn't be greasy all day, but it ended up getting all over my blanket and sheets and wiped right off before it could be fully absorbed. The scent is also too strong and I couldn't stand it much. 

All in all, the best product for moisturizing your cuticles, in my opinion, is Burt's Bees Lemon Butter!

***Check back later to see more about cuticle care!! 

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 4: Green Nails

Hey guys!

I'm so excited to show you all today's challenge mani!!

We have GREEN for this week's theme! The design that I have is probably a bit much for some of these earlier "easy" challenges, but I've been wanting to do this for a while now. Take a look!

After I started the design, I realized that I would need a lot more blues and purples to get an actual peacock look, so I'm not going to say that this is a peacock design. It's peacock inspired! I used a lot of different shades of green to get this look but it didn't take as long as I thought it would. You will definitely be seeing me trying out this design again with a wider ranger of colors!

 

To get this design, I used a tiny brush to get the smaller strokes and medium and small sized dotting tools to get the two smaller spots for the eye.

The polishes I used (in order) were:

For the base...

Zoya Edyta

L'oreal Because You're Worth It

Revlon Colorstay Fall Mood

Zoya Yara

Revlon Colorstay Spanish Moss 

 

For the eye...

Revlon Top Speed Golden

Revlon Scented Parfume Ocean Breeze

Spoiled The Parking Meteor Expired 

Oh and btw, Revlon Scented Parfume Ocean Breeze actually smells amazing! And it's such a pretty color!

I think I could have done better with this design, but I'm happy with how it turned out considering this was the first time I've tried this type of look. I will definitely be trying it again with more colors as I mentioned above! 

I think I will be trying a simple look for next week's challenge :)

My friend, My Life In Turquoise, is also doing the challenge so don't forget to check out her page as well!!

4 down, 27 more to go!!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 3: Yellow Nails

Week 3 is here everyone! I hope you all had a great week! I have another great look for you. At first, I couldn't think of anything to do with the color yellow. In the past, whenever I wanted to have yellow nails, I would just keep them plain so this was a tough one.

First, I was thinking of doing something with smiley faces, or emoticons, but I thought it would look too goofy on me. Yellow is a very Spring-like color so I ended up doing something related to Spring!

To get this look, I started out with my favorite base coat, and then used Revlon Sunshine Sparkle. I needed to put on two coats of this since it was a bit light and you could see my nails through the first coat.

I let it dry completely and then started to make the bees and the bee paths. I used Wet N Wild Black Creme and the thinnest stripe brush that I have. After that dried, I used Sally Hansen White to add the wings to the bees.

I really like how this turned out! I think it's cute and reminds me of Spring during this extremely cold weather we have right now. The best part about this is that I think anyone can do this! It's very easy and all you really have to do to recreate this look is make some lines and ovals.

Check out my friend's yellow nails at My Life In Turquoise!!

3 down and 28 more to go! See you all next week with my GREEN manicure!!

Open Heart

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

Since I'm doing the 31 Day (Week) Challenge, I haven't really had time to do any nail art for Valentine's Day before today. I used my mom to create the look that I have for you today.

As always, I started out with my favorite base coat Essie 3-Way Glaze and then put on three coats of Sinful Colors Forget Now. This polish is extremely light so you can see the nail through the polish even with three coats but only if the light hits the nail at certain angles. For the accent nail, I used Ulta Shining Star from their Holiday Collection. This polish is also quite thin and light so I think I ended up putting three coats of this as well. Using a thin striper brush and some valentine-y polishes, I created the open heart, making sure that the two sides didn't touch.

Take a look!

This whole look is so simple and easy to do! Plus it's sweet and doesn't have too much going on if you're the type of person that doesn't like too much busy work on your nails. The accent nail still gives the whole look a little something extra without overpowering your nails.

 

What do you think of the accent nail?? 

I hope you all liked the nail art!! The colors are so bright and fun that they make me all cheery looking at them!

Have a great day everyone!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 2: Orange Nails

Hi everyone!!

Week 2 of the challenge is here! This week's theme is orange nails and I was having a really hard time coming up with something to do for orange. All I could think about were oranges. Since that's what immediately came to my mind, I was determined to find something else that I could do.

After literally spending a few days looking at designs and concepts, I realized that doing monarch wings would be perfect to do with orange!! I've seen a lot of monarch wing nail art that has a gradient so I decided against that, opting for something more simple.

Here's what it looks like!

For this manicure, I started out using Revlon Amber Ablaze as a base coat. It already has some shine to it which I thought added a nice touch to the overall look. But I wanted some more sparkle, so I added one very light coat of Wet N Wild Fast Dry Orange on top.

For the wing details, I used a detail brush and a black polish to get the outlines. Then I used a small dotting tool and some white polish to add the white dots.

 

I'm SO happy with how it turned out because I thought it would end up looking like a disaster. I actually did mess up on one of the nails but since I did this very late at night, I didn't go back and fix it.

My friend from My Life in Turquoise is also doing this challenge with me. Check out her manicure as well!!

I hope you all like it! 2 down, 29 more to go!!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 1: Red Nails

Hey guys!

Today's the big day!! This week's theme is red nails and since yesterday was the Superbowl, I of course had to do something that played along with that as well.

To get this look, I used my favorite red polish out of the bunch: Revlon Valentine. It looks a bit bright in the picture but the color is actually darker and looks almost maroonish. For the accent nails, the base color that I used was Revlon Colorstay Bonsai. That one was really light and I had to put on several coats.

To go along with the second football theme, I used a striper brush and my white polish to make the "yard lines" of the football field and added the Latin numerals for the 47th Superbowl: XLVII

 
I really like how it turned out!! And I'm definitely going to be enjoying by manicure for the week. I think this one was a great start to the challenge!

One down, only 30 more to go! Stay tuned for next week's ORANGE themed nails!!