Caring For Your Cuticles & Nails

Cuticles
Your nail's cuticles (the skin that surrounds the hard part of your nail) keeps your nails healthy and protects them from fungal infections. Cuticles are quite sensitive to injury. Do not cut them or pick at them; this may damage them permanently. Instead, after a shower, bath, or after soaking your nails, use a soft wooden stick to gently push back the cuticle. Overgrooming cuticles may cause them to thicken so be sure to use gentle care when grooming.


Nails
· Cleaning - If nails are dirty, use a bristled nail brush to remove debris from around cuticles or from under fingernails. Remove all polish with nail polish remover; do not pick at polish as that can damage the surface of nails.
· Shaping - Nails should be gently filed with a fine emery board, never with a metal file that can cause damage. File in gentle, long strokes from corner to center; do not "saw away" at nails. Keep the emery board poised at a 45 degree angle in relation to the fingertip to prevent damaging the nail layers. Do not file deep into corners of the nail; this weakens the nail. In general, shorter nails are easier to maintain.
· Protecting - Do not use your nails to scrape or lift anything, or to pull anything open. Wear gloves when washing dishes and use nail and hand lotion daily to keep hands and nails moisturized.
· Polishing - You may wish to use only a ridge-filling colorless coat on your nails to give them extra shine and strength. If you polish your nails, use a ridge-filling base coat followed by color and then a protective top coat for the best results. Give your nails at least an hour to dry before using your hands.

Original posted by Miss Fashion

Nail Troubleshooting.

The most widespread nails problem and how to fight them.

• Dry, brittle nails - Moisturize often with a hand cream or oil. Eat more foods with essential fatty acids, such as eggs, meat, seeds, whole grains, and fish. Also, avoid overusing nail polish removers which contains acetone which can dry the nails and wear gloves when washing dishes.

• Chipping nail polish - Use quality nail polish; cheap nail polish chips more easily. When you polish your nails, be sure to use a ridge-filling base coat, two coats of colored polish, and a protective top coat. These coats keep polish from chipping and help protect nails.

• Nail infections - Nail infections may cause itchy, dry nails, blisters, and a loosening of nails. See your doctor for anti-fungal cream or tips.

• Bitten nails - Biting or picking at nails can damage them permanently. If you bite nails, coating them with anti-biting liquid can make you think twice about biting.

• Hangnails - These bits of dead skin next to the fingernail can be very painful. Trim the hangnail carefully, moisturize nails, and take Vitamin B and C supplements or eat more foods such as green leafy vegetables, peppers and citrus fruits.

• Ingrown nails - This painful condition occurs when the nail grows into the skin on the side of the toe. Soak nails in water. Run a soft rosewood stick between the nail and skin to separate. Trim carefully if needed. If nail does not improve, see a podiatrist.

Nail Care. Make your nails healthier.

Anyone can have strong, healthy, and well-groomed nails by following just a few simple rules. Your nails, like your hair, are made of the protein keratin, and consist of dead cells. They grow quickly (about .1 millimeter per day) and protect the skin at the ends of your fingertips and toes. Nails can also be an indicator of certain health conditions or vitamin deficiencies.

· White lines or spots can be a sign of a zinc or iron deficiency or protein deficiency. More rarely, these white patches or lines can signal liver, heart or kidney disorders.

· Thin, flat nails may indicate a Vitamin B-12 deficiency.

· Ridged nails may indicate an iron deficiency.

· Brittle, dry nails may indicate a calcium deficiency.

· Frequent hangnails may indicate a Vitamin C deficiency.

· Yellowish or discolored nails may indicate a Vitamin B-12 deficiency, or may indicate diabetes, allergies, liver problems, or poor health.

· Greenish nails may indicate infections in the nail bed.

· Bluish nail beds may indicate breathing problems or severe malnutrition.

Otherwise, healthy and well-manicured nails, short or long, should be smooth, without spots, hollows, or ridges. If they are unpolished they should be pinkish and clean. If they are long the ends, they should be curved and filed smooth.

Nails grow faster in young people. With age, nails may become thicker, harder, and may develop ridges. This is why caring for your nails becomes more important as you grow older.

A Couple of Words About Toenail Tips

Toenail Tips

Toenails are usually easier to care for than fingernails, since they're never used as tools and thus don't crack or break as often. However, here are some tips on how to care for them:


1. Avoid walking barefoot in wet areas like public showers or pools to avoid fungal infections.
2. Change shoes, socks, and pantyhose daily.
3. Avoid very tight shoes and hose.
4. Avoid sharing towels, even with members of your family, to reduce the risk of sharing infections.

Nails Care. Avoiding Skin & Nail Allergies.

Applying cosmetics can be a problem for women with sensitive skin when some cosmetic products can cause skin irritation and unsightly breakouts. Many of these women respond to the problem by avoiding make-up altogether.
But a leading dermatologist says some simple cosmetic suggestions and reminders can help protect women with sensitive skin.

There are some recommendatuions how to avoid Skin Allergies:

1. Choose powder when possible. Powder cosmetics are not only great at removing shine, they have very few preservatives and contain minimal ingredients that can cause skin and nail irritation. This means powder cosmetics are much less likely to cause problems for women with sensitive skin than their liquid counterparts.

2. Check sunscreen ingredients. Dermatologists recommend daily use of a broad-spectrum sunscreen with a Sun Protection Factor 15 or higher. For women with sensitive skin and nails, this sunscreen should only contain the physical sunscreen ingredients zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. Unlike chemical sunscreen agents which absorb UV rays, it is impossible to be allergic to physical sunscreen ingredients since they deflect the rays rather than absorb them.

3. Use products that contain no more than ten ingredients. Simply stated, the fewer ingredients in a product, the less likely it is that the product will cause a problem.

4. Avoid nail polishes. In addition to being easily smudged and chipped, wet nail polish can be transferred to a person's eyes and face before it dries. This casual transfer can cause problems for women with sensitive skin if they find the polish irritating or have an allergic reaction to any of the components of the polish.

5. Use foundations based on silicone. While powder is preferred to protect sensitive skin, women choosing a liquid foundation should look for one with a silicone base. Liquid facial foundations based on silicone do not cause acne, and silicone has a very low incidence of skin irritation.

Posted by Beauty Girl

Some Quick Nails Care Advices

• Removing Fake Nails In order to get rid of fake nails, you have to soak your nails in an acitone based nail polish remover until the fake nails peel off. If you try to get rid of them other ways, you may ruin your nails. Using fake nails will damage your nails but removing them incorrectly will make the damage much worse. Soaking is the only solution!
• Removing Fake Nails
• Ii is always suggested to go to a nail salon and have them soak the artificial nails off. They use acetone or a nail polish remover that has acetone in it. The technician can watch to make sure that you don’t soak too long and help you remove the nails. If you must do it yourself, then I suggest you purchase a polish remover that has acetone and a conditioner. You will need to soak them for a while and then gently peak the product off your nails.
• Artificial Nail Help
  If you consistently wear artificial nails it is recommended that you remove them and let your real nails breathe every three to six months. Your real nail is damaged and experts agree that they need at least one week to breathe.
• Feet Pampering
  After a long day on your feet they can ache. An inexpensive at home remedy is to soak your feet in a specially formulated foot soak. You can purchase this item almost anywhere. From Wal-Mart to your cosmetic store. Bath and Body Works has some excellent scents to choose from and they often have coordinating products to compliment your choice of foot soak.
• Quick Fix For Torn Nail
• Occasionally I will get a small tear in my natural nail and until recently I thought there was nothing I could do but kiss my nail goodbye. I found a quick fix brush on nail glue specifically to mend and repair small tears in nails. It is applied like nail polish and can not be seen under even clear nail polish or over nail polish either. It bonds the tear so your nail can keep growing without tearing off. This is a nail kit must.
• Dry Hands
  If you have dry hands try this moisturizing trick. You will need a pair of inexpensive rubber gloves and a creamy rich lotion (glycerine based are very good). Cover your hands in lotion (don´t be stingy), rubbing it in and put the gloves on. The gloves will make your hands slightly warmer and the longer you wear the gloves the more moisture your hands receive. I usually leave them on for thirty minutes then rub in what lotion I can and remove the rest with a towel.
• Applying Multiple Coats
  When you apply multiple coats of polish it is a good idea to wait thirty minutes for each coat to dry before applying the next coat. Even if it is advertised as a 2 minute dry time polish. This allows each coat to set and bond with the previous coat. It is especially important for the first coat to bond to your nail.
• Fill In Tip
  When you go to have your fill-ins, while your nail technician has your polish off it is a good idea for you to look and see if there is any discoloration under the artificial nail. There have been many cases where women did not know that there was a nail fungus underneath their fingernails until serious damage had been done. Always check, nail fungus can cause serious problems and cause infections in your nail bed if left untreated.
• Stregthening Nails
  To strengthen your nails, there are a couple of products out there: SCIENTIFIQUE and Natural NailTM Protein Treatment. You apply it to your nail tips and it helps bond nails and strengthens them. I haven’t tried them personally but I have heard good reports.

Some more of useful advices

Biting Your Nails Makes The Grow Faster

Nails Tip
Not that this will help with your nail biting problem, but I thought that I would share this little bit of information out of interest if nothing else... Apparently biting your nails makes them grow faster. You don't realize this obviously as the biting seems to ruin the effect...

A Few Things That Will Help
*Short Nail Beds

We are born with the nails that we have, there is nothing you can do about it... to a point. I happen to have short nail beds and the best colors for my nails are soft colors. Lavender makes them look longer, so be sure to stock up on this gorgeous color.

*Removing Polish

First of all, look for an acetone-free polish remover, which by the way, will not dry out your nails. Saturate a cotton pad and then press onto the polished nail.
several seconds and then draw the pad to the tip of the nail. Polish should come off with one stroke. The few seconds we give the polish remover is long enough to dissolve the polish and you are done in half the time.

*Saving The Nails

It is really easy to pick up some bad beauty habits and some of them might be costing you pretty nails. For a day, keep track of how often you use your nails as tools. Chances are you do so more often than you realize. Keep your list in front of you so that you will slowly begin to break the habits. It can be done... but you have to know about them first.

*Is This What Your Nails Are Craving?

If your nails are weak, splitting, fragile etc, the problem could be traced back to an inadequate water intake. Most people don't drink nearly enough. How much water do you really drink over the course of a day?

Trimming Your Baby's Nails

Although cutting your baby's nails can be a bit unnerving, especially at first, keeping nails short is important to your little one's safety. Because they lack muscle control, infants can easily scratch and cut their own delicate skin while happily waving their hands and feet. It's especially important to keep babies' nails trimmed once they start interacting and playing with other children who could be scratched, especially in child care.

Even though many babies are born with long nails, it's best to wait until they've hardened a bit before trimming them for the first time. Some parents find it easier to accomplish the nail-trimming task with a partner: one person holding the baby to keep the little one from squirming and the other trimming the nails. First, find a good position that allows you easy access to your baby's hands. This may mean placing your child in your lap, sitting with him or her in a rocker, or even waiting until your baby's asleep.

Hold your baby's palm and finger steady with one hand and cut with the other. You should cut your baby's nails with special baby nail scissors, which have rounded tips for safety, or baby clippers. Many baby nail-care kits also come with nail files or emery boards, but if you cut your baby's nails short enough and make sure to keep the nail edges rounded instead of jagged, it isn't necessary to use these. However, if you're hesitant to try baby nail scissors or clippers and your baby will sit long enough to cooperate, you can use an emery board to file the nails down without the risk of giving your little bundle any nicks.

If you accidentally draw blood a common occurrence with fussy, fidgeting babies, don't worry. Using a sterile gauze pad, gently apply pressure to stop the bleeding. But don't put a bandage around the tiny cut - babies will inevitably put their fingers in their mouths and can dislodge the bandage and choke on it.

Because babies' nails tend to grow quickly from infancy to toddlerhood, they may need to be trimmed as often as once a week.