My nail care must-haves!

Hey cuticle cuties!

Time for a nail care blog post. This post will be pretty long so I decided to spice it up with a couple of GIF's. Feel free to ask questions, you can ask them in the comments below or send me an email. 

Cuticles

I know that a lot of you guys have problems with dry cuticles. It's almost inevitable in Sweden during the winter. I have three must-have products that I always keep at home. My number one love is Sally Hansen - Instant cuticle remover. This stuff is like my heroin! I apply it to all my fingers and gently scrape it of with the flat sid of a orange stick. It removes dead skin and is great to use if your cuticles have been discoloured from polish. It use cuticle remover about once every two weeks. 

Ninth Doctor, I love him!

After I have used the cuticle remover I always moisturise my cuticles. My moisturiser of choice varies from day to day but I do have one favourite. Lemony flutter from Lush. Lemony flutter is a thick cream loaded with different oils such as coconut, soya and avocado. It has a tangy scent that reminds me of a lemon and ginger mix. I absolutely love it. Sometimes I use coconut oil as hand and cuticle cream. Since it's so rich a little goes a long way. 

Finally my last must-have is The Body Shop's Almond nail & cuticle oil. I love products that come in pen applicators. It makes it possible to apply oil on the unpainted side of  the free edge which is great. It has a sweet but discrete scent that I really enjoy. The almond pen is kind of pricy so I try to buy extras when I'm abroad. 

Base coat

I have found the number one base coat. The only thing is that it's the number one base coat for me. I've been experimenting and trying different brands and unfortunately that's the only way to find out what works for you. I use Trind nail reapir and I think it's AWESOME! Before I started using it my nails would peel and break but not anymore. I apply a thin coat as my base coat and a bonus is that I rarely get discoloured nails. 

Tribute to Trind!

Top coat

I'm a Seche vite fangirl. I love that stuff! I remember the first time I used it. I was amazed by it's pure awesomeness. You know how I mentioned that Sally Hansen's cuticle remover was my heroin? That's not true. SV is my heroin. When I apply SV my manicure becomes complete. I don't have the shrinking problem that some do. I use a lot of thinner which might be the reason why it dosen't shrink. 

Source

Nail files

I hate the sound of glass files against my nails. But in my opinion they are the best. I have a problem with them though. I tend to sit on them and my empirical studies show that glass files break when you sit on them. How can one sit on nail files you might wonder. Well, I usually do my nails in the sofa while watching TV. Preferably animal planet. I have come to the conclusion that I have some sort of glass file magnet in my butt that attracts all the files in a two meter radius. That's how you sit on a glass file. 

Remover

I use pure acetone and it works great for me. I buy it at Biltema for 39 SEK/litre and pour some of it into a smaller container. I know that some nail junkies have problems finding the best remover and my only advice is that you try different types until you find your favourite brand.

Phew! I think that's all. As I mentioned in the beginning of the post, please let me know if you have any questions :) 

Source

Until next time, take care!

/Christina