Beat the Winter Nail Blues
Have your nails been polished in beautiful and lush winter darks these last few months? With so many beautiful colors to choose from how could they not be one of your most prized accessories? With spring peeking at us from the calendar in the near future, while some will wear bold, dark colors year round, others are ready to trade in for pastels, nudes, and French manicures. If removing those rich winter colors reveals yellow dry nails, what’s a polish diva to do?
Peeling, white dry splotches, and breaking are indicators of dry nails. As our hair and skin tend to be extra dry in the winter, nails are no exception. Hair and nails are made from the same protein known as keratin. With that thought in mind, how often do you wash your hair without conditioning it? When was the last time you conditioned your nails after washing your hands, or even ever? We know what a great conditioner will do for the hair; great quality oil will condition the nails in much the same way. To beat the dry nail blues, oil containing Jojoba or Squalene (which are carrier molecules) is the perfect treat for the nails and surrounding skin. One example is CND Solar Oil which boasts not only Jojoba, but Vitamin E as well. Massaging oil into the nails at least morning and night will see them hydrated and healthy.
Yellowed nails are avoidable and treatable. If you already have them, in most cases the yellow can be gently buffed off. The best way to start spring out fresh would be a spa manicure in a clean, reputable salon as the cuticle work, gentle buffing, and exfoliating they do will give your nails and skin a nice fresh start. So many of us will take the dogs in for a spring grooming to rid them of the dingy winter look, why not ourselves? For those that demand to DIY, a gentle buffer like the CND Glossing Block can buff off the surface yellowing. Make sure not to buff your nails too heavily or too often as this can lead to thinning and breaking. To give them a spa like refresh, apply your oil, apply a lotion, put on your gloves and wash a sink full of dishes! The heat from the dish water will aid in the penetration and absorption of the oil and lotion.
Have you ever heard that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure? This can be so true when it comes to nails. Using a great oil year round helps keep nails flexible and healthy, less likely to get the dry winter blues. Applying a quality base coat to the nails before color will not only make the color more likely to last, but will protect the nails against the yellowing. If you are using a heavily pigmented color with a yellow/orange base, two coats of base coat can make a big difference. CND Stickey is a favorite base coat of nail professionals that is available for you to purchase for at home polishing. It acts like double sided sticky tape anchoring to the nail and then to the polish.
Now that you have solutions and prevention ideas, there is no need for your nails to go into spring unhappy ever again. Break out those sheer, nude, and pale polishes confident in knowing your ten digit accessory can bounce flawlessly between seasons and colors!
About the Author:
Holly Schippers is a nail technician, an educator for CND, world leader in hand and foot beauty (cnd.com), as well as a resident blogger for NAILS Magazine (blogs.nailsmag.com/fingernailfixer).