To start off, I am going to go through the items I use to take care of and maintain my nails and cuticles. And my all time favorite cuticle care item is Palmers' Cocoa Butter with vitamin E. This is a thick butter and can be fairly greasy. However, this does sink into the skin quite easily so as long as you don't apply too much, your hands will not be greasy for long. My favorite way to use this product is to apply it on my entire hand taking special care to rub it into my cuticles. I find that this product makes my hands noticeably softer once the product has soaked in. In addition, hangnails as well as dry cuticles are improved.To use this product on my feet I like to apply an excess amount and then wear socks. The best part? This product retails for under $2 at Wal Mart, keep in mind that I am showing you the travel size (30 grams). The cocoa butter also comes in a larger size as well but I prefer the travel size.
Next is my current cuticle oil, CND Solar Oil. This oil is infused with jojoba oil and vitamin E, I use it around once a week. You can definitely use it every day, or however often you prefer. I apply this product on my cuticle and nail as well as underneath the free edge my nail, regardless of if I am wearing nail polish or not. You can massage it into your skin or simply let the product soak, I find that this oil also soaks in easily and helps both my cuticles and nails.
To maintain my cuticles I use a cuticle remover instead or cutting them. I apply the gel to all ten fingernails and then using a cuticle pusher, I push back my cuticles in the order I applied the gel then immediately rinse off my nails. I do not have a set timeline for when I use this product, I simply use it whenever I feel that my cuticles need some maintenance. I have also tried this product on calluses and it does work pretty well.
To file and shape my nail I use a glass nail file because they are gentle, they leave a nice smooth edge and they last a very long time. My particular glass file I purchased in 2007 and it works perfectly fine after all this time. I purchased mine at Shoppers Drug Mart and it is the brand Quo. You can also easily clean and sanitize the file so as to reuse it countless times.
To take care of my feet, I use my Pedi-Expert from Revlon. This product is also pretty dated in my arsenal but it is advertised that the blades on it never need to be replaced. I like to use this after I have showered and my feet are still soft from the water. It is very gentle and softens my feet immediately. What I really enjoy about the pedi-expert is that it has a microfile to scrape the dead skin and calluses off my feet as well as a finishing file to smooth everything out. Also, it comes with a catch all compartment so I can file my feet mess free.
Note: this is the product disassembled
When I am doing a manicure, I use one of two base coats. When I want my manicure to last, I use the sticky base coat from Finger Paints called the Grab it base coat. This base coat is specifically designed to increase the longevity of your manicure and is not advertised to help against staining. I do get a pretty decent use out of this base coat but it is not my favorite.
When I do not plan on keeping my manicure on for long, I use my NYC strip me off peel off base coat. This is a glue based product and is extremely affordable at $1.50 in Wal Mart. I find that using thin coats is the best way to use this product, if you do too thick of a coat it will take a very long time to dry. The downside of doing thin coats is that you need to do two for optimal results. If I do two coats and the polish is completely dry I have a good chance of peeling the polish off in one piece. However if I use only one coat or the polish is still pretty fresh, then the product peels off in pieces. For the price, I think this product works really well and can even be used to protect your skin as a latex barrier.
Now we get into top coats and I have three in my arsenal. For my fast drying top coat I use seche vite and I absolutely love it. It dries my manicure quickly and leaves it looking very glossy. I will mention that while many people complain about this smudging their nail art or shrinking their image, I have never experienced this. The smell is not my favorite but it's not so strong that it stops my from using the product. Seche vite is a little high maintenance in the sense that you have to buy seche restore to thin the product without affecting it's drying properties. But you can use seche restore to thin out regular nail polishes as well.
Whenever I do not want a fast drying top coat, my current favorite top coat is essie's good to go top coat. It is a thinner top coat and does dry pretty quick and shiny. My only complaint about this top coat is that it can smudge nail art.
I am not the biggest fan of matte nails but having a matte top coat is a great tool. I do not use this often but I have found that after a few days of wearing this, the matte effect wears away and the shine of the polish underneath peaks through.
And now we are getting close to the end of my basic manicure items. The nail polish thinner that I use to restore the consistency of my nail polish is from Sallys and the brand Beauty Secrets. The dropper is inside the cap and you only need a few drops to thin out a polish.
To protect my skin as well as minimize clean up around my cuticles, I use Glisten and Glow CTRL-ALT-DEL liquid latex barrier. It dries really quickly and I can get away with using a thin layer if I am stamping my nails, but if I am doing a sponge gradient, I need to apply a thicker layer so that it can peel off in one piece.
My absolute favorite stamper is from Bundle Monster and is their semi squishy silicone mega stamper. Before I bought this stamper, stamping was a major task with many failed attempts. My issues were getting my image to pick up, placing it where I want it and performing the rolling motion correctly. First of all, this stamper requires no priming whatsoever, you can take it out of the packaging and get right into stamping. Second, the large surface area helps me to pick up large images and be able to stamp my thumb, toe nails, or longer nails. And the best part of this stamper in my opinion is that I do not have to roll it over my nail. Since it is a squishy stamper, I simply position my nail over the desired image and press my nail into the stamper. I do want to mention it is a little sticky so it can get dirty easy. To clean my stamper, I use tape to take off dried images and/or any dust on my stamper. I also keep it inside the resealable packaging it came in.
I also want to point out that it does come with a replacement head which is nice so you can make two decals at once. Also, the difference in color ensures that you will be able to see your image regardless of the color of your stamping polishes.
The last item to mention is my nail polish remover, I alternate between two. I do have pure acetone for natural nails from Beauty Secrets (Sallys) and a regular remover for strong nails from Equate (Wal Mart). I use the pure acetone whenever I have many layers of nail polish on or whenever I want my polish removed quickly. This acetone leaves no cast on my nails and actually has a pleasant scent unlike most regular nail polish removers. My regular nail polish remover is not as strong as pure acetone so I do have to rub the nail more to take off the polish. I like to alternate because I do not want to dry out my nails with the pure acetone.
So that is the end, I would love to hear what products you use and your opinion on the products I use. Feel free to leave me a comment below! Also, I will update this page whenever any of my products have changed.
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