Spring Beauty Tips: Hands and Nails

Spring is the season of rebirth… of rejuvenation. Don’t forget your hands! Over the winter, your skin may have gotten rough and dry thanks to forced-air heat. It’s time to renew your hands and nails. Want a good idea of someone’s age? Look at their hands. Hands are often a truer judge of age than any other part of the body. You can keep your hands looking healthy and young with these tips: Keep moisturizer handy — all year round. Apply lotion after you wash your hands to help lock in moisture. Pick a hand cream that includes sunscreen. A … Continue reading →

Fingernail Mistakes Quiz

Are you good to your nails? Ask yourself these four questions: Do you file your nails using a back and forth motion? Do you use an acetone based nail polish remover? Do you cut your cuticles? Do you use nail polish that you purchased before 2007? If you answered YES to any of these questions, you’re making a fingernail mistake. Read on to see what you can do to protect your nails: Filing your nails using a back and forth motion actually weakens nails and can cause them to split. Use a soft emery board and file in one direction … Continue reading →

Biotin for Nail Strength

The things we eat can have a huge impact on our bodies inside and out. If your nails are weak, brittle, and prone to splitting, you can give them a boost from the inside out with a biotin supplement. Biotin is a B vitamin that is found naturally in foods like eggs and liver. However, the amount of biotin in a serving of eggs or liver may be too low to make a difference with your nails! Eggs contain 25 mcg of biotin per serving; liver contains 27 mcg per serving. A Columbia University study found that a daily biotin … Continue reading →

Cuticle Care Tips

Okay, nail biters… I’m mostly back on the wagon. I’m giving that whole “stop biting your nails” thing another try! One problem I have is this: when I stop biting my nails, I tend to attack my cuticles instead. So to be completely honest, I’m only redirecting the chewing behavior, not stopping it. At the moment, I’ve got eight “good” nails, two slightly nibbled nails, and two hands full of sad looking cuticles. Cuticles are dead skin that overlaps the exposed portion of your fingernail — the nail plate. The cuticle makes a seal between your skin and your fingernail … Continue reading →

Falling Off The Fingernail Bandwagon

Time to confess defeat. I thought I’d triumphed over my lifelong nail biting habit, but I’ve fallen off the nice nails wagon. In one afternoon, I chewed away several months’ worth of nail growing progress and am back to square one. It’s my own fault, really. I’d been doing so well because I’d take the time to shape and paint my nails every few days. When my nails were pretty and colorful, I didn’t bite them. But I stripped off the polish without repainting them, and BOOM. No more nails. I hardly noticed I was doing it, at first. Then … Continue reading →

How I Stopped Biting My Nails (a work in progress)

I’ve been a nail biter for longer than I can remember. When I was younger, my grandfather used to try to bribe me to stop — at first, he offered me twenty dollars if I could stop biting my nails for just a month. Before he gave up, the bribe was up to two hundred dollars for just a month of not biting my nails. And still… I couldn’t do it. I’ve tried to stop on many occasions. But nail nibbling is a long-ingrained habit. Just wanting to stop isn’t enough for me. As soon as I stop paying attention, … Continue reading →

Treat Yourself to the Perfect Manicure

A professional manicure is great… until that first chip. And with the busy lives we lead, it’s next to impossible to avoid chips and scrapes! For lovely nails, use these tips for a perfect home manicure. Start with nail polish remover. Whether your nails have polish on them or not, swipe your nails down with a gentle, acetone-free nail polish remover. The nail polish remover helps remove oils from the surface of your nails and will make the new nail polish stick better. Non-acetone nail polish remover works a little more slowly at taking off old nail polish, but in … Continue reading →

Protect Your Brittle Nails

Are your fingernails thin and brittle? Do you tend to get vertical splits? You may be able to blame your diet. Brittle nails may also be simply a sign of aging. If your fingernails have vertical ridges that run from the cuticle to the tip, don’t get too upset. These ridges are often a sign of aging. The lines exist all along, but as you age, your nail beds can dry out, making the ridges more prominent. So how do you help your brittle, splitting nails? Wear gloves when washing dishes, giving the kids a bath, or doing any other … Continue reading →

Nail Biting

Whatever you do, don’t look at my hands. I’ve been a nail biter all my life. I have tried to stop… I’ve managed to stop for a few weeks or even a few months… but one slip, and I’m back to chewing my nails all the way up to my elbows. When I was younger, my grandfather tried desperately to bribe me. At one point, the offer was up to two hundred dollars if I could stop biting for a month. I couldn’t do it. And I’ve tried those bad tasting liquids. They sure do taste awful… but once you … Continue reading →

Healthy Fingernails

Your fingernails aren’t just for making your fingers look good; they protect your fingers and help improve dexterity! Healthy nails are made up of the same protein (keratin) that is in your hair and skin. The part of your fingernail that is visible is called the nail plate; the nail bed is the skin underneath. Nails grow from the base of the nail bed, where the cuticle covers the nail plate. And that white, half-moon shape at the base of your fingernails? That’s called the lunula. Nails grow very slowly. How slowly? About a tenth of a millimeter per day. … Continue reading →