I don't know about you, but when the temperature plummets, my skin can suffer, my hair can suffer and my hands and nails can suffer! These weather conditions calls for some serious extra care with our body and wellbeing. It's so important to take care of yourself in the colder seasons and really devote some time to relaxing, unwinding and pampering yourself to make sure you're feeling and looking more radiant than whats going on outside!
It's often so easy to forget about some simple hand care, even though we love painting our nails, we don't always look at the condition of our hands and nails.
I have devised a really simple, homemade hand and nail care routine that will keep your nails looking healthy and your hands feeling smooth and looking gorgeous!
1. File your nails and shape them
After removing all previous varnish from your nails, use a nail file to trim your nails, strengthen them, neaten and shape them. Also use a buffer file on the surface of your nails to make them stronger and smoother.
2. Soften your cuticles
Mix together a small amount of almond oil and coconut oil, then add two drops of lavender oil to create this gorgeous softening oil for the cuticles. The lavender oil acts as a great calming agent as well as a cleansing agent, cleaning the cuticles. Using a cotton bud, apply a small amount of the oil to your cuticles and massage that in using your thumbs. This will soften your cuticles for the next part and will also stimulate blood flow in your nails encouraging them to grow.
3. Cut/ push back your cuticles
Using a cuticle shaper and scissors, push back your cuticles and cut any excess.
4. Clean nails using lukewarm water and lemon juice
Boil some water and leave that to cool to a warm state, then squeeze half a lemons worth of juice into the water. Allow your nails to soak in the mixture for 5-10 minutes. Don't let your fingertips prune! This mixture removes any stains and dirt from your nails and whitens the tips. It really works!!
5. Exfoliate your hands with a homemade hand scrub!
For this hand scrub I mixed together:
- Half a lemons' zest
- Pure honey (2 tablespoons)
- Extra virgin olive oil (1 tablespoon)
- Demerara/ normal brown or white sugar (4 tablespoons)
-Papaya fruit (half of 1 and ripened)
Apply the scrub to your hands (over a sink!) and work the mixture in making sure there is enough sugar in the mixture to feel the granules. If not, add not sugar. Also remove the seeds of the papaya before adding that. Once you have exfoliated your hands, leave the mixture on for a couple of minutes to soak in the ingredients and then wash off and dry your hands. I will talk more about the fantastic ingredients of the scrub and their properties in my next post!
6. Massage your nails
Use Vitamin E oil to massage your nail beds, in order to keep them strong, moisturised, renewed and stimulated for growth. I like to use a thick consistency of Vitamin E oil.
7. Finish by moisturising your hands
Using your favourite hand cream, moisturise your hands thoroughly. My favourite at the moment is Body Shop's Wild Rose Hand Cream- it smells lush! As this is a homemade post, you can also use almond oil to moisturise but if doing this during the day, your hands may be quite greasy! Also after moisturising your hands before bed, cover them with moisture locking gloves for extra protection from dryness.
So don't forget about your gorgeous hands, they need some TLC too and if you're like me and wear lots of rings and love to paint your nails, you need a good set of smooth, good-lookin' hands!
Enjoy!
Love Nimisha
xoxo
Labels: HOMEMADE, NAILS
