I'm still on my way from biting nails, but I pinky promise I don't bite them anymore. Now I'm making them some space to grow properly and become nail-strong! (not that that's really happening at the moment, I had to cut them short after writing this post, because they started bending again, urgh) I've always had a serious case of crappy nails, and that made me develop certain daily routines to maintain my nails in the most acceptable state possible. Here's one of them, a very 'clean' look, which although you have about ten layers on, it still looks like your own nails, just with all the nourishment possible!
This is a daily routine, so keep in mind that once in a while you should deal with your cuticles a bit more, file your nails, give them a bit of a shape, and all that jazz, which you obviously don't need to do every day. First of all - OPI Nail Envy. I have to say, it's insanely expensive, and I wouldn't pay that much money for it, so feel free to abuse E-bay and get it for a tenner! I use it every day (or when I remember, woops!) and it admittedly does make my nails feel stronger!
On the top of Nail Envy, I use this MUA nail polish in shade 18. Obviously, I don't use this every day, only at the beginning of the week, when I'm starting from the scratch (once a week you remove everything and start again). It's a nice milky shade which looks really flattering on even short nails and you only need two coats to achieve a nice even colour (it's not opaque in 2 coats, but it does look the way it should in its sheerness, if it makes sense?). I like using MUA together with Nail Envy, because MUA basically lasts ages on my nails without chipping, and that's one of main things I worry about while using Nail Envy every day - if I use a nail polish that chips a lot, the whole week thing just goes down the drain. Oh, and MUA nail polishes are just for a quid, hey ho!
On the top of this, I put another coat of Nail Envy to seal it and add an extra coat every day. After applying the additional coat, I massage my nails and cuticles with Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream. I find this butter moisturizes skin around my nails well, yet doesn't make my fingers all greasy. The only thing that always surprises me (yeh, I use it every single day and every single day I think oh wait, there's something weird goin on, tut tut) is that it has got really strong smell of.. I would like to say lemon grass, but seriously, it just smells like a field of weed. And a pretty big field. With freshly blooming plants. Or that guy I ran into in Poundland the other day, I though I was Amsterdam for a moment (I lived in the Netherlands for 6 months, ha!)! I got this little tin on E-bay for about £2, so feel free to pick it up while hunting for Nail Envy!
What's your favourite cuticle treatment/cream?