Nails have become the canvas for artistic expression, yours and your nail technician! Whether a gel, acrylic or your own nails it is important to look after them and maintain them in between visits to your nail technician or manicurist.
Regardless of whether you choose some ornate design with glitter, stones and nail jewelry or a simple, elegant French manicure the up keep is generally the same.
Choose some good products and tools; a paraben free hand moisturizer and cuticle oil are the most important. The moisturizer replenishes your skin and encourages healthy nail growth. The cuticle oil protects and softens the nail beds with prolonged use, we like Q-Tica solid gold cuticle oil, they also carry lotions and sugar scrub, hand and foot repair products.
Tools are important too, a buffer depending on the finish will do everything to remove ridges from the surface of your nail to polish and shine. This is handy if you chip your polish and need to remove it and clean up your nails until your next visit to your professional. Remember to soak your hands and nails when working on them and use lots of moisturizer when you are done.
Protecting your nails goes along way. We all know that gardening and cleaning will dry out hands and cause nail breakage… So find some cute gloves and protect your hands during such activities. If you notice anything abnormal in growth or breakage, flecks, ridges, redness etc. visit your doctor. A nail technician is not a physician and although they can tell you something doesn’t look right, they can diagnose or treat you. Remember eat healthy and drink plenty of water to stimulate growth.
Choosing the right colours is a big part of the process and generally everyone’s favourite; it can also be the most daunting. As a rule I generally keep my fingernails natural with a French manicure and my toenails variations of black and metallic, the rationale being that both go with everything. If you are more adventurous here are some tips to choosing colours.
5 Tips to choosing nail colours
- Skin tone – Complexion is a fab way to choose colours for your nails. The most common way to figure out your complexion is to figure out you season. A very quick on the fly, way is to see what jewelry what gravitate towards. If you wear silver you are most likely to look good in cool colours, those are colours with undertones of red and blue. If you gravitate towards gold then you most likely look good in warm colours, those colours have undertones of yellow and orange.
- Outfit – This is a matchy match, preppy sort of thing I like to reserve for weddings! It is very unlikely that you will match your outfit colours exactly, so try to compliment instead. If you are going for a full outfit, in say a fuchsia or aubergine, then choose a lighter version. If you are wearing a basic black, navy or grey then choose the colour you accessorize with. Take the accessory with you to the beauty salon for the best match. We love Zoya because not only are they 10 free. They have an incredible assortment of colours.
- Make up – Like the above this is a bit matchy-match, however when done properly can look incredible. Match your make-up when wearing classic colours and match with your lip colour. Reds, nudes, peaches, pinks are best. However a high gloss black nail looks phenomenal and dramatic with black smoky eye for evening.
- Trend – This can be tricky because not all fashion colours look good on everyone. The best advice here is to go to the pantone website and look up the colours of the season, go to allure magazine and look up the beauty colours of the season and then find the nearest version for your complexion. Most colours can be created with a warm or cool base. Experiment until you find the best match for you.
- Seasons and Holidays – Every season and holiday comes with its very own colour pallet. As above, find variations that work best for you and get into the festive spirit. Autumn and summer we think of warm colours, spring and winter cool. Christmas we bring sparkles and glitters to mind, bright reds and vibrant blues. Easter pastels, Diwali an array of jewel tones, Chinese New Year Scarlet and Gold.