My Nail Care Routine

In this blog post instead of showing a manicure I will show you how I take care of my nails.

Over time I have learned and experienced that the best thing you can do for your nails is to use nail care products from the same company. When I say nail care products I am thinking of cuticle remover, cuticle oil, hardener, base coat and, if possible, nail polish remover. Every time in the past when I combined cuticle oils, base coats or hardeners from different brands, my nails started to exfoliate and eventually broke. 

Although it is hard to use always the same old products, especially now, when the market offers almost infinite options, just try it for a while and you won't regret it.

I have chosen a local brand, namely Farmec. 

Before I start presenting them one by one, I want to show you my bare nails, before applying anything onto them:

And now let's see how to use these products :-) I have placed them in the order in which I usually use them. From left to right:

Cuticle Peeler. It comes in a nice little 15 ml tube, with a special applier. 

Just apply it on your cuticles and before it dries completely (approx. 3 minutes, of course depending on how much you have applied) just take an orange stick and remove the product. While doing so you will see how your cuticle is also removed. Be careful though, the formula is very thin and you can easily apply as much onto your first nail as much would be enough for both hands! Apply it even if you don't see it necessary and you will be surprised to see what comes off your nails.
After I remove the cuticle peeler, I wash my nails using an ordinary tooth brush and my special, home made soap with avocado oil. This cleanses my nails perfectly and prepares them for the second product. 

Vitamin B5 Lotion. This is the new formula of the Vitamin B5 Lotion. 

The first one was more thin, had a powerful smell and was not that gentle with cuticles. Being so thin made the wrong impression that it just evaporates from he nails.
The new formula is more sticky and drys harder. The smell is not so disturbing and its more cuticle friendly. I apply it immediately after washing and drying my nails. I leave it on for 3 minutes and then apply the third product. It's important to know, that this product contains formaldehyde. If you are allergic to this substance, don't use the Vitamin B5 Lotion!

Cuticle Oil. You should always use a cuticle oil after using a formaldehyde based product. In this case it was the Vitamin B5 Lotion.
The Cuticle Oil contains Vitamin A, almond oil, olive oil, soy oil and lemon essential oil. 

I apply it generously on my cuticles. Leave it there for 2 minutes and after that I massage it into my nails. Once it's totally absorbed by the nails you are ready to apply a base coat. 

Base Coat - Fortifying Complex. This products also contains formaldehyde! I have noticed that my nails react well to formaldehyde based products (hardener and base coat). I am using it for a long period and I haven't noticed and side effects. I apply the base coat every single time I apply nail polish and I have never had a problem with yellow nails. 

What I love about this base coat is that it dries extremely quickly! While I paint my right hand my left hand is already drying :-)

This blog post contains my own opinion, based on my personal experience with the presented products. This in not a payed post. 

If you like my manicures you can follow me on Bloglovin and Pinterest

  NailGlaze

Until next time,

Trind Natural Nail Care - First Impressions

As promised yesterday (here), I am back with the first impressions regarding the Trind Natural Nail Care products. I haven't used any of my usual nail care products, only the ones gotten from Rouge-Boutique.

To be more exact, I have used the Nail Balsam and the Nail Repair, the 2 products from left to right.
This is how my nails look like in day 1:

The first product that I applied was the Nail Balsam. It is recommended if your nails are dry, brittle and grow slow. My first impression was that it smells pretty, almost like a hand cream (after all, it is supposed to be a balsam :-) ). Trind recommends to use Nail Balsam daily. Apply, wait 2 minutes and then massage the excess into the nail and the surrounding skin. I had the impression that I don't get enough balsam on the brush, but that was just the impression. After 2 minutes I still had some on my nails. After massaging it into your nails, they will feel hydrated and so soft! Almost as if you had applied nail polish. Nail Balsam check and like :-)

The Nail Balsam is oil free. This means that you can apply your base coat immediately after massaging Nail Balsam into the nails. This is exactly what I have done. Only that I have applied one coat of the Nail Repair strengthener. It is recommended for daily use for at least two weeks. The first impression was that I know this smell!

I am not sure about this, but my best guess is that I am recognizing the specific smell of formaldehyde. This is a very controversial ingredient. I admit I have no medical degree, nor chemistry or biology training. so I can't tell you anything for sure, regarding this ingredient. I can't tell you if it's safe to use or not. What I am sure about is that nail strengtheners that contain formaldehyde work for me. I have read a while ago, that nail strengtheners only contain a few % of formaldehyde. This amount is not dangerous for your health, but can create allergies and definitely will dry your skin and cuticles. After applying products containing formaldehyde, always moisturize your cuticles.

I will be using Nail Repair as a base coat for a few days and see what happens next. Until then, Nail Repair checked :-)

One more time, Day 1:

Stay close, to see whether  Nail Repair can be used as a base coat or not.

Rouge-Boutique: Trind Natural Nail Care

Thank you Rouge-Boutique for the mysterious Red Box that I received from you just before Christmas :-).

Are you curious about what was in the box? Well, I was so excited, couldn't wait to open it! The box was full of white and red shredded paper just to make the unboxing more interesting. :-)

After only a few seconds of searching through the paper shreds, I found the perfect gift anybody could give to a nail polish addict: nail and hand care products and nail polish!!! (who would have guessed, huh?)

In the big Red Box I have found Trind Natural Nail Care products. Trind Cosmetics is a well known manufacturer of hand and nail care products, available in 28 countries. Thanks to Rouge-Boutique these products will also be available in Romania. Until the online store opens you can find Rouge-Boutique on Facebook ;-). 

Let's see what exactly was in the Red Box:

• Nail Repair
• Nail Balsam
• Caring Color
• Hand Repair
• Soft Cuticle Pen
• Nail Magic Buffer
• Black Cosmetics Bag
• 50 RON Voucher
• 1 pomegranate :-)

I decided to test the products and in order to offer an honest review I cut my nails and started using only the above gotten products. I will be back with more pictures and info about the products, stay close :-)

Review - Impala Cosmetics

The following two items have been on my wishlist for some time.
I have ordered them from Lady's and received them a week ago. I have been testing them since.

1. Cuticle Remover

Facts:

• has a delicate rosy scent
• dries quickly
• easily removed with orange stick
• it has tiny abrasive particles (see the little blue and red spots on the image above) 

Contains:

• Glycerin (emollient)
• Mineral particles (exfoliating)
• Muscat rose-tree oil (hydrating and regenerating)

Conclusions:

• I get the feeling that my cuticles grow slower
• cuticle don't dry out as they used to

My Nail Care Ritual

For me, taking care of my nails is at least as important as wearing some nice manicure. One isn't possible without the other. You can buy the best nail polishes and be a talented nail artist if your nails don't cooperate.

Today I will present to you some nail care products I use.

1. Acetone free nail polish remover
Make sure you use an acetone free remover, otherwise you will get your nails and cuticles dried out. It is true that acetone works faster but a non-acetone remover will be more gentle on your nails.
I have to admit I do use acetone based remover but only for glitter polishes and after removal I strictly follow the steps below.

After removing the polish I like to use Nail Polish Remover Pads to clean my nails. I use L.A. Colors pads. These come in various scents (I own the Peach and Grape scented), are acetone free and have an oily texture so it doesn't dry out my nails and cuticles.

2. Cuticle remover 
After removing the polish I like to remove my cuticles. For this purpose I use the Coral Cuticle Remover.

You have to apply it on your cuticles, wait 5 minutes until it dries and remove the dried cuticles with an orange stick.

3. Nail hardener
After trying lots of nail hardeners I stopped at the cheapest and surprisingly the most effective one: Farmec Treatment Expert with Vitamin B5.

Left: old formula which used to dry out cuticles
Right: new formula with keratin and calcium pantothenate. This is a much better formula compared to the first one.

4. Vitamin A and Vitamin E
To keep my nails healthy I give them some vitamins :-). I use Vitamin A and E in oily formula. Being 100%  oils they will dry pretty hard. I usually apply them before going to sleep. In the morning I will have hydrated nails and cuticles.

5. Base Coat

The best base coat I have ever used is definitely the Rimmel Stronger. This is a 2 in 1 product: base coat and nail hardener. It dries quickly (approximately 30 seconds after applied) and gives a discrete gold shimmer effect to the nails.

So...this is my nail care ritual in a nutshell :-).

I hope this post will help you keep your nails happy. Feel free to share you ritual by leaving a comment to this post.