Hi all–sorry if this is too far from usual posting topics. I'm pretty desperate and would love some advice from fellow polish lovers about dryness and tough skin around your nails. I've had this issue for as long as I can remember with varying degrees of severity (it gets worse in the winter.)
I use hand lotion and cuticle oil (roll-on from KB Shimmer and solid from DVN) at night and various times during the day, but nothing seems to make a real dent. I try to drink a Nalgene of water per day, but that hasn't made a noticeable difference either. I have a (bad?) habit of trimming away the dry skin and tougher dead skin around my nails to make them look and feel more presentable, but that has caused some sidewall integrity issues over time…
Please, any suggestions are welcome!
by bismuth-rose
8 Comments
Product list:
– Cuticula base coat
– Morpho Glow by Dany Viana (x1)
– I’m Very Fast Top Coat from BKL
I struggle with this too OP. I keep cuticle oil at my desk and use it every time I get on a meeting. I follow with cerave moisturizing creme. So that’s probably like 4-5 times a day. also… one Nalgene a day does not seem like enough water but that’s probably personal. I drink A LOT of water.
How disciplined are you about your nail oil? You really can’t overdo it, and I make sure to apply anytime my fingers start to feel dry, or anytime I’ve stripped the oils away by exposing them to water, soap, dust, fabric, etc.
I DIY my nail oil because the markups on the pre-packaged ones are absurd. 3/4s castor oil, 1/4 jojoba oil. A few drops tea tree oil as a preventative anti-fungal.
Oil soaks a few times a week would help a lot, just slather on nail oil, and I do mean *slather*, then wear nitrile gloves for an hour or two.
Loose-fitting cotton gloves at night also help a lot, especially in the winter. I slug my hands up with nail oil, Hard as Hoof nail cream, and a heavy duty hand cream like vanicream cream (not lotion), or o‘keefs working hands. 1-2x a week I’ll add a 40% urea cream too. My routine is a little heavy duty because I have really chronic dry skin & a long history of skin picking around my nails so they’re very callous prone.
I’ve found applying cuticle oil right after showering really effective!
Stop trimming! Only nip off “emergencies” (i.e., it’s gonna rip if you don’t remove the skin that’s sticking up). The more you cut that skin the tougher it gets, kinda like a callous. The more damage it gets, the more it thinks it needs to be “tough”. The tougher it is, the harder it is to moisturize it fully.
My best results come from a few steps:
1. Gentle nudging of proximal nail fold when it’s already “primed” to be a bit softer (e.g., after the shower, after being doused in nail oil).
2. Mani prep that includes cuticle remover at least once a month. The remover is meant for the gunk that comes out on the nail plate (not the skin around the nail), but when I use an orange stick to rub off the cuticle, the skin around the nail will sort of naturally loosen and push back more easily.
3. At least a couple of nights a week I spend 30-60 min (usually one episode of whatever show I’m watching) with my hands slathered in oil (or less slathered, more precisely targeted at nails/cuticle area with Kerasel) and in nitrile gloves. I spend that time sort of rubbing/massaging my hands together (or sometimes just between my thighs) to warm them up and let the oil/kerasel do its thing.
But seriously. Stop cutting. It’s hard for the first couple of weeks. Keep your trimmers nearby so you can neatly trim “emergencies” instead of biting (if you’re a biter/picker). But don’t do full trims.
Using a lot of jojoba oil helped, but what really got rid of my worst areas was Dr. Scholl’s Dry, Cracked Foot Repair cream with urea. I was amazed at how quickly it cleared up some of the worst spots due to years of picking at the skin around my nails.
Mine are getting dry now too and I’ve gotten bad about cuticle oil. It’s a game changer. Use it MULTIPLE times a day. After you wash your hands and before/after you go out in the cold/dry weather. When you wake up. At night.
Oil!
Using gloves when washing dishes or cleaning has helped me a lot, as water will dry out your hands so much, especially as those of us in the northern hemisphere head into the cold, dry winter months.