Naked Nails January 2015

Hey Everyone!!! I finally got a chance to edit about 100 pictures so I am good to go for awhile at least. I spent the first half of the evening trying to be a computer technician and getting a program to run so my father can record his records onto the computer. I don't know a whole lot about the system and apparently there was software that wasn't on the computer so it made life fun. I think I got everything ready so that he can actually record them however converting them to mp3 files is a whole other ballgame that I completely lost. 1-1 is better than 0-2 I guess.

When I first started blogging I had been a huge blog follower and would look at so many gorgeous nails everyday. Mine have never been the best but I thought I could baby them into becoming some of those gorgeous nails that bloggers showcase. I have gone through my shares of breaks and peeling issues and cuticle troubles as I have blogged. I resorted to doing gel manis while I was on break to help protect my nails some. It did and they grew nicely but they were so damaged that even the gel polish couldn't protect them from everything. The holidays were rough on them with all the baking, cleaning, wrapping and such. It so happened that because I decided I was going to start blogging again with the new year they all decided to break and go straight to hell right at the end of the year. Lovely. 

I was telling a friend about the situation and she suggested I show the world my poor nubs anyway. Not all of us have the gorgeous nails that bloggers have and that is ok. Not all of us can grow super long nails and some of us don't actually want to. I would love to grow longer nails but they just don't cooperate. So today I am showing you my damaged, peeling, ugly little nubs. I always felt bad because my nails were far inferior to most bloggers nails. 

This was the way they looked at the beginning of the year. I think it was literally January 2nd or 3rd when I took these pictures. There are white marks and peels and bad cuticles. I have a peeling problem where if my polish or even my nails start to peel I just go ahead and help them along. I like to peel things. It isn't a good habit and it definitely doesn't pave the way for nice nails. I also have been known to pick off my gel polish which has caused damage. On top of the fact that my nails are on the weak side anyway all this abuse has caused them to break and look like this. They aren't pretty but they are real. I am going to discuss my nail care routine a little bit in this post. Hopefully it isn't too boring. Next post will be nicer pictures I promise :)

I don't do much for my cuticles because the more I do the worse they get. I rarely use cuticle remover because I have found that it just tears my cuticles up. Every single time I have used it I have come away with sores and tears and really nasty cuticles. I have a cuticle scrub that I will occasionally use but other than that I just push them back. I have tried so many different cuticle oils and balms and lotions it is crazy. Right now I am LOVING my Emerald and Ash cuticle oil and I started using my Sunnys Miracle Balm from 365 Days of Color again. 

One thing I started doing is using oil before my manicures. I can't remember where or who suggested it but I know we discussed it in one of the nail communities I belong to. Basically you take the cuticle oil and oil your nails up then I use a napkin to wipe the remaining oil off the nail. Then I base coat and proceed with my mani. I don't wash my hands between the oil and the polish, just wipe the nail off a bit.

Shockingly oiling before painting my nails doesn't cause the polish to peel off or chip any sooner than if I didn't oil them. I generally don't leave the polish on for more than a day or two so I can't comment on how long my manis would hold up. I know I just had a mani on from Thursday to Sunday with no chipping so I don't have any adverse effects from using the oil. 

I actually think the oil helps out because I use acetone for removal of the previous mani. Since the acetone dries out the nails and skin the oil helps re hydrate them before adding polish. You can see how bad my nails look in the photo above vs. how they look after oiling them up before doing my mani below.

I am going to show progress of how my nails are doing as a follow up later on. I figure not everyone has stellar nails and I am not going to feel like mine are inferior any more. I know I have particularly difficult nails that don't like to grow and love to break and it is time to be honest about that. Not everyone has perfect nails and that is ok. Those of us with problem nails can still have just as much fun with polish. 

That's all for now :)