My Current Favourites - Part 2: Nails

I have already shown you my current favourite make up products and today I'd like to show you what I've been using most when it comes to my nails.

First up is Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Cuticle Pen. I use this every time I change my mani, and brush the oil all over my nails as well as my cuticles. It helps make my cuticles soft and also conditions my nails which are quite fragile and peel easily. Since I started using this product many month ago, my nails have been in a much better state, the peeling has slowed down and my nails have become stronger.

See what other products I've been enjoying using after the jump!

2012 Favourites - Part 4: Nails

2012 was definitely the year of the nail polish for me. I bought over 550 nail polishes (I know, crazy!) and discovered some amazing brands. (Check out my stash video and pictures here.) Until 2 years ago I'd hardy heard of any nail polish brands that couldn't be bought in Boots or Superdrug (and back then there weren't a lot of glittery, shimmery, duochrome polish around, or at least I didn't notice them). As well as continuing to buy from mainstream brands like China Glaze, OPI, Orly and the likes, I discovered some very unique and interesting brands and nail polishes. My favourite polishes are holos and duochromes, or preferably both together in one product, and I'm also rather partial to glitter.

The picture above shows a few of my recent purchases including the new Color Club holographic polishes that I regret to say I haven't tried yet as well as Topshop glitter polishes and Enchanted Polish duo(multi)chrome polishes.

My favourite newly discovered brands in 2012 were Topshop, Enchanted Polish, Layla and Glitter Gal. Out of the four I'd say Enchanted Polish is my definite favourite, the only thing I don't like is how difficult it is to come by as the polishes are only made in very small quantities and the shades are limited edition. Nevertheless I have managed to get my hands on a few of them and here are some:

These are from the Beatles collection (I Am The Walrus and Magical Mystery Tour) and from the Falloween collection (Witchful Thinking). The new holiday collection came in a new style, fancier, more professional looking bottle:

Green Peace on Earth, Dance Of The Sugar Plum, Bruised Nutcracker, Olive The Other Reindeer

Enchanted Polish nail polishes are absolutely gorgeous, duo- or rather multichrome with scattered holo, straight forward holographic or glittery. I have showed you Across The Universe here if you want to take a peek.

Find out what other nail polishes and nail care products I loved in 2012 after the jump!

Finished! The April edition

Despite thinking I might not have many empties this month, I still managed to finish 7 products, so that's pretty good. My first one is Avon Clarifying Toner Pads which are basically pads soaked through with toner that's supposed to help keep your skin blemish free. They were okay, but I always forgot to use them, it took me probably more than a year to use up 45 pads, and I don't think I'll bother with buying them again. I don't normally use toner and these pads didn't seem to make much difference to my skin.

See what other products I used up in April after the jump!

Mission: Nail Rescue part 4 - The Conclusion

This is the fourth part of my nail rescue mission report and unfortunately the results are not as good as I would have hoped, especially based on what Nails Inc promised me on the box of their treatment pack. According to them, by 6 weeks I should be seeing a big improvement in the condition of my splitting, weak nails. Unfortunately this is not the case. My nails have stopped splitting further, that's true, but even after 7 weeks they are still weak and very bendy. They break easily and the nail polish still chips off them in a matter of hours because they are so bendy. 

I was also unimpressed by the amount of cuticle oil included in the set as it ran out within 4 weeks or so. I'm still only halfway through the base coat, yet I have no cuticle oil left. Mind you, the cuticle oil didn't seem to make much of a difference anyway. 

I will keep using the base coat and top coat (the latter is really fast drying) and keep taking the food supplement, so hopefully there will be some more improvement. I have also invented in Mavala's Scientifique which is a nail hardener that you put on the tip of your nails only and I have to say, that has made some difference. I haven't done anything with my nails lately as I haven't been well for the last 9 days, but will persevere. The only thing with that is if you get it on your skin, it hardens that too, so you have to be very careful. I don't know if that's the reason why, but the skin next to the tip of my nail on my right thumb has cracked twice over the last week or so. Maybe it's because of the weather, I don't know, but it is pretty painful. 

Anyway, here are some more pictures of my miserable looking nails. I think you can agree that the mission has been unsuccessful.

Mission: Nail Rescue part 3

Following on from my post 2 weeks ago, here's another update on my Nail Rescue Mission. I'm now 5 weeks into my Nails Inc treatment and to be honest, although there is some improvement, it's still not great. My nails are in a bit better shape, there's no new peeling, although I'm still waiting for the very thin bits to grow out, and growth is very slow. I have switched to Tesco's nail supplement (simply because I was shopping there when I needed to stock up) and I've also started wearing nail polish again as I got bored with not being able to wear any, as a result I'm only applying the base coat every 2-3 days now. None of these seem to have an adverse effect on my nails luckily.

Well that's all for now and I will update you again in a couple of weeks' time.

Week 4

To see more photos of my nails and the new supplement I'm using, continue to read on!

Mission: Nail rescue! Part two

I didn't get around to posting an update last week as I was extremely busy, so I've decided to show you 2 weeks' progress in one post. Unfortunately there isn't actually that much progress to talk about. My nails are still peeling, bendy and week, and are still very short. (If you don't know what I'm on about, check out my initial post here.)

I have been religiously using the Nails Inc treatment and taking the food supplement I told you about in my first post. I forgot to say that I've also swapped my cheapo nail polish remover to a Sally Hansen one, hoping that that will make a difference too. So far, nothing. I will persevere and hope that eventually there will be some improvement.

For now, here are some not very pretty pictures.

Week 2

Week 2

Week 3

Week 3

See what I mean? There's hardly any difference. :( I'll let you know how I get on next week. 

Mission: Nail rescue! Part one

I have always had really weak, bendy nails, but unfortunately lately they have started splitting as well. I put it down to either using Seche Vite top coat or the cheap nail polish remover I bought from Sainsbury's. Or maybe neither, I don't know. In any case, I needed to take some action, so I bought a treatment pack from Nails Inc and supplements to boost my vitamin and mineral levels.

I'm going to show you over the coming weeks how I get on, hopefully I can report some improvement. Annoyingly I didn't take any pictures of my nails at the start of the treatment, but I have been taking them weekly since. So here's what my nails looked like one week into the treatment (beware, not a pretty sight!):

You can see what bad shape the nails are on my index and middle fingers especially, my thumbs are the same too. The skin around them is horribly dry too despite me using hand cream all the time. To be honest there isn't really a big change in their condition since I started the treatment, but they have stopped peeling even further, so I guess that's an achievement, and I know I have to wait for the weak bits to grow down to see any huge improvements (hopefully).

What products am I using?