The routine that saved my natural nails
My most recent all consuming, beauty hyper fixation 💅🏼🎀
I’m the kind of person who can’t be normal about things. When something piques my interest, I become obsessed, and what starts as curiosity quickly turns into an all consuming, somewhat deranged hyper fixation. I’ll spend hours researching, experimenting, and diligently uncovering every little detail online. Most recently, that passion has been directed at my natural nail journey. Long story short, I realized that maintaining my hair this current shade of red, which requires consistent salon visits, meant something else in my beauty budget had to go, and after some brutal evaluation, gel manicures ended up on the chopping block. Interestingly, this shift aligns with the broader “recession beauty” discourse I’ve been noticing in recent think pieces, and most notably in a recent episode of Gloss Angeles, where even beauty editors admitted they’re struggling to keep up with their routines. Looks like things are generally so bad, I’m not the only one rethinking my routines.
Anyways, at my removal appointment, I learned that after a few years of builder gel, my natural nails underneath looked like hell. They were super weak, brittle, and basically peeled away anytime I so much as touched anything. So I took to the internet, sleuthing like crazy and watching just about every TikTok I could find, to try and find products I really thought could help me out. I wasn’t necessarily interested in growing my nails long, I just wanted them to look healthy, and be in a place where they weren’t constantly snapping and breaking.
Here’s everything I used to nurture my brittle little nails and keep them healthy.
For immediate rehabilitation
When it comes to nail rehab, cutting them down to tiny nubs and letting the damaged part grow out is really the only way to get them back to normal. Depending on how long your nail beds are, this might happen faster than you think. In the meantime, the goal is just to avoid doing any further damage and to keep them as hydrated as possible.
Basically, whenever I remembered to, but especially right before bed, I’d apply hand creams and nail oils. After trying a bunch, my favorite ended up being a nail oil called Nail Honey, which I now reapply obsessively throughout the day. That consistent use is probably what’s made the biggest difference in my nails. Any nail oil that inspires you to use it regularly is good, but it’s super important to make sure the formula includes jojoba oil, since it’s the oil that closely mimics the natural oils our bodies produce, allowing it to really get in there and hydrate the nail plate and surrounding skin. I also liked Nail Honey specifically because it comes in this little clicky-pen with a brush, which made it weirdly satisfying to use.
I mentioned this during my recent bag dump, but my go-to daytime hand cream is, somewhat unexpectedly, the Hand + Nail Balm from Pleasing. I haven’t tried anything else from the brand but I’m super into this product. It’s rich and cushiony without being overly greasy, and it keeps my cuticles soft and hydrated throughout the day. At night, I switch to the Theraplush hand cream from Soft Services. It’s designed specifically for overnight use, and is formulated with retinoids, panthenol, and colloidal oatmeal to deeply moisturize, slough off dead skin, and soothe your hands and nails. By morning, my hands feel smoother, and my nails look like I just had a fresh manicure. It’s expensive, but worth it.
Then adding a little strength
After a week or two of just letting my nails rest with absolutely nothing on them but a bit of moisture throughout the day, I then decided to see what I could do to build up some strength, so that the fragile, damaged nail would stop cracking and splitting while I waited for it to grow out. After much sleuthing on Reddit, I learned that OPI’s Nail Envy was the best way to do this. Nail Envy is basically a protein and calcium infused hardener that works by adds more keratin layers. It gives bendy, weak nails some structure so they’re less likely to rip, split, or peel.
There’s a little bit of a learning curve with Nail Envy. You have to apply it in layers, first with a thin base coat, which you let dry, and then go in with a second. And it’s super important to clean your nails first, like actually remove any oil sitting on them. I’ve learned that if i don’t use a little bit of polish remover before I apply it, it’ll peel off in a day. After that, you’re supposed to apply a fresh coat every day for seven days. I followed the directions carefully, and by the end of the week noticed a massive difference. My nails just weren’t breaking as often, after weeks of them being insanely brittle. You can also get Nail Envy in a bunch of different colors, but I liked the sheer rosy color the best. It’s kind of like a less glossy version of Dior Nail Glow, which we’ll get too later
At home manicure and maintenance
I’ve always been pretty hopeless at doing my own manicures, but taking care of your nails so they don’t split or snap is key to helping them grow strong and healthy. So I ordered a little Manicure Tool Kit from Amazon and try to keep things as simple as possible to minimize the chance of messing them up.
The first step, and truly the game changer, is this Sally Hansen Instant Cuticle Remover I found through a nail tech subreddit. It softens and dissolves any excess cuticle skin and even helps gently lift away hangnail bits. After that, I use the cuticle pusher that came with the kit to gently push everything back. That alone makes a huge difference. I barely need to use the clippers anymore, which is great because that’s usually where I mess up (I’ve even cut myself a few times). Then I conservatively shape with a nail file and smooth everything over with a buffing bar.
That sets me up to finish with either OPI Nail Envy or my holy grail Dior Nail Glow. Okay, okay, I know I’ve talked about this product for what feels like a decade, but Dior Nail Glow really is the polish of my dreams. It’s the ultimate your-nails-but-better staple and I haven’t found anything else that comes close. If you’ve somehow missed me yapping about it before, it has a pinkish-blue tint that cancels out any yellow tones and just makes your nails look healthier. I always say it’s the polish I wore on my wedding day, it’s that important to me.