Perhaps you’re determined to stop biting your nail or peeling off your gel polish. Or maybe just want to maintain your nail health or learn how to fake a just-from-salon type of mani. Whatever the case, you’ll want to put nails pro Madeline Poole’s advice into action as soon as possible. Here, 12 things you need to stop doing to your nails now to keep them in tip-top shape.
Below Are 3 Things To Stop Doing To Your Nails
Stop Cutting Your Cuticle In Your Nail
You have a hangnail on the side of your nail bed, it can sometimes be painful if you don’t get rid of it. However, if hangnail aren’t trimmed away properly, you can actually cause more to crop up. Poole’s advice: It’s better to never cut your cuticle-removing formula over the perimeter of your nail’s bed, and then push your cuticle back using the flat tip of an orange stick or cuticle pusher. Then, gently remove the free-pusher. Then, gently remove the free-up dead skin with a tissue or the softest side of a buffing block to reveal a hangnail-free, clean-looking nail bed.
Stop Using Your Other Nails As Chisel To Chip Off Your Nail Polish
Anytime you purposely chip the paint off of your nails, you chip away microscopic layers from your nail’s bed. This is bad for two reasons: (1) It gives your nails a rough texture even if you can’t see it with your eye, and (2) You can cause trauma to, and even chip or break the tip, of the nails that you’re using as the chisel, Poole adds. So, to keep from hacking away at your nail polish, keep individually wrapped nail polish remover pads in your purse or pick up a nail polish removing formula that takes off lacquer in seconds.
Stop Getting water-Based Manicures
Think of your nails bed as a sponge: Dip it in water, and it’ll absorb the liquid and expand. Then, as it dries, it shrinks back down to its original size. Now apply that same thinking to getting a water-based manicure. When you soak your fingertips in water to soften your cuticles, your nails expand. This normally wouldn’t be a problem however, if you’re applying polish before it shrinks back down, your lacquer will likely chip faster. Rather than soaking your tips in water, Poole recommends applying oil or a cuticle removing formula on the skin around your nail bed, pushing back your cuticles with an orange stick, and then sweeping them away with a tissue.
