Chipped and brittle nails are making your hands look ugly? Blame the 20-minute hand wash routine that you take up so often amid round-the-clock work from home in the lockdown. And it’s not just work from home, it’s also a great deal of work at home. In between those Zoom sessions, you have to run to the kitchen for cooking and wash dishes in the absence of a house help. To top it, you binge eat unhealthy snacks to pacify your work-related and pandemic anxiety. This has your body robbed of essential nutrients and has a direct effect on your nail health as well. We have some quick homecare ideas and you can nail them too!
How to get clean and shapely nails
Clean them - Do you love digging your hand into greasy delicious food and relishing them? Who doesn’t? But remember to wash your hands especially the nails properly after each such meal to get rid of the haldi stain.
Be gentle - Don’t use all your might while you try a
pedicure at home. The scrubbing should be done gently. Avoid using sharp metal tools and put too much pressure to clean under your nails. It may cause the nail plate to separate from the skin, leaving chances of fungal infection.
Trim regularly - Trimming your nails every fortnight is as important as trimming your hair every one and a half month. Also, don’t forget to clip and gently file them. For both your fingernails and toe nails, trim them right after shower when they are softer. Make sure your cut them straight across. Also, file the corners round.
Push cuticles - Trying to cut your cuticles is a big mistake. They prevent germs from entering and infecting nails. No matter how outgrown they are just push them back with a blunt-edged nail file.
Moisturise well - Once done with the cleaning and shaping, make it a point to moisturise your hands, especially the nails, properly.
Tips for healthy nails
Stay hydrated
Pay attention to your diet
Be careful about products you use
Don’t use your nails to pop cans
Give your nails a break from polish at times
Use a base coat
Keep your nails short
Check if nail plates are healthy pinkish-white in colour
Keep nails clean and dry always
Stock up on your protein intake
Wear gloves for dishwashing
Trendy nail colours
Baby blue
Muted lilac
Mauve
Off-white
Gold
Fuchsia
Bright yellow
Pistachio
Denim blue
Cherry red
Metallic hues
Champagne
Style your nails with bright art
Splash of colours - For beginners, this is quite easy. Apply a base quote of white on all nails. Take three of your favourite bright nail shades. Place a little each on small holders. Take three stiff paint brushes and dip them into the colours. Now splash them on the white base. This sounds messy but once you clean up the fingers, the nails will look bright and beautiful.
Flower power - Take white and purple colours. Paint all fingers with purple colour barring the middle finger and ring finger on both hands. Now on the clean nails apply white colour. Use purple with a thin brush to draw roundish (need not be perfect) flowers. You can use black nail colour to draw thin lines showing branches.
Sober ombre - They created quite a buzz. First, apply a base coat of the peach on your nails. On a clean plastic sheet, pour out the peach and pink colours right next to each other. Use the toothpick to blend both the shades. Dab the sponge onto the colour blend. Now gently dab the piece of sponge on your nails. Clean the areas surrounding the nails. Apply the final top coat of clear polish.
Chic and classy - Apply two coats of black nail polish. Let it dry. Cut out strips of scotch tape and stick them diagonally across your nails. Apply a layer of gold nail polish on the uncovered section of the nail. Pull off the scotch tape along the direction of the stroke of your nail polish to get a neat line. Paint a finishing layer of clear polish to seal it.
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