LeSalon guide to beautiful nails all year round

It’s a common misconception that maintaining perfect hands and nails is a time-consuming luxury. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Our nail industry experts share their ideal nail care routine, that’ll keep your hands in tip-top shape all year round. Bonus: It’s quick and easy! We’ll also discuss certain products, ingredients and bad habits to avoid to achieve your dream hands.

LeSalon Nail Care

As a foundation for your nail care routine, LeSalon nail gurus highly recommend regular manicures. Whether this means weekly, fortnightly, or monthly, is dependent upon your lifestyle factors. The manicures will lift the shape of your nails, tidiness of your cuticles, and softness of your skin to a higher base level. This will make your at-home maintenance much easier and less time-consuming. If you’re concerned about fitting regular manicures into your busy life, we’re here to help. LeSalon sends expert nail technicians to you – anytime, anywhere! The video playlist below shows quick snippets of our at-home treatments, if you’re interested.

In-between Manicures

Sure we’d all love manicures daily or weekly, but for whatever reason, it’s not always possible. If you’re going for manicures every other week or monthly, your nails are in good shape. But for beautiful nails, an in-between manicures routine is necessary.

We are huge advocates of daily moisturising. All it takes is one minute after showering, and the payoff is softer and younger looking hands. Your cuticles will also benefit from this as they are essentially dried and hardened bits of skin around your nails. If moisturised daily, they will become less prominent. For further cuticle nourishment, we recommend applying cuticle oil daily too.

Clip your nails according to personal length preference. After clipping, file your nails for consistent nail shapes. When filing your nails, avoid too much downward pressure, over-filing, or poor quality nail files. All of these can damage and weaken your nail plate.

Customising Your Nail Care

Not all nails are created equal! Depending on your lifestyle, age or career, you may need to customise your nail care routine.

As we age, our skin becomes drier, so you need to adhere strictly to your moisturising regimen. Even amp it up to twice daily. If you spend a lot of time working with your hands, such as building, playing sports, or gardening, we’d recommend more regular manicures. Habits are another person-specific issue that gets in the way of perfect nails. We know it’s difficult to break habits, but these six habits are preventing you from perfect hands!

Biting Nails

This is a common one, and many people have been biting their nails since childhood. One of the tried and tested solutions is anti-bite polish. It’s a polish, cream or ointment you put on and around your nails. It tastes terrible, and the taste lingers in your mouth for ten minutes. This method coupled with the will to quit this nasty habit will, no doubt, result in success.

Picking Cuticles

You might think you’re helping the situation, keeping those cuticles under wraps but you’re actually causing damage. If you’re picking at or over-cutting your cuticles, you’re more prone to bacteria and infection. It’s an impulsive habit that will require active work to quit. Commonly, cuticle dryness is a trigger for cuticle picking. So, replace this bad habit with a good one – moisturising. Use a hand cream and/or a cuticle oil to keep those slivers of skin under control.

Over-buffing

It can be satisfying to see your nails tidy up and reveal that sheen. But over-buffing can lead to thinning and weakening of nails that can be painful. Buff your nails less often, and do so with gentle pressure in one direction.

Picking Off Polish

Everyone is probably guilty of this at some point. But if this is a habit, carry around a pack of nail polish remover pads in your purse. Or top up the chipped polish to make your manicure last longer, and then commit to removing it all at once. Picking off polish usually takes off the top layer of your nail as well as the polish. It thins and weakens your nails. If you have Shellac on, have a professional remove this for you. Create a routine of booking your next appointment while you’re getting your current Shellac done.

Skipping Base Coat

You might not think the base coat is that important, but really it is a nail life-saver. Spend that extra time to put the base coat on before the polish. Base coat protects your nail from staining and helps the polish adhere to your nails.

Harmful Nail Products & Ingredients

Following our nail care guide will bring you much closer to amazing nails, but if you use too many harmful nail products, your nail care efforts may be in vain.

Nail care products can contain toxic and potentially harmful ingredients, in varying amounts. These products can stain and weaken your nails. We recommend you, at the very least, avoid the “toxic trio’. Or even take it one step further and go 5-free. To read more about the toxic trio and 5-free polishes, read our blog post about our exclusive partner, Nailberry, and their 5-free polishes.

Another product to be wary of is cuticle remover creams. Cuticle removers are very acidic, with PH of over 12. This helps break down the dead skin around the nail bed. When used correctly, these creams are safe, but if left on too long or not washed thoroughly off the skin, it can damage your skin and nails. For a less aggressive product, try products without the two active ingredients, sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide.

We also advise against using harsh cleaning products such as bleach without wearing gloves. Strong sun creams can also alter the colour of polish or Shellac.

So there you have it, LeSalon’s nail care guide to beautiful nails all year. For more nail and beauty tips, make sure to check out our blog. If you’re ready to step up your nail care to the next level, why not start with one of our manicures or pedicures.