Essential Handcare

There are many products on the market to help you achieve beautiful manicured hands, these are my favorites that give me "professional" results and help to get my hands camera ready. I have a "dry" (no soaking in a ball of soapy warm water) manicure once a week when all the products below are used, otherwise only the last two, CND Solar Oil and Kiehl's Ultimate Strength Hand Salve do I use on a daily basis to maintain and condition my hands.

Step 1

Use a glass or crystal file to shape and shorten nails to the desired length. I love to use this very large over sized glass file, it gives a lot of control and can shorten my nails quicker than scissors.








Step 2


To remove dead and dry bits of cuticles, I use CND Cuticle Away, as you can see this is an industrial size bottle I will probably never finish it, another product that works equally well, is Sally Hanssen Cuticle Remover (blue bottle).

I apply Cuticle Away liberally all around my nails, not as the instructions say on the bottle, and leave it on longer than the suggested time as well, about 2 minutes. After 2 minutes use the Orange stick to push the cuticles back and scrape the dead skin off the nail bed.







Step 3

No photo for this step, wash hands thoroughly with soap and warm water and use a nail scrubbing brush or a tooth brush to clean under the nails and also to remove the softened but still attached dead cuticles a little more. Dry hands completely before proceeding onto the next step.


Step 4


Apply 1 tablespoon of CND almond Moisturizing Scrub on dry and clean hands, scrub the hands thoroughly including the nails, rinse with warm water and dry. There are many other hand scrubs on the market that are equally good and of course, you can make your own, all you need is Olive oil and some large crystal sea salt.














Step 5

Use the cuticle nipper to remove any hangnails and only loose DEAD bits of cuticles, never cut your cuticles with scissors, if you use these products you will never have to anyway, your cuticles will be soft and almost non visible.










Step 6

Solar Oil is the only product, that has no equal in my opinion, I watched many times and it is true, the oil does get absorbed by the nails making them flexible and strong. Apply solar oil just like nail polish, paint the entire nail surface and around the nails as well. Leave the oil on your nails at least for 30 minutes and try not to touch anything so it doesn't get wiped off. This is the hardest part, to not do anything but wait! However, this is the one crucial or magic product that will make a difference to your nails and cuticles. On a daily basis, apply solar oil on top of nail polish and the cuticle area twice a day, the nail polish does not absorb the oil completely, but I believe that a little bit does get absorbed, which makes the nail polish flexible and longer lasting.








Step 7

My daily routine: I usually wait around 5 minutes after the solar Oil was applied on my nails before applying my favorite hand cream. Why is this so good? It sinks or melts into the skin very fast and almost leaves no residue, I say almost, because not completely, but as close as I can get to non greasy moisturized and soft hands in the shortest time. I hate grease on my hands, this is why I like this cream the most, it leaves me with the slightest grease on my palms, which can be easily wiped away with a tissue paper and have ready to work hands instantly. Hand salve is also fragrance free, which is another criteria for me, I love perfume, but only the kind that comes in a perfume bottle.