Cuticle care

For a beautiful manicure, it is not enough just to maintain the shape of your nails and cover them with varnish. It is necessary to take care of the thin strip of skin around the nail - the cuticle. And although it is removed during manicure, it performs an important function - it protects against penetration fungus and dirt.

How to care for your cuticle

For quality cuticle care, it is important to choose a good product. The modern beauty industry produces a huge variety of products for manicure and in particular for the cuticle. On the shelves of cosmetic stores you can find preparations for softening the cuticle, oils, creams, elixirs and many other useful products. All of them are designed for doing a neat manicure yourself.

In addition to quality cuticle products, you need to adhere to some important rules for caring for this part of the nail:

• Avoid doing trimmed manicures yourself. This requires a professional approach so as not to damage the skin around the nail.
• If you have hangnails, do not pick or bite them off - inflammation may begin. It is better to trim the skin carefully with nail scissors.
• Use only high-quality cosmetics and varnishes.
• When doing housework, wear gloves to protect your hands from the harmful effects of household chemicals.
• After lubricating your hands with cream, massage the area near the base of the nail for several minutes.
• Exfoliate your hands occasionally.

How to soften cuticles

In any type of manicure, be it a classic cut or a European one, you need to soften the cuticle. For this purpose, various special means are used. If you don’t have a professional cuticle softener at hand, then the usual one will come to the rescue. castor oil. By the way, this is what is included in almost all softeners.

Castor oil perfectly softens dry skin around the nail plate and is perfectly absorbed without leaving a greasy residue. Castor oil should be applied a drop at a time to each nail and rubbed into the base of the nail for several minutes, using massaging movements.

In addition to castor oil, baths can be used to soften the cuticle. For example, a bath with sea salt added to it and aromatic oils will quickly soften the cuticle and have a healing effect on nails and skin.

How to remove cuticle

After the cuticle has softened, it must be removed. When performing a classic manicure, the cuticle is cut with a special tool. These can be nail scissors, tweezers or a fork.

The softened cuticle must be moved to the base of the nail. This is done with a special stick that does not damage the nail. Do not use metal plates to move the cuticle - they damage the nail, making it brittle.

Now cut the cuticle with scissors or tweezers. First, cut off the dead skin from the sides of the nail, and then from the bottom in an arc. Proceed carefully so as not to injure the skin. After finishing cutting the cuticle, apply a special cream to it and massage it.

In European manicure, the cuticle is not cut off, but removed using a special product. It is applied to the cuticle area for a few minutes, and then the softened cuticle is removed with an orange stick. Finally, a special cream is applied to the nails and a light massage is performed.