By Chrissy Iley
I used to feel undressed without colour on my nails and not in a clean or healthy way but sort of slovenly and unkempt. It started years ago with a trip to New York. It was a time when nail bars didn’t exist in the UK and a manicure was strictly for special occasion. I love the idea that American women didn’t need a special occasion and then colour on my nails began and never ended. Until this year my nails became so weak and peeling they couldn’t hold polish and I was forced into naked nails. That’s the equivalent of going for breakfast in your pyjamas and then staying in your pyjamas all day. It’s like depressed people who don’t wash and I was very depressed about it.
People said Vitamin E. I took it by the bucket to no avail. Somebody else said that I was so stressed I was using all my B vitamins and the body doesn’t think nails are important so it steals from them. So I took B vitamins. Then I was told Selenium and Zinc are the answer. And then when I went in to Jessica the nail aesthetician said Biotin. But before Biotin she was going to sort it all out. And she did. She applied and I later bought Nourish ($6.40)which is a cuticle therapy, a blend of antioxidants and vitamins and healing agents. It smells like Marzipan and it feeds the Matrix of the nail as you massage it in to stimulate growth, healthy growth. It smelt so healing. Then she prescribed an oil called Phenomen oil ($15.40)which is a lovely conditioning oil, rehydrating, it too smells gorgeous. It includes almond and Jehova oils. I’ve used it on my face too as my skin got very dry from plane travel. It comes in tiny sizes so you can travel with it.
I used the Jessica quick drying polish. Why do I not always use quick drying polish? I suppose because the range of colours is usually less, but this is not the case. It dried before I had a chance to ruin it and after two six hour plane trips my nails are still intact. You have to apply both of them every day quite diligently but they work and just to have Marzipan at your fingertips makes it doubly worthwhile.