My Favourite Nail Products

Hello all,

A bit of a different post this week where I thought I would show you some of my favourite nail products that I use the most when I do my nails.

First things first, to take of the previous week's design or colour I use Cutex Nourishing Nail Polish Remover.

Apologies for this being a phone photograph, but I decant my remover into a bottle with a twist and pump lid so I didn't actually have a bottle any more.  This says it's for weak nails, which I don't consider myself to have, but I love the moisturising and nail whitening of this remover.  I have very flaky nails and I always find that I need added moisture and this is perfect.  I do think it does a good job of removing basic stains, although I have worn some colours recently where stains have not budged.  Having said that I don't think that's because of this remover, but just the colour of the stain.  Compared to the smell of most removers this has quite a nice smell which makes taking polish off that bit nicer.  This is £1.60 for a 100ml bottle in Boots.

Next up, it's generally time for a buff and file down or shape.  I use an Andrea Fulerton buffing block, a basic 4 sided buffing block and QVS nail files.

The Andrea Fulerton buffing block is only for really bad staining or ridges as it is very harsh or the nails.  I wouldn't use this every week as I am sure it would cause more damage than good in the long run, but for those occasions that an ordinary block just wont do then I would recommend this.  I mainly use this if my nails are particularly stained by a colour.  I got mine from Superdrug, but I cannot find it on their website so I'm not sure how much it is - sorry.

The basic 4 sided buffing block is used more on a week by week basis, as this has sides for shaping, smoothing, refining and shining.  I'm sure everyone has come across these before, and they are pretty self explanatory really.  I got mine from Boots and you can get a similar one for £2 from there.

QVS nail files are my files of choice.  There's nothing especially fancy about them, I just like them.  They have a medium and a fine side; medium is obviously more course for filing down and shaping, and the fine side would be used for creating a smoother finish.

Next it's on to protecting my nails.  I use Essie Nourish Me. 

As I said, I have quite flaky nails and I find this helps.  It's a nourishing base coat which hydrates the nails.  I got this from Boots for £8.99, which is quite a lot, but I have had it for some time now and you can see how much is still left.

I don't just use the Essie as a base coat because I want to do as much as I can to stop staining on my nails so I use Sally Hansen Double Duty base coat.  This is a two in one and can be used as a top coat as well, but I just stick to it for my base.  After this has dried I go ahead and paint my colour or design and then I seal everything in with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat.

I really like the Sally Hansen products, Insta-Dri especially as it really does what it says.  It dries polish quickly and gives my nails a beautiful shine.  I have been using it for years now and don't go for anything else.  I used to use Sally Hansen Mega Shine top coat as well which I really liked, but I wanted something to really speed up the drying time.  These are £5.25 for the Double Duty and £5.99 for the Insta-Dri from Boots.

To finish off and to keep my cuticles nice I use my Nails Inc. Vitamin E Oil Pen.

This is a lovely lavender smelling oil for conditioning and hydrating the cuticles.  It's a brush pen and you just twist the bottom of the pen a couple of clicks and brush the oil around the cuticles of each nail.  It sinks in to the skin quite quickly leaving cuticles looking lovely and doesn't leave an oily residue behind. 

I hope you have enjoyed seeing what I use and maybe found some ideas for new things to try x