How-To Build a Nail Polish Collection – Part one

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• Ponikuta

Building a nail polish collection from scratch can be daunting. I have to admit I was the girl with just a nail clipper and a nail file in her beauty cabinet up until I was 18 years old, and to be honest, I was genuinely happy and content about it at that time. That all changed when nail art exploded into the market and I was intrigued by all these colours and art deco in comparison to my plain-o-naked nails.

Slowly, I started with including a base coat, top coat and a nail buffer to my tiny DIY manicure collection. Then I ventured a little with colours. I started off with a fire engine red nail polish (classy, I know!), pale pink and pearl white nail polish. When I was eventually feeling a bit braver, I added black, dark blue, hot pink, glittery shades and green to my collection.  After that, it just escalated from there with “in season” colours, what shades celebrities were wearing and the “lust have” nail colour by beauty editors.

In due course, my nails were constantly stained, brittle, weak and thinning with my over-enthusiasm that need to change nail polish on a weekly basis. I was beyond shattered to have to bare my naked nails to let me nails breathe. I felt so plain and NAKED. Thank god for Internet, I quickly did some research (so glad I did!) and rushed out to fetch nourishing oil for nails. I never looked back.

They turned my nails from ugly-floorboard-scrubbing-Cinderella-nails to pretty princess-ey nails. They were healthy, stronger and well nourished. At one point, I saw rainbows and Carebears dancing on my nails.* At around the same time, I also had taken to the habit of gently scratching the sides and surface of my nails (including toes) in the shower to remove dead skin cells and dirt.

Needless to say ladies, in order to have pretty nails you gotta have a strong healthy foundation for your nail beds.

Here are some of the products I’ll recommend for healthy nails fit for weekly polish torture:
• These goes without saying: nail clipper, nail file, nail buffer
• Culticle stick
• Culticle exfoliator (OPI)
• Ridge filler (seriously, if you have uneven nail surface, you’ll NEED this.)
• Nail strengtheners (if you have weak nails)
• Base coat + top coat (nowadays they have clever products that combine these 2 in 1.)
• Nourishing oil (Ps, OPI and Revitanail do good ones)
• Take supplement pills for healthy hair and nails (check them out from your local pharmacy)
• Silica gel (some swear by this, I haven’t try this out yet!)

Next week, I’ll continue with what colours to build your own nail polish library, maintenance and nail polish after-care.

*Possibly my imagination from all the rum in that chocolate pudding.

Happy nails,

Ponikuta

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