How to get away with polished nails as natural

I have had reasons to try this out lately. For people in the health care industry, long polished nails are strictly prohibited. It is not that hard to figure out why, but I can also think of reasons why one shouldn't always take it so damn seriously.

Now that I have been working at the community for the elderly for three weeks, my nails are pretty damaged. I use a alcohol desinfectant probably up to 25 times a day. As soon as a staff member leaves a room after nursing one of the elders, they have to desinfect. That can happen many many times throughout the day.

Already after a few days I started noticing some damage to my nails. They started peeling very quickly, and I broke off a few corners- without even noticing it. It was as if they just disappeared! My nails very quickly got really soft and when I got breaks I could easily just tear off the entire tip.

This was the condition my nails were in before I discovered the world of nail care, little over a year ago. And it took me a long time to grow out decent nails. In fact, they had just gotten really nice when I started this period of training.

After two weeks of working, I noticed the nail surface was so worn I realised that my nails wouldn't survive at all if I didn't do something. Fast. And I had noticed that some of the other girls in my work place were sloppy about following the rule of no nail polish, and that combined with my new knowledge in nursing lead to my desicion to start protecting my nails.

But I didn't want anyone to notice this. Even though my co-workers isn't always following all the rules themselves, I felt that it was best that they didn't even find anything to criticise.

Look at my nails below. Would you believe they are carefully manicured?

Sure you would, not only do you already know they are, but you are also very familiar with the look of the natural nail. But pretend you saw these in a working environment. At least not that obvious, huh?

Here is what I used:

My latest holy grail nail treatment- Avon Nail Experts Length and Strength Complex, my holy grail strengthener base coat Nail Tek Citra 2, and Nubar V for men.

The bottle of Avon is an old one, but still sometimes possible to find on ebay, though I would guess the product in the new bottle is the same- or at least I am hoping so -so any would do. I first got this one as a surprise from my friend Monica of Wixology, after nagging a lot about how my nails were killed by Nubar Nu Nail. Monica had heard this was the holy grail treatment of another member of the Makeupalley nail board, an unnamed person with loooooooong nails, and had then tried it herself with great success, now passing the little secret on to me. This treatment is the kind that will be absorbed by the nail, and you can use it as a brittleness remedy cure, applying it twice a day for a week to naked nails. I have done so in the past and noticed great improvement! When my nails are polished, I usually apply it to the underside of my tip every night, and also, I saturate my nails with it whenever I change my polish. You will have to make sure to remove any excess before applying polish, though!

Citra 2 is a product I also discovered after I had used Nu Nail for too long. After treating my nail with the Avon product for five days, I started polish my nails again, mostly out of boredom but also for protection, and I used Citra 2 as my base. Not only did I discover it was a heck of a base, Citra 2 really did the job of keeping my nails great.

So, now, with the working situation, I have tried to saturate my nails with the Avon treatment as often as I could remember to, and last week, I decided to start protecting them with Citra 2 as well. I wrapped my little nubbins as much as I could. But of course, Citra 2 dries shiny. I felt the risk of being exposed! So I added one coat of V for men on top. V has the right satiny, natural looking finish- other matte top coats tend to be too chalky.

And don't worry. I don't feel like I am compromising someone's health doing this. We are wearing gloves all the the time when caring for the elders anyway!



This is what my remover graveyard urn looked like the other day:

No sign of activity lately... But soon, I will be adding used, remover drenched cotton pads to it again! Only five more work shifts! Then I am free until the end of this semester, when my next ass wiping training will take place. I have already ordered a new jar of Biotin, and I am thinking of taking a double dose, so my nails will grow out super fast. Haha!

Swedish expression of the moment:
slutet är nära the end is close
Because it is!