Save Your Nails from Damage

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Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

There are many many things which can damage your nails from cleaning with chemicals to too many acrylic manicures and many things in between. Thankfully, there are also lots of things that you can do to revive your nails once they’ve been damaged, and although some of these solutions may be time-consuming, it will be well worth it to see your nails back to their best condition. Today we’re looking at five tips for saving your nails from damage and getting your hands back to their best.

Nourish Them

Nails which are suffering from damage are often dry and depleted from weeks and months of mistreatment. This means that you need to opt for a properly nourishing regime to help to replenish what your nails have lost. Nailtiques After Artificial Treatment Kit is a two-part treatment which nourishes and replenishes nails to quickly strengthen and rebuild them back to a healthy condition. Each formula should be applied every day for 5 days, and by the end of the ten day course, your nails will be revived.

Use a Nail Cream

Many people will use a moisturising hand cream, but forget that their nails also need to be moisturised. Nailtiques Nail Moisturiser is a non-greasy conditioning nail cream which is enriched with jojoba and aloe to nourish and condition the nails. This moisturiser will help your nails to build strength but remain flexible, which is the holy grail of the healthy nail.

Trim Them

If you’re trying to grow your nails, suggesting that you trim them may seem entirely counter-intuitive, but actually, trimming your nails will help them to grow evenly, which will make them stronger and healthier in the long run. Make sure you use a proper nail trimmer so that your nails aren’t bent and fractured in the process.

Opt for Nourishing Polishes

If you must use nail polish, you need to ensure that you opt for something which will both help to strengthen your nails, but do so without the use of damaging ingredients. We now stock CND nail polishes which are formulated without formaldehyde, DBP, toluene, formaldehyde resin or camphor and offer a week-long wah of colour and chip-resistant wear.

Don’t Forget Your Cuticles

Keeping your cuticles (the skin around your nails) healthy and nourished is also an important part of maintaining nail health. Nailtiques Cuticle Care Oil comes with a convenient rollerball applicator and instantly softens cuticles and sealing in moisture. It’s easy to apply and will help to keep your nails nourished and growing evenly.

How to Re-Grow Your Over-Plucked Eyebrows

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Here at Pure Beauty one of the ‘beauty truths’ that we wholeheartedly accept is that many things in the world of beauty and cosmetics are cyclical. This can mean that something which was fashionable for years can suddenly become the exact OPPOSITE of what’s fashionable now – and this has never been truer than it is with eyebrows! We all spent the majority of the Nineties and Noughties plucking our eyebrows into oblivion, only for 2017 to be the year of the heavy brow! Many of us have plucked our brows so much that we need a little help growing them back, so here are a few things you can try to give them a helping hand:

Step Away From the Tweezers!

This one may seem like a no-brainer, but you’re going to have to leave the tweezing alone completely for some time to allow all of your natural brows to grow back in. Once you’ve got a full set of eyebrow hairs, then you can reshape them (or even better, let a brow technician do it for you because, let’s face it, you can’t be trusted!) but until then you need to leave them alone.

Massage with Oil

Massaging the area will help in a few ways. Firstly, it will help to stimulate the hair follicles and encourage hair growth. Secondly, if you use an oil like Elemis Superfood Facial Oil it will trap moisture within the skin which your hair follicles need for healthy growth. Lastly, the nutrients within the oil, such as vitamin A and omegas, will also give your skin the vital nourishment it needs to be able to regrow the hairs.

Eat Protein

Hair and nails are made from a protein called keratin which is produced within the body, so it stands to reason that eating plenty of protein will help your body to have what it needs to some serious brow-growing. Things like meat, eggs, nuts and fish are all great sources of protein and will give you lots of hair-growing superpowers!

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is an essential nutrient for hair growth so as well as eating plenty of things which contain it (avocado, sweet potato and spinach, to name but a few), using a topical product like Dermalogica Multivitamin Power Firm can really help. It’s usually intended for use around the eye and mouth area to combat wrinkles, but adding an extra layer on your brows before bed can speed up the hair growth cycles.

Be Patient!

This step is really important! Hair growth usually follows a 3-4 month cycle, which means that from the moment you stop tweezing you may have to wait 16 weeks to see how your brows have grown in. You’re potentially going to look a little bizarre with wild brows in this time, but it’s well worth it and really is the only way you’re going to see what you’ve got left to work with once you stop the hideous cycle of over-plucking.

Grow your own this summer

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There’s nothing more rewarding, or tasty, as eating your own home-grown fruit and vegetables, and the good news is that right now is the best time to start growing your own!

With a plethora of crops that can be grown from seeds, there’s bound to be something you can grow however big or small your garden is, or even if you have no garden at all.

No Garden
If you are an urban dweller and don’t have a garden, we’re pretty sure you have window sills and where better to grow herbs and veg than on a sunny ledge? A quick trip to your local garden centre, or even supermarket, can get you set up with all you need to create a crop whatever you are working with.

Baby salad leaves are perfect for growing in small pots and tin troughs and because they are fast-growing you will soon get foliage and kitchen ingredients. Mint, parsley and coriander all work well as window plants and if the sun shines on you sills, basil is a winner too.

Small Gardens
Small gardens are the perfect place for creating an eclectic mix of flowers, fruit and vegetables. Choose a mix of crops that you actually want to eat, say strawberries, tomatoes and peas and complement these with sunflowers and pansies for impressive results.

If you have a courtyard or patio to work with, look no further than bags, pots and sacks to create a crop of potatoes, peas and peonies to be proud of. Again, you can add herbs into the mix and if you do decide to plant spuds, this reduces the risk of pesky slug invasions.

Large Gardens
If you are the owner of a bigger garden this will give you greater growing space and more opportunities to be creative and work big. Think about the space and the kind of garden you want to create. Are you looking for structure and fine detail or do you have children and therefore need flexibility as climbing frames and bikes come into the equation? Plan out your garden into various areas, look at where you get the most sun, where there are shady areas and consider the soil type as this can influence what you grow. Trees can be a lovely part of any garden and if you have the space, you can look at creating a mini orchard. Apple, pear and plum trees are all pretty easy to grow and maintain and the labour of your love will be compotes, chutney, jellies and jams all year round.

To take away the English weather’s ability to crush your crops, when you have a large space you can incorporate a greenhouse. These are perfect for growing things such as chillies and tomatoes as well as grapes and lemons but always ensure the greenhouse is clean at the start of the season and there is adequate ventilation otherwise things might not go quite to plan.

So, what are you waiting for? Pick your pots, sort your soil and get growing.

Team Pure Beauty

Sit back and relax

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The arrival of the Internet, email, and smart phones means we are living in 24/7 information age.

Given that we are constantly bombarded with perfect images and are expected to available all the time, it is little wonder that stress is on rise.

If you are feeling as if it is all too much, we have some tips that might just help calm things down.

Take some time out. Sounds obvious but when was the last time you did just that? If you are feeling overwhelmed you often start to panic, you become unproductive and things just get worse and worse. Leave the house, have a cup of tea, go for a run, just get away from it all and take stock.

We are all good at saying yes, but saying no is harder. Just because someone asks you out for lunch or to look after their children, doesn’t mean you have to say yes and you don’t have to feel guilty about saying no either. If you don’t have time, just say no.

We like to think we can multi-task, but it is often counter productive. You might be able to talk to a colleague whilst writing a business report but it is likely that you are not concentrating on either task 100% and mistakes will be made. If you focus on one thing at a time, you will soon start to feel calmer as jobs are done more effectively and faster.

Breath. Yes, we know we do it all the time but if you take time to really focus on your breathing you will feel more able to deal with life. Each hour, stop and take five deep breaths in and out (your tummy should come forward with each inhale). As you exhale, feel the stress leaving your body and focus on the moment.

Learn to be flexible. It doesn’t matter how carefully you plan and prepare, things can change at the last minute but it isn’t the end of the world. Rather than this causing upset, take a step back, regroup and find a way to deal with the new situation in a calm, happy way. We know you can do it.

Stop trying to be perfect. There are huge pressures to be amazing at everything, but this simply isn’t possible or realistic. Demanding perfection of yourself will only add to your stress levels, so lower expectations, do your best and you will feel happier.

This is an oldie, but a goodie – count to ten. If you feel it is all getting too much, stand up, walk away, count to ten then look at things in a new light.

Focus on the positives in life. Rather than thinking about the things you haven’t done or what isn’t right, give yourself a pat on the back for what goes well. The more you look on the bright side of life, the better life is!

Surround yourself with cheerful friends. Yes, life can be tough but toxic people will eat away at your happy levels and bring you down.

Get outside and do some exercise. Your to do list might be growing by the minute, but a little fresh air will clear your head and give you some breathing space so you can move forwards calmly.

Remember to smile because it is pretty hard to stay stressed with a grin on your face!

Team Pure Beauty