*Product(s) Featured purchased by KLK. Please see Disclaimer/Legal Page for more information*
**DISCLAIMER**
All photos shown are in their natural state. They have not been altered in any form other than to crop and add my watermark. Results are from use of Pure Nail Oil™ only - no other products were used during this 7 day period.
Good Morning Lovelies! Welcome to the big day! I'm so excited to share this post with you all! it's a long one, so grab a cup of coffee, pull up a chair and buckle in. I'm a big meanie, so you'll have do a little reading before you get to the actual reveal! Oooooh, the suspense!
Before I get to the reveal, I just want to let you all know that the most dramatic change you will notice at first is that my Stilettos are gone. I had decided to take them down to squares again since I was catching my son with them a bit too often at this length, and so that both hands were fairly even in length again while I decided which shape to eventually keep on both hands. Immediately after deciding that this is what I wanted to do, I managed to whack my index nail with a large knife while cutting watermelon for my kids, essentially setting that decision in stone. I have thus concluded that Pure Nail Oil™ does not protect from random knife attacks. And that's okay. ;) Now, onto the good stuff!
As everyone already knows, I have spent the last 7 days using a new to me Nail & Cuticle Oil called Pure Nail Oil™. I follow the lovely and brilliant Ana from Simple Nail Art Tips on Facebook, and I kept seeing these amazing before and after shots from people that had tried out Pure Nail Oil™ and achieved incredible improvement in their nails and cuticles in just days, and of course, my interest was piqued.
Now what some of you *DON'T* know, or know but haven't acknowledged out loud, is that for the past few months, I've been hiding a dirty little secret. Today, the secret is out. Lovelies - I was a chronic cuticle nipper. That's right, I did the unthinkable. I nipped and nipped at any and every little speck of dry or dead skin until I had nothing but bloody, cracked, swollen nubs for cuticles. On top of that, I'm also accident prone and do silly things like slam my fingers in doors, thus exacerbating the problem. Cuticle Remover? Forget it! That only made my cuticles even more raw, dry, and swollen. I was in a vicious cycle.
It's been like this as long as I can remember. I've had times where I managed to heal my cuticles, yet they were still dry and I still had to nip at all sorts of dry spots to make them look okay. I poured over other blogs looking for some sort of cuticle miracle, which led me to buying all sorts of different products. I've tried Lemony Flutter, which so many people swear by, and had zero results. Sure, my cuticles *looked* moisturized while it was on, but as soon as I washed my hands? Back to flaky, dry, cracked mess. I've tried, Avoplex, Solar Oil, Pure Almond Oil, Tea Tree Oil, Vitamin E, Some stuff from Nailtiques, Burt's Bees, and every lotion you can think of. All with the same, or less in the way of results. The only way to get my cuticles to appear close to normal was to slather, slather, slather 24 hours a day and either nip away the really bad stuff, or just not touch my cuticles at all and try and tolerate the huge dry spots, uneven eponychiums, and calloused skin around my nails.
At some point this past winter, even the slathering and barely touching my cuticles was working, so the nippers went to work full time. Unfortunately, with each and every nip, another piece of dry/dead skin would pop up, and before I knew it I had nipped away pretty much everything down to the skin between my non-existant eponychiums and my first knuckle. Even the skin from underneath the eponychium was dry and cracked, so that was nipped away as well.
For a blogger, this is a nightmare situation. How could I show my hands like that? I started using creative lighting to wash out the damage - which worked great at first. I started slathering with Solar Oil again, and leaving my cuticles alone, yet they just would not heal. The skin would look like it was healing, and then wham! Big chunk of dead skin that would have to be nipped away, leaving just sore, bleeding skin in it's wake. As the problem became worse, I added a skin smoothing setting to my photography settings, and started blurring out my cuticles as much as possible. As you can imagine, this took forever to get right when I was photographing my nails, and it would take a good 90 minutes or so just to get the pictures right. Then it would take another 90-120 minutes to blur everything out. Not only was this time consuming, but it goes against everything I believe in as a blogger. I edit my photos as little as possible, which usually means cropping and watermarking only. I pride myself on learning how to actually photograph without relying on an editing program, yet here I was having to edit out those nasty cuticles. I felt like a traitor and a hypocrite.
All throughout this process, I kept going back to those reviews of Pure Nail Oil™. The results that I was seeing were so amazing! I really wanted to try it fo rmyself, but just couldn't convince myself to order since nothing had worked before.
So I did some research. I poured over Ana's website at NailCareHQ.com, reading and re-reading her articles and learning about what makes Pure™ so different. I read about jojoba oil, and how it is the only oil that is similar to our own sebum, and therefore the only oil that can truly penetrate the nail plate. Since Sebum is out own bodys moisture system, it made sense that it would nourish not only the nail plate, but my horrible, traumatized cuticles as well, right?
Finally, I decided that I was going to order. I was convinced that since others were achieving such awesome results, that Pure™ could at least help my cuticles to heal a bit - at least to the point where I wouldn't have to mess with editing again.
If you've been following me on Facebook, you already know that once I received my Pure Nail Oil™, I fell in love. I started seeing results the very first day, and it's just kept getting better. I was so excited that I emailed Ana to share my results. She was so open and helpful - she encouraged me and helped me learn so much about nail and cuticle care. Ana is just a wonderful woman, and incredibly brilliant.
I could talk about my results all day long, but I believe that a picture speaks a thousand words.
First, let's take a look at the tragedy that were my cuticles BEFORE Pure Nail Oil™. These photos were taken throughout this month, the most recent being the shimmery neutral color, which was taken the day before starting the Pure Nail Oil™ Initial Hydration Treatment (details in a moment!). Don't scroll past! Take a good look. If you take nothing else from this post, take this - DO NOT EVER CUT YOUR CUTICLES! EVER!
So, let's take a peek at my Left Hand before Pure Nail Oil™. This is by far the best looking hand, and it's not so happy.
Note the middle finger - no cuticle. Lots of dry, dead, flaky skin. My pinky is actually a combo of nipping a bit and Charlie managing to stick her talons into my cuticle (she's such a love!), but it just did not want to heal. There's also all that dry, flaky skin around all my "cuticles", as well as my fingertips. And check out how dry and wrinkly my fingers are. Sexy, right? NO! I can't say it enough, do not ever do this! The only reason to ever cut your cuticles is if some alien is popping out of your eponychiums and that's the only way you can survive. And even then, try to find an alternative.
Now, my right hand. Folks, this one is really bad. It's actually very hard for me to post these pictures. It's embarrassing to admit that I was so frustrated and annoyed at my horrible cuticles that I did this to them.
These are in progressive order, from earlier in the month to last Sunday.
Okay, I'll give you all a minute to stop cringing and screaming.........Okay, all good? Good. Be thankful these are with polish - they looked even worse without it. Actually, I forgot to take a naked pic in my excitement.
As you can see? My right hand was incredibly traumatized. The first pic is after about 2 months of my cuticles and skin looking that flaky and scary. The following photos are what happened after I gave up and just nipped everything off, and then kept nipping everything that popped up. I nipped and nipped until not only was there nothing left, but my cuticle line was essentially almost detached from the nail, causing damage to the delicate matrix. YIKES!
For awhile I was convinced that I had some type of weird fungal growth or something, and I even consulted my doctor. No fungus was present, but he did give me antibiotics to ward off infection and told me to cut it out (pun not intended!)! I took the antibiotics, but I still nipped away. I couldn't help it - I wasn't getting just teeny little bits of dry skin, I had huge chunks! And since no product in my arsenal was working, the nippers were the only option in my mind.
So there you have it, what my cuticles *really* looked like underneath all that bright lighting, filtering, and blurring. Not a flattering look, and let me tell you, very embarrassing. I cried over these. Honestly.
So, once I made the decision to order Pure Nail Oil™ from Ana, told myself that this was it- either this was going to work or I was going to spend my life with cuticles like this. My cuticles were so much worse than any of the other ladies that had shared their results with Pure™ that I feared it was a long shot, but what did I have to lose? I was already spending $11-12 per bottle for Solar Oil, and I was using that so much that I went through 3-4 bottles a month, so it's not like I would be losing money. The worst thing thing that could happen was that it wouldn't work on me, and I'd be stuck.
Monday arrived and my Pure Nail Oil™ was here! And boy, was I excited!
Pure Nail Oil differs from other oils in so many ways, but the first and most obvious is in the way that you start using it. For the first 3 days, you get to go naked! That's right! No polish!
The 3-Day Hydration Treatment was developed by Ana while she was first trying out her new oil mix (soon to become Pure Nail Oil™). Since Ana is allergic to Almonds, she wasn't able to try out most of the nail and cuticle oils on the market since most all of them contain Almond Oil as their base oil. She also wanted a nail and cuticle oil that wasn't packed with chemicals and unnecessary ingredients. Ana did a ton of research and found Jojoba Oil. Jojoba oil's molecular structure looks identical to that of Sebum, and since Sebum and Water are the only 2 molecules that are small enough to penetrate the nail plate, Jojoba was the natural choice for Ana's base oil.
The 3 Day Hydration Treatment starts with naked nails. All polish -fffffft! gone! Once your nails are naked, apply Pure Nail Oil™ to the cuticle line and the entire nail, including the undersides of the free edge. Massage the oil into the cuticles and nail plate for a few moments, until the oil is absorbed. Every 20 minutes or so, rub the oil into the nail plate until it no longer feels oily. Then, re-apply. Repeat, repeat, repeat for 3 days. Once you are able to go 4 hours before re-applying, then you can move onto 2-3 times daily.
Sounds simple right? And it is! However, the first day, your nails will suck in ALOT of oil. I was re-applying every 45 minutes for that first day (keep in mind that I am an extreme case and most people do not have to re-apply as often as I did)! The first time I applied Pure™, I had to go back over my nails one more time since my skin and nails absorbed the oil immediately!
But, what you really want to know is this....Does it work? Am I right? Well, let's see!
Here are my nails as of about 10 minutes ago. The biggest difference is that my stilettos are gone, but that has nothing to do with Pure™. That had to do with a large knife and a watermelon, and, as previously mentioned, Pure™ does not prevent against knife attacks.
You've already seen the before shots, but I wanted to add them again so that you can see the results closer together.
LEFT HAND BEFORE!
LEFT HAND AFTER!
RIGHT HAND BEFORE:
RIGHT HAND AFTER!
What a huge difference, right (and I'm not talking about the lack of stiletto nails!)? You'll have to keep reading for day by day results pics and more shots of the Final 7 day results though! The day by day shots really help to see just how bad my cuticles were, and exactly bow far they've come.
So, what has Pure Nail Oil™ done for me?
I used to think that my nails were healthy and my cuticles were my only problem. I thought that hard nails were strong, healthy nails! That's just not true! Healthy nails are both strong, and flexible. They should bend, but not break. Nail oil is the key to that combination of Strength and Flexibility. A week ago, if I whacked a nail, I would at minimum have a chip. I also had a lot of wear on my nails, to where I had to shape them every 4-5 days in order to keep them from rounding. This past week I have whacked the heck out of several nails, and looked down expecting a huge chip or tragic break, only to find that my nails were not only intact, but just fine! Well, save for the knife incident, but I'm relatively sure there's no product out there than can protect my nails from my extreme lack of coordination when it comes to cutting watermelon. ;)
My nails are also whiter, which is an added bonus. I never really worried about the yellow staining since I always wear polish, but I'm really loving having whiter tips! I've also noticed that the damage to my nails has become a little less noticeable, and some of those pesky ridges seem to have gone away. I could also swear they they are growing faster - and they probably are, since I'm not in there whacking away at my nail matrix with nippers and cuticle removers! And, one of the best parts, the curling that I always experience at the corners of my free edge is gone! I struggled with that curling forever! In fact, I cut my nails down to nubbins several times just to try to get rid of it! That curling was caused by extreme dryness, and now that my nails are hydrated, it's all but vanished!
My cuticles, obviously, are well on their way to healed. Since I did so much damage with those nippers, it will take a bit longer for them to be entirely healed. However, they went from bleeding, cracked, flaky and scabby to soft, healthy, almost healed cuticles in 7 days. My eponychiums are starting to grow back in, which took over a month the last time I managed to have any. The dry, flaky skin at my cuticle line and on the surrounding skin is gone. The huge calloused areas are now soft and disappearing more and more each day. Hangnails? Gone! Swelling? The only swelling left is due to the lack of eponychium - the rest is gone, gone, gone! The cuticles that I *did* manage to keep throughout my ordeal are smaller and tighter to the nail. All the damage that I managed to create? The damage that my own Dr. said would take *months* to heal? It's almost entirely gone! All that's left is for my skin to regenerate a bit.
And, as an added bonus? My fingers are looking less wrinkly! Woohoo! How can you not love that!
Let me say it again, folks. I have tried EVERYTHING and nothing has ever worked like Pure Nail oil™. Nothing. Not Lemony Flutter (all that did was make me greasy and smell like Lemon Pledge), Solar Oil (this worked the best, but still only masked the problem), Burt's Bees, Avoplex, you name it. Nothing did anything but mask the problem!
I want to share with you a break down of my progress, to further illustrate just how well and how quickly Pure Nail Oil™ works. What follows is a breakdown of my progress after 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, 5 days, and 7 days. I'll also be updating weekly for the first 4 weeks, and every 2 weeks after up to 120 days.
Day One:
Here is my left hand after 24 hours of using Pure Nail Oil™. Still battered, but there is already marked improvement.
And now my right hand after 24 hours. This hand is obviously the most improved.
Day 2:
48 hours after Pure™. Even more improvement! Both hands are showing softer, smoother cuticle lines, and the cracked, bleeding, over-nipped areas are starting to return to normal. The layers of dead skin that had been hanging on actually sloughed off, showing healthier, pink skin underneath. It did leave some annoying little red spots on my pinky (right hand), but it's better than that giant sheet of hard, dead skin! Gross!
Left hand:
One of the things that made me happiest on Day 2 was seeing just how much those huge, raw spots were healing up. And, that the pesky curling free edge was going away!
Right Hand:
Again, my right hand has shown the most progress (which is awesome!). You can see the spots on my pinky where that huge, hard, sheet of dead skin was (from swelling), but the dead skin itself is now gone! Nails are starting to look much nicer as well! Excuse the bad lighting in the 2nd pic though!
Day 3:
More progress! Things are looking MUCH, MUCH Better here. Swelling has decreased significantly and some of the non-existant cuticles are showing signs of tiny eponychiums trying to grow back.
Left Hand:
Sorry about the blurry pic there - No tripod on the iPhone, which is what I used to take all these pics. However you can see the decrease in swelling, the increase in actual cuticle line, and the whiter nails. Nails, cuticle lines and fingers are looking must less dry and wrinkly!
Right Hand:
Again, less swelling around the cuticle line and healing up nicely. Cuticle Lines and Nails are much less dry, although they needed moist of the oil so my fingers look a touch dry here. I'll be honest, I had also NOT used any lotion in awhile. ;) However, the skin was actually ALOT less dry than the day before! The pinky and index fingers appear to have some eponychium there (and there is a tiny bit of actual eponychium), however that is actually dead skin that's been hanging on. You can't tell here, but it's getting ready to start sloughing off. Gross, but necessary, and a good thing.
Had I stopped here, at the 3 day mark, I would've been thrilled with the progress and called it a definite win. I mean, look what progress I had made in just 3 days? But, in all honesty, my nails and cuticles were a tough case, and since they really needed the extra care, I decided to go a full week to help them recover even more. I was still oiling every 2.5 hours at this point, and that meant that I still needed more moisture to help things heal and become healthy.
Day 5:
After 2 more days of frequent application and babying, my skin and cuticles on both hands improved greatly. Some more dead skin has sloughed away, revealing healthy cuticle lines ready to grow some healthy eponychiums! The swelling from abuse is almost entirely gone, leaving only what appears to be swollen since I have very little eponychium to blend the skin and nail plate.
Left Hand:
Looking much better, eh? Even those ultra deep wrinkles are looking better! Middle finger has yet to show it's incoming eponychium, but I've done a number on that one several times now and know that, for some reason, that one takes a little linger to come in. Scar tissue maybe? Possibly. Ugh. have I mentioned that you should NEVER EVER nip?
Right Hand:
This hand has again shown the most improvement, although the pinky and ring finger still have that ring of hardened, dead skin where the eponychium should be. You can't see it here, but it's still lifting off and about to go bye bye! Nails are whiter and stronger, having become more flexible. I had even tested that theory by whacking a few of them several times on random objects that have been here for 12 years but that I still run into all the time, and managed to walk away with unscathed nails. Pesky wrinkles are still showing improvement too!
Of course, after these were taken? I whacked that index nail with a knife and bye bye stilettos. Thankfully I had already decided to take them down to squares to make them more even with my left hand, and avoid scratching my son. I do miss them, but hey, they'll grow back stronger and healthier!
After all of that progress I was wondering exactly how much further my nails and cuticles could go within my 7 day time frame. Would I have more improvement? Would that dead skin finally all slough off and reveal healthy skin? Let's take a look at the final results!
Day 7:
These photos were taken at 11:30 this morning, which is about 30 minutes ago as I write this. I am obviously overjoyed at my results!
Left Hand:
Okay, look at that progress!!! I don't know about you folks, but I am in awe of just how far my nails and cuticles have come. All that's really left for this hand is a couple of tiny little spots that have an itty tail of dead skin (I'm not nipping anything, so those just hang out until they go away) and the eponychium on my middle finger needs to finish growing in. It's starting to show, it's just being shy since there was so much damage done to that cuticle. Overall? I am so happy! I literally cried when I compared the before and after pics today. I NEVER thought anything would work for me at all, nonetheless being able to achieve the results that I've had with Pure™!
Right Hand:
Squee!!!! I'm literally doing the happy dance over here! If you can't see how much progress I've made on this hand, then...wow...I don't know what to tell you. As with my left hand, I only have a couple of spots that have a teeny tiny nit of skin that needs to go. Extreme cracking and bleeding? Gone! Scabby, dead skin? Gone! Severe damage from nipping down to nothing? Almost entirely gone! WOW!
On both hands Pure Nail Oil™ has created a small miracle. Without it, I would still be struggling to have normal cuticles and soft, hydrated skin and nails. Even without my stilettos, I am in love with my new look!
Obviously this is where I'm going to rave about Pure Nail Oil™!
Pros:
-Healing! My terribly abused and overly nipped cuticle lines are now healed and the eponychiums returning.
-Softer cuticles, softer skin around my nails. No more hard, calloused spots!
-Actual Eponychiums! They're starting to grow back after months of being nipped away. The eponychiums that I did have before are smaller, and tighter to the nail.
-Hydrated skin and nails. Even after bathing! No more dry, scaly, itchy cuticle lines.
-Shinier, healthier nails
-STRONGER NAILS! My names have become strong and flexible as opposed to the hard, brittle nails I had previously.
-No more giant hangnails! Before, I would find a good sized hangnail almost every time I painted my nails. Not one now!
-Whiter Nails. My yellowing has decrease signigicantly.
-Longer Nails. Not just from my natural growth rate, but my nails are wearing less and less, meaning less filing.
-Decreased "curling" of the free edge. Before Pure™ I struggled with heavily curling corners ar my free edge. If I didn't keep oil on my nails at all time, they would curl in and look like little tunnels. Not now!
-Decreased wrinkles! Since my skin is now hydrated and soft, those pesky deep wrinkles from incredibly dry skin and natural aging are less marked.
-Money! I'm spending less! I was spending $11-12 every 7-10 days on Solar Oil.
-Self Esteem. I am no longer ashamed to show my hands and nail IRL, or in photographs! No more creative spot lighting, filters, or blurry editing for this girl!
-Light feeling, not greasy or "heavy". Pure Nail Oil™ reminds me almost of a dry oil - it's very light, and I only need a small bit.
-Smells amazing! I use the "Crisp" scent at the moment, and it is truly wonderful! Light, refreshing, and addicting! My husband always comments on how much he loves the scent. Pure™ also comes in Spring, Summer, and Winter Limited Edition, Seasonal Scents, and you can grab scent samples with your order for a whopping 25 cents.
-Price! I ordered the Pure Nail Oil™ Starter Kit, which comes with a 2ml pre-filled and refillable pen and 15ml of Pure Nail Oil. The starter kit (as well as the refill kit) costs $22 and lasts for 8-12 weeks, depending on how much and how often you oil. Since you only need a small amount of Pure™, it really does last a long time. I've refilled my pen a few times, and filled up a small cuticle oil bottle to keep by my bedside, and still have 3/4 of my bottle left. $22 for 8 weeks? That's less than what I spent in 2 weeks previously!
-No more $17 "strengthening" base coats! Since my nails have that balance of strength and flexibility, and since nail hardeners are very drying to the nail, I won't be needing those anymore! In fact, I'll be trying out Ana's base coat, Simply Smooth™!
Cons:
-Does not come in "Vat" size, since Ana makes small batches to keep the oil fresh.
-Does not protect against knife wounds.
-Will not do my laundry or vacuum, no matter how nicely I ask.
-Works so well that my husband wants to steal it.
-Apparently tasted very lovely, according to the cat., who likes to try to lick my nails now.
So there you have it, lovelies. I know this post was very long, and I thank you for sticking with me.
I cannot stress how amazing Pure Nail Oil™ truly is. This is such a miracle product for me, and I have no idea why the entire nail community isn't using it yet! Even if you have good cuticles and nails, Pure™ is still an amazing product, and I guarantee that once you try it, you won't want to switch back. I'd bet this year's salary on it, if I was a betting woman! I know that so many of us struggle with dry cuticles, tearing and cracking skin, brittle, breaking nails, Weak nails, yellow nails - the list is endless. The bottom line is this: If you ever struggle with your nails and cuticles, you NEED Pure Nail Oil™ in your life.
You can find Pure Nail Oil by checking out my link at : http://www.nailcarehq.com/
I have to tell you, I am exhausted after writing all of this out! I'm sure I've missed something, so feel free to ask questions! I'm always available by email, or comment on this post and I promise to respond. At the moment, I'm off to start polishing again! It's been a full 7 days without polish and although it was beyond worth it, I am itching to polish!!!! I have a literal TON of awesome new Indies to share with you all! And ya know what? Thanks to Pure Nail Oil™, I'll be posting alot faster. ;)
I'll also have a review of Ana's Base and Top Coats, Simply Smooth™ and Simply Quick™ coming soon, so keep an eye out for that!
Thanks for stopping by and Happy Nails and Cuticles!
-Kimber
*Product(s) Featured purchased by KLK. Please see Disclaimer/Legal Page for more information**
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