Nails Buffed To Shine Without Polish

Dear Dr. Dave and Dr. Dee,

Is it necessary to wear nail polish when going to a social function? I cannot afford a manicure at a nail salon. I would prefer to not have nail polish, but I will if that is what is proper.

Signed,

Not into nails

Dear Not into nails,

No, it is not necessary to wear nail polish at social functions. You can give yourself a manicure that will give a nice shine to your nails without polish. Basically, you just buff the nails and apply cuticle oil or cream. This whole process only takes minutes to perform and can be repeated every 10 days.

There are two simple inexpensive tools to get from your local drugstore: 1) Nail Buffer and 2) Cuticle Oil or Cream.

NAIL BUFFER

Nail buffers with 3 or 4 different levels of abrasive surfaces are best and cost about $4. Carefully follow directions that come with the nail buffer. General instructions are probably something like the following with a 4-way block buffer or file:

How to Buff Nails

1. Shape Edge of Nails: with the coarsest grit, file your nails to shape them.

2. Smooth Top of Nail Surface: use the next level lower grit to smooth away ridges. Stroke gently several times in one direction over the top of the nail.

3. Buff Top of Nail Surface: use the appropriate next lower level grit to buff the nail. Stroke several times in one direction over the top of the nail.

4. Shine Top of Nail Surface: use the appropriate next lower level grit to shine the nail. Stroke several times back and forth over the top of the nail until the nail has a nice sheen. This step 4 can be repeated in a few days or as often as needed to keep the nails shiny.

CUTICLE CREAM OR OIL

You can use either a cuticle cream or oil to improve the appearance of your cuticles and increase circulation to the nail bed to strengthen nails.

Massage the cream or oil onto cuticles while gently pushing the cuticles back. If using oil, then wipe off excess with a tissue.

Cuticle Creams or Oil that were given overall high ratings from consumers at Makeupalley.com are listed below. At least five consumers gave an average rating of 4 stars out of 5.

Top 10 Cuticle Creams or Oils (alphabetical):

1. Almay Organic Flouride Well Conditioned Cuticle Oil

2. Body Shop Almond Oil Nail & Cuticle Cream

3. Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Creme

4. Crabtree & Evelyn Jojoba Oil Hand & Cuticle Cream

5. Essie Apricot Cuticle Oil

6. Haken Cuticle Oil

7. L'Occitane Nail and Cuticle Cream

8. Sally Hansen Hand, Nails & Cuticle Cream

9. Sally Hansen Vitamin E Moisturizing Nail & Cuticle Oil

10. Sephora Nourishing Cuticle Oil Pen

To read the reviews, go to www.makeupalley.com