Hand and Nail Cream Roundup


Between working, medications, and constantly experimenting with nail extensions on myself, my hands are trashed. Dried out, peely trash.
So in an effort to restore them to some kind of presentable condition before I go off to nail school next year, I'm going to share with you all the products I have tried and what I think.
Let me also say that I know NOTHING about the chemistry side of things. This is just my experience and thoughts. If you want to know more sciencey stuff, I highly suggest checking out the Lab Muffin. 
So depending what you do with your hands depends what kind of cream you need. I know some people apply every time they wash their hands, but I personally like to use a heavy one at night - I love that feeling of leaving a heavy cream over night and waking up with baby soft hands, and I keep a light one for top ups throughout the day.
So here are 7 of my top picks of hand and nail creams that are readily available:

Revitanail
Hand and Nail Cream
Over the last couple of years I have gone through a few tubes of this particular cream. I would classify it as a day use cream but it is slightly on the heavier side. But having said that it has almost no oily residue to it, so when I feel my hands need a little extra TLC while I'm getting all dried out in an office, this is one of my go to's. The scent is also quite light, floral and quite subtle. I also like that it boasts having pearl extract and calcium which are meant to be good for your nails (which is always my no. 1 beauty concern!).
Check their FB site for more information. Revitanail is available at Priceline, Coles, and selected pharmacies.

OPI Live.Love.Carnaval

For summer OPI have released these adorable packs to get your nails beach ready. There are 2 variations, one with Shorts Story (A cute pink) and one with Live.Love.Carnaval. You get a base coat, colour and top coat from the Infinite Shine range in a cute box. This is the perfect set for anyone who hasn't jumped into the Infinite Shine range yet - and it's worth taking the plunge as the colours are SUPER shiny and claim they can last 11 days (although I have to admit that I never wear a polish that long. I have to change almost every day!). 
So because I can never leave a colour alone, I stamped using a cheap tropical plate off eBay, and the Born Pretty white and black stamping polishes.

The OPI Infinite Shine Packs retails for $45.90 and are available in David Jones and Myer. 



BeautyBigBang Stamping Plate

Stamped over ORLY Mirror Ball and coloured in with the Neon Tints from Emily De Molly 
I was sent this stamping plate for review, and seeing as I LOVE Christmas I couldn't help but do a bunch of different nail designs using it. Although it is a small plate, it has plenty of designs to work with - which I like as quite often you get plates where some of the designs aren't nice or particularly usable. I used a range of stamping polishes for these designs, but I found the images a little hard to scrape - they took a couple of passes with the scraper to get the image clear, but once I practiced a little it was fine. You can see the black worked best. They have a great range of original design plates so even if it's a little close to Christmas, it's worth having a look.

This stamping plate is available here. Be sure to use my discount code for 10% off - OMC.
Stamping polish used is Hololulu Blue from Hit The Bottle


Stamped with the white stamping polish from Born Pretty


BeautyBigBang Crystal Skulls



Ok so these would have been perfect for Halloween, but it's never too late for crystal skulls right? I got sent these beauties from Beauty BigBang. Now I know these are available in a few places, but the thing I loved about these specific ones is that you get a pack of 20 for not much money, and they have a whole bunch of colours available. I was also impressed with how duo-chromey and sparkly they are. As they are flat backed, they do stick out a little on the nail, but I just used a giant glob of nail glue to keep them secure and they stayed put for the few days I had them on. You could always got a glob of acrylic if you really want these babies to stay on. 



The only downside, the purple coating did rub off. This picture was taken after wearing them for 24 hours. However as bad as that sounds, it actually make them look even more sparkly with the clear showing through, so it didn't actually bother me.

The Crystal Skulls are available here. Be sure to use my discount code for 10% off - OMC.