REVIEW: Cutex // Nail Treatment Stained Nail Corrector

So recently I've been sporting some super horrible looking yellow nails thanks to H&M's Cantaloupe shade. I love that bright yellow mustard but it just ruins the colour of your natural nails. I love doing negative space as well but my nails just look so ugly and stained that I can't do anything until its grown out. 

Cue this new Cutex product that I found in Superdrug. I'm a bit wary of these 'nail correctors' as they just seem to be a glorified base coat with some purple shimmer in it to and offset the yellow (as per the colour wheel) and this is exactly what that is with an added sheer cream tint.

As you can see my middle finger is horrendously stained and here's how the product looks with 1 and 2 coats:

It honestly looks like I've just applied a sheer creme polish which is kind of unacceptable for £7.99. Especially when I have many sheer polishes that cost less than that. Cutex says this treatment "utilises optical brightening particles to neutralize yellow tones and make nails instantly whiter". This is a bunch of science jargon. The "optical brightening particles" are nothing more than blue/purple shimmer pieces found in practically any shimmer polish and this does not make your nails instantly whiter; just milky white with some streaks.

I really disappointed because I love Cutex's acetone range and its the only stuff that I use so I was hoping that this would be something different than the usual cheaper stuff. I mean this is practically identical to the Essence Brightening primer which is £2.

I think I was hoping that this would help remove the stain with repeated use as it is labelled as a 'treatment' but it doesn't. You just have to wait it out. I miss doing negative designs. Eurgh, damn you mustard shades and your cuteness!

NAIL CARE: My Current Nail Care/Manicure Routine 2019

So here is a post on my current manicure routine that I do every Sunday. It's taken me a while to get into a rhythm and find products that I like, as well as a nail shape that I feel suits me. Nail shape is extremely personal and I've tried long, super short, square and almond but I feel like I've finally found my groove with my short (but not too short) oval nails. 

Here is a photo pre-manicure:

Eurgh. This was also after completely re-arranging my room so that I can fit in my light boxes as I'm going home for a couple days soon and I'd like to bring them back with me so I can take photos at night again. Houseshares...cheap yet annoying. My hands took a battering whilst moving the bookcase too and from the same position as I couldn't make up my mind (I eventually decided on the new position).

So, to start off I always give my hands a wash then apply a light, oil-free moisturiser. My current favourite is the OPI Avojuice that I got in a previous Mani & Lola box. 

Afterwards, I then sort out the cuticle, cut away any hang-nails and push back the nail fold if needed. I get quite bad cuticles however, I've never really had much of a nail fold so I don't really have anything to push back and for me it can get a little painful sometimes so I try not to mess with that area too much. All nails are different, so do what feels comfortable for you. Before I do this though I apply some Cuticle eraser; I've been enjoying the CND Cuticle eraser lately but I also use the Sally Hansen one.

I only leave on the cuticle eraser for about 5 minutes whilst I'm doing the work as it "dissolves" the cuticle (which is dead skin) but it can't differentiate between live and dead cells so it can dry out the living tissue if used too much or left on. I also either use a soft silicone pusher or an orange stick...those metal ones scare the bejeesus outta me. Also, that silcone pusher was part of a 7 piece pack from Born Pretty that cost £1.70; amazing quality for the price.

Now it's cutting time but only if it's the last week of the month (otherwise I skip to the last step). To get the perfect length, I cut with the back of my hand facing me and then let the scissors rest gently on the pads of my fingertips. This leaves enough nail to allow for filing without them going too short...perhaps I should've filmed this. It would've been easier to explain. I also use a metal filer as I've tried glass ones but I just find them to be too bulky and inefficient. We don't talk about the paper ones.

Once I'm done with those stages, I use a little acetone to remove any remaining cuticle eraser. I always use the moisture-rich polish remover from Cutex as it leaves your nails hydrated and smelling like marzipan; win-win.

To finish, I use some cuticle oil to add some moisture back. I will admit, I poo-pood the CND RescueRXx when I first got it in Mani & Lola however it's become my favourite cuticle oil and I literally can't live without it. It smells like candyfloss and hydrates my nails beautifully without too much oily-ness. It's worth every penny.

And that's it! Look at them now compared to before:

Such mani, much cure, very nail. Wow. It's taken me a long time to get to this stage. Before I got into doing my nails a year ago I just use to cut them whenever I felt they were annoying me and that was it. No oils, no specific shape. In fact they would be all different lengths due to some being chipped and cracked and it makes me shudder to think I use to leave my nails in that horrible dry state. It's also fun to take 30 minutes in the evening and just spend it pampering my nails instead of trying to do some nail art. 

Thanks for reading this mammoth post and I'll see you in the next one (hopefully, that won't be a mammoth post...unless it's a FabFitFun unboxing)

Three Nail Polish Removers #2 // Cutex & Sally Hansen

//Since becoming obsessed with doing my nails I'm reading more and more articles about caring for your nails. In the old days I just used to think polish remover was well polish remover and there wasn't any difference between them. I thought it smelled horrible and left my nails looking white and dry. However, since then I've learnt that removers differ vastly and I'm now on the search for the best remover.// 

Sally Hansen // Moisturising Nail Polish Remover (200ml - £1.98)

You know, I was really shocked to find out they still sold this because I legit bought this almost 10 years ago lol. This was my remover for when I sporadically did my nails. Before summer last year, I was quite the polish hoarder but I never did my nails that much, perhaps once every three months and then I would leave that polish on for a month (or longer) until it was chipped and scratty looking. Then I would use some of this to remove it. At the time, I just thought it was natural for your nails to look dry and streaky after removing polish; now I know differently. I've stopped using this now as it's pretty much useless at removing anything other than creme's and clean-up is a joke. The scent is just standard polish remover but there's nothing special about it.

Cutex // Ultra Powerful (200ml - £2.15)

So in last months Three Nail Polish Removers, I mentioned that I thought I had found the holy grail of removers; this is what I was referring to. However, then, I hadn't tried the moisture rich version, see more on that below. This ultra powerful remover completely blew my expectations away. I bought it on offer for £1 and the watermelon scent was the first thing I noticed. Seriously, this remover actually smells quite nice. It's very cold on the skin and can leave it a little white if you leave it on too long but it removes polish in a breeze. I can't comment on glitter effectiveness because I always wear a peel off base coat when wearing glitter (it's just easier) but clean-up is fantastic. This creates beautiful sharp lines and doesn't leave skin dry at all. It's also fantastic at cleaning up stamping plates and nail mats; this remover is worth every penny.

Cutex // Moisture-Rich (200ml - £2.15)

Ladies and Gentleman, roll up for the winner of nail polish removers; this baby can do it all. At the start of January, Superdrug had all the Cutex polish removers on sale (they have quite a few actually) and so I decided to give another one a go to see if the range was any good. I shouldn't have even worried. I was expecting this to be worse than the ultra-powerful so it was a surprise when it removed polish just as well without any dryness. In fact, if I use this on dry looking nails, they actually look healthier...and smell like Christmas cake.

This remover has a beautiful marzipan/almond scent that really lingers after the acetone dissapates; I can't get enough of it. It performs clean-up relatively well, although the lines aren't quite as sharp but it gets the job done. After the first use I went back out and bought another 5 while they were on sale.

I would say the only downside is that it seems to stain your nails and skin yellow after repeated use; and I use it a lot. It's not highly noticables but I have noticed that my tips are no longer as white as they used to be since I started using it. But other than that, I can't reccommend this remover enough.

//Conclusion

Overall, I'm not sure if I'll be doing another one of these posts now because the Cutex removers (used together) are really all I need. They do exactly what I want them to do and they smell great. I use the Moisture rich to remove any polish and clean my nails and then the ultra powerful to clean plates and do clean-up with. Since I've started using them, I've noticed that Cutex also do polishes and cuticle oils and I can't wait to give everything else a go because their products seem to be amazing quality for a fantastic price.