In addition, when cuticles and skin are allowed to dry out, the dry skin peels and looks unsightly. If you have been reading my blog for a while you might know that I'm a reformed nail biter. I use to pick, peel and pull at dry skin and hang nails. This is a horrible habit! I used to actually cause trauma to my fingers and sometimes they would bleed! A nice entry point for bacteria. I'm lucky I never got an infection.
Point is, since I have been moisturizing, I don't suffer from hang nails anymore. Peeling skin is at a minimum. If there is a small peel, I will trim it with a cuticle trimmer. So below are some cuticle cremes I use and love.
 |
Let's start with Lush's Lemony Flutter.
Lots of bloggers love this, and I can see why. Lemony Flutter unlike cuticle oils, are really easy to use. The product does not run all over your fingers, it is a soft balm. Thus it is easy to control its application. As you can guess Lemony Flutter smells of lemons; a lot. I like the strong smell of lemons and find it kind of therapuetic. I put this on before bed, it can be a little greasy, but when I wake up, my fingers look nice and healthy. The first ingredient is lemon extract, followed by shea butter, then beeswax.
I got my small pot (0.5 oz) off of eBay for about $5. The regular sized pots at Lush stores are around $12. This small pot is about 6 months old and there is still a lot of product left.
Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Creme
Burt's Bees is a very close second, to me, when compared to Lush. In contrast, Burt's Bees Creme is a hard balm, and I have to rub pretty hard to get some product out. So now I just scrape the top with the back of my nail. Half the size of a pea will cover five fingers for me. It's not as greasy at Lush, and doesn't smell as strong. It still works really well, if not the same. The ingredients are a little different. First on the ingredient list is sweet almond oil, second is beeswax, then lemon oil.
I got mine at Ulta for $5.99, 0.6 oz. I've seen these at Walgreens too.
L'Occitane en Provence's Cuticle and Nail Creme.
I like L'Occitane because I don't have to stick my fingers in it and seems more clean to me. I also like that I can squeeze a little bit of product on to each finger. Aside from Burt's Bees and Lush, this is not at all greasy. L'Occitane's Creme is thick, almost tacky. I can feel a pull when I rub it in, but it absorbs really fast and smells kind of like baby powder. I rub this on right before I take photos and there are no finger smudges on things after I touch them. So I can put this one and go about my business right away. I only need a teeny amount for each finger.
The first ingredient in L'Occitane's Creme is water, then shea butter, thirdly polyglyceryl-3 ricinoleate. Sixth ingredient is apricot kernel oil which I see in some cuticle oils, like Essie.
This is the priciest of the three, $18 for 0.5 oz. I splurged on it because I wanted to try it. I do really like this creme a lot but with Lush and Burt's Bees around, I kind of hesitate on fully recommending L'Occitane because of the steep price.
So there you have it, the three cremes I would recommend. All are cruelty free with natural ingredients.
Which cuticle creme/oil do you like?
i used to pick at my cuticles and hang nails really badly too! my friend would cringe everytime she saw how mangled up they were--it was that bad! i still kind of go back to it out of habit when i get anxious, but blogging has helped cause i remind myself that i can't take pictures of gnarly fingers lol.
ReplyDeletei'm currently using that burt bee's product too! i usually get the product by rubbing it with my finger, the heat warms it up and then i use it to moisturize (:
I still have to resist the urge to chew. Old habits die hard. I would have never known that you were a nail/finger picker! LOL. And yes, I noticed too the Burt's Bees kind of melts in my warm hands.
Delete