The One Week Hand & Cuticle Care Program

Here's a quick first-aid treatment that should get your hands back in shape.

Every night before going to bed, soak your hands in warm olive oil into which one capsule of vitamin E has been pricked.

After ten minutes take out your hands, massage well, not forgetting your nails. (Throughout this week your hands should stay free from nail color).

Take three tablets of calcium lactate with a glass of warm water. Other than strengthening your nails; calcium is also a natural tranquilizer. It will help you sleep better.

Every morning massage some cream or oil into your hands and nails. Buff your nails - this makes them shinier and healthier by stepping up circulation in the finger tips

Whenever possible, throughout the day, keep massaging little blobs of Vaseline into your hands and nails. Step-up your water intakes but avoid wetting your hands. Do some hand exercises

Concentrate on health foods for nails: milk which gives you calcium and Vitamin D), raw cabbage (Vitamins C & D) and sardines (one of the very few sources of iodine, which does wonders for circulation).

While doing household chores, wear washable cotton gloves. Avoid soaking nails and hands in water for prolonged periods. If you wear gloves, remember to keep taking them off every hour or so for a short while.

Vegetable juices and lemon juice contain acids which do no good to your nails. After chopping vegetables, rinse your hands in cool running water.

If your nails are soft or prone to splitting, take gelatin dissolved in warm milk for a whole week. To rough and brittle cuticles, massage some Vaseline twice-a-day.

Strong detergents not only harm the skin, they play havoc with nails too.

To make your nail color last and to avoid it chipping, always use a pencil for dialing numbers on the telephone.

For nails to remain healthy, it is essential to keep them nail­ color free occasionally. Ideally each time you remove your old nail-color, nails should be allowed to breathe.

However, if you are very particular to have nail-color on all the time, leave your nails bare overnight.

Buffing of nails assures their good health as it helps step up circulation.

Use lemon juice for removing stains from fingers and nails.

A slice of potato also does the same work as lemon juice. While potato juice is milder, it is not also as drying as lemon juice is. However, lemon juice acts faster.

Simple Foot Exercises to Strengthen & Relax Feet

For strengthening and relaxing your feet try this super simple foot exercise. Stand barefoot on the floor and curl your toes under. Hold this position for a second. Repeat several times. This is an excellent exercise because it forces the arch of the foot upwards and strengthens it.

Another exercise to strengthen arches is to stand barefoot and slowly rise as high as possible on tiptoes.

Repeat several times daily and you will find that your feet do not tire so easily.

Foot Care – Simple Treatments for Bunions

More often than not, the reason for bunions is badly fitted shoes.
Bunions are joints in the foot, that, subject to external pressure become raw, swollen and tender. What really happens is that the bone which joins the big toe to the main foot-arch gets out of alignment.

For relief from bunion soreness, be careful of your choice of footwear. Make sure that your shoes do not cramp you across the ball of your feet.

Also paint with equal parts of iodine and castor oil for instant relief.

Homoeopathic medicine Sulphur 6x is also known to give bunion relief.

Sprinkle flowers of sulphur in the feet of socks or stockings. Bunions can also be removed surgically.

Your Beauty with Feet and Toes

Your feet are most definitely the most ignored and badly treated part of the body.

Admit it - you probably do not think about your feet until they start complaining.

If you've been neglecting your feet lately, decide immediately to rectify the mistake. Make it a point to give your feet all the extra care they deserve to make up for the long months of neglect.

Unless you decide to deal with your feet problems now, they can become worse and even turn serious in course of time.

Well-shaped and well-nourished feet are special beauty assets in the summer when they are on display in the barest sandals. For comfort and good health, however, it is essential to keep them in a good condition throughout the year.

One of the greatest and most common crimes against feet is to wear badly fitted shoes and tight socks. Make sure that you always buy the right size of shoes. Shoes should be roomy and should give you arch support.

High heels should ideally have a thick platform sole for best support. Avoid very high-heeled sandals as they upset the right balance of the body. Shoes or sandals that are perfectly flat should also be avoided, as these tend to break down the arches of the feet by not providing proper support.

Late afternoon is the best time for buying shoes. At that time of the day, your feet are slightly larger than they are early morning. This ensures that you get the best possible fit. There will certainly be no cramping.

Your socks or stockings must also fit well. They must not be too tight. This not only cramps your toes, but is terrible for blood circulation.

Home Manicure Tips

What you need;

A bowl of warm soapy water (do not use detergents).
Nail clipper.
Emery board.
Nail polish remover.
Cotton wool.
Nail buffer or a child's toothbrush.
Cuticle cream or Vaseline.
Orange stick with its tip wrapped in cotton woo!.
Nail polish.

Gather all the material you need together.

First clip your nails, if required. Then, using the emery board, file your nails, into a smooth oval shape. Avoid using metal files, they are bad for the nails.

Contrary to the usual practice of removing nail polish before filing, beauty experts have now determined that nails must be filed with old nail color still on them. This protects nails and keeps unsightly ragged ends at a minimum.

While filing, remember not to file into the corners - this promotes nail splitting and breakages.

Next, using a mild oily nail polish remover and a swab of cotton wool, remove every trace of nail color from your nails. Pay special attention to the corners where streaks of nail color can remain unless you are careful. For this, press the soaked cotton wool down firmly on the nail and keep it there for a second. This gives the nail polish remover time to work.

After removing all traces of the old nail color, rinse your hands in water. It is important to remove all traces of the remover. Use a soft nail brush and soapy water.

Then rinse your hands and nails in cold water and pat dry.

With the cuticle cream or Vaseline, massage the nails, paying special attention to the sides and corners.

After about five minutes, soak your hands in warm water again.

By now your cuticles will have softened. Push them back gently with the cotton wrapped orange stick.

Now comes the time to use nail color. Shake up the bottle of your favorite nail color and apply a very thin coat as the base. Don't stop at the tip of the nail, instead carry the brush over the tip so that the nail color paints the backs of the nails. Besides protecting tips, this also looks nicer.

Five minutes later when the first coat is dry, apply another coat. Give it another five minutes to dry.

Now apply the third and final coat. Let it dry.
Nail color should be applied in three strokes. The first stroke up the centre from the cuticle to the nail tip, the second and third on either sides.