(dramatic music)
(bleep sound)
(angelic sound)
- Hey guys,
welcome back to a Adore Beauty's YouTube channel.
My name is Amy Clark,
I'm the senior editor here at Adore Beauty.
And today, I'm going to talk to you about how I managed
to stop biting my nails.
You heard right.
This is true.
In fact, I went from having
the most disgusting, short stably bitten, bleeding,
torn nails, to having these beauties.
As for why I have bitten my nails for so long,
I really couldn't tell you,
I do obviously think it's probably,
a bit of a nervous habit,
you know, some people pick their eyelashes,
some people pull out their hair,
and I think for me, what it was,
is that I would just bite my nails,
especially if I had a Uni assignment due,
something stressful at work happening,
you know, while I was watching TV,
and something else is on my mind,
I would just bite my nails.
Now I'm going to tell you,
exactly the steps that I took,
to kick my nail-biting habit.
But it must be said first,
this is my experience, everybody's different
and what works for me, might not work for you.
But, I've been so pleased with my results,
because if you can see here,
these are all my natural nails.
Step one, was an IBX treatment.
I actually didn't know what IBX was before,
I went to see Nails by Jenna,
she's a Sydney based manicurist,
and she introduced me, to the wonders of an IBX treatment.
Essentially it is a nail repair treatment,
rather than just sitting, on the surface layer of the nail,
like say gel, or SNS, or acrylic nails,
it penetrates deep into the layers of the nail
to repair the damage that's done.
So having an IBX treatment,
with your gel manicure, SNS manicure, acrylics,
I think is the first step,
because to have longer nails,
and to grow longer nails,
you need healthy nails.
step two, a BIAB manicure.
So you've heard of gel, you've heard of shellac.
you've heard of SNS, and acrylic nails,
but I want to talk about,
how BIAB nails, have really helped me
kick my nail-biting habit.
So BIAB actually stands for, Builder In A Bottle,
and it is a form of gel nail polish.
It's hard enough that you can't bite through it,
which is very important for nail-bitters,
but it's also not so hard,
or rigid that the nail underneath is disturbed.
It meant that my natural nail,
could grow out underneath,
in a really healthy undisturbed way.
But also, the BIAB gives your nail a bit more flexibility.
My nails are so weak,
that you could actually bend them over in half.
Oh, it's so gross. I could vomit.
But what BIAB does, is it adds that extra durability.
So it's not as thick as SNS,
It's not gonna look quite as I guess,
chunky or fake, as what SNS nails can look like,
but not as thin as gel.
Step three, three.
we're still in step two,
but this is another important part.
Is how often I had manicures.
Really, What has been the biggest help
in breaking my nail-biting habit,
is having regular manicures,
and so that is every two to three weeks.
I know, it sucks.
A, because who has time, to go get their nails done?
But also because of the cost involved,
but having one manicure,
isn't enough to cure a nail-biting habit,
you need to get regular manicures,
to get your nails in really good condition,
but also have those manicures,
whether it's a gel manicure, SNS, or BIAB,
you need to have them infilled,
at an appropriate amount of time,
so that A, you don't experience lifting on the nail,
but it also just keeps the nail,
from getting to an unmanageable length.
It keeps the nail underneath,
it's growing out kind of undisturbed,
as it's growing.
I'll put some progress shots here because,
trying to kick a nail-biting habit is a journey.
You can't just get one manicure,
and then think that everything's gonna
just magically happen on its own.
We know that it usually takes about three weeks,
to form a new habit.
I would say it took me six months,
to really kick the nail-biting habit,
with these regular manicures.
And I definitely had slip-ups along the way,
I'll put a photo here somewhere.
I sent a text to my manicures
because I said, I'm so sorry.
One minute, I had these beautiful BIAB nails,
and then next minute, I'm just surrounded by a pool,
of broken nail dreams.
Now let's talk about at home nail care.
So many of us, have not been able
to have our nails done.
If you're not getting these regular manicure appointments,
or if you can't afford, to have your nails done so often,
home-care is really important.
And there's a few products, that I wanna call out to.
The first product I wanna speak about, is Nail Envy.
So this is the O.P.I Nail Envy,
original nail strengthener.
And what I have here is the original,
which is a clear nail-strengthening product.
It also comes in a bunch of shades,
and this one is actually the really popular one
Bubble Bath, which is basically one of O.P.I's,
most popular shades.
And it's actually what I've got on here,
underneath my nail art, just in the gel version.
But having a tinted nail-strengthening product
is really handy because it just looks,
really nice and then you're also getting
those strengthening benefits.
Last but not least, another bedtime ritual
that's really helped me
in improving the condition of my nails,
but also the skin on my hands,
because I feel like, we kind of forget about
the skin on our hands.
My third product that has helped my nails and hands,
is a hand cream.
So my pick for a good hand cream
is the La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Hand Cream.
As you can see, I'm almost through it.
It's just a really excellent hand cream,
that has a beautiful balm texture,
It's not too greasy, It sinks in nice and quick,
so you're not left kind of slipping and sliding
around the place.
It doesn't really have a scent.
So I just pop a generous amount of this
on before bed, every night.
Then I go in with my cuticle oil
and then I just sleep like a mummy basically,
and wake up with really beautiful hands.
So just to recap about what has helped me
kick my nail-biting habit,
it's got to be regular manicures, BIAB gel manicures,
I had an IBX treatment,
which really helped to repair my poor,
long-suffering, bitten nails,
and then also the right at home-care.
I just think once you've got the beautiful nails,
the idea of going back, is so disturbing,
that that also then kind of keeps you motivated
to keep your nails.
So I hope that has been helpful.
If you would like any more information,
please do jump on the website,
there's gonna be a link to a Beauty IQ article,
down here somewhere.
Please if you loved this video, like it, comment,
go and watch all our other videos
on Adore Beauty YouTube.
It's a good time. But other than that,
my nails and I will see you next time.
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