Welcome to Part One of my mini series The Mid-Week Pamper, I love using my down time to treat myself and have decided that it doesn't have to be something that takes up a lot of time and involves a lot of products. I have whittled down my pamper sessions to be something efficient that can be done on a week night to break up the work week and make me feel nice.

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One of my favourite things to do on weeknights is a little at-home mani. Here is how I take care of my nails...

I start by cutting them so they are all a similar length, I prefer short, neat, almost square nails over longer ones but you can do whatever style you like. Recently more people in the beauty community have been rocking a rounded nail and it seems to be working for them. I have these straight-edged nail clippers which I love because then I just file the edges a little and am left with neat square-ish nails. There are a few different ideas about cuticle care, some people think you should cut, others think that makes your cuticles more susceptible to infection. I push mine back using this little Sally Hansen cuticle tool and then give them a good scrub using my Lush Sweet Lips lip scrub. It might seem a little strange but sugar scrubs are really good for your cuticles and I never seem to get through my lip scrubs so I thought I would give it a go to get more use out of it and it worked like a charm, plus it smells delicious!
After rinsing that off I then I pop on some Sally Hansen Vitamin E Nail and Cuticle Oil and put my feet up with a magazine...

Take your time with the magazine I say, or your favourite movie or TV show, read my latest recommendations here. Before you paint your nails make sure you wash your hands thoroughly because any left over oil will mean that your nail polish won't stick. Tonight I'm using Butter London's Artful Dodger, a teal colour which I haven't tried out before, I'm excited to see if I like it. I'll follow that with the Revlon Colorstay top coat which I am quite the fan of.

As a nightly little treat to my nails I will either use the cuticle oil I mentioned earlier or the Sally Hansen Cuticle Eraser and Balm, I really like them both and find the Cuticle Eraser does tend to keep my cuticles under control.

I though while we were talking nail care I would show you my favourite nail colour of the moment. I'm not usually a pink nail polish girl, but I love the shade Dahling by Butter London, it is deep enough that  it is eye-catching and goes with my Winter clothes but bright enough that I think I will be wearing it well into the Spring too. Let me know your favourite nail polish colours/formulas so I can try them out.

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Butter London- Dahling (two coats, natural light)

I hope this has inspired you to take a few spare moments to have some you time and enjoy a little at-home pampering. Keep an eye out for my next few posts in the series. 

Do you like to do beauty routines at home or would you prefer to have someone else do the pampering?

I hope you're all having a lovely week! 

Zoe xx

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3 Responses so far.

  1. And Alice says:

    LOVE butter London nail varnishes! Love that teal colour too! great post :)
    xx
    p.s you're blog is just beautiful!

  2. I love that Sally Hansen cuticle balm. I use it every night before I go to bed because I have super dry skin and my cuticles are always ripping and bleeding. It really helps keep them in check. I'm going to have to pop down to Lush and get some lip sugar scrub for them, I've never thought about using them on my cuticles - great idea!

    I prefer to have someone else to my nails because I'm rubbish at doing my own, but that said I own about 40 nail polishes because I can't help myself, haha.

    x Jasmine

  3. Gracie says:

    I think giving yourself a manicure is a great way to pamper yourself. Although I tend to paint my toe nails more than my nails. Like Jasmine mentioned I'm also rubbish at doing my nails. I do love Butter London polishes.

    I do prefer someone else doing the pampering for me massages, facials mani and pedis :)

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