Smoker's habit?

For a long time, I never wore a base coat.  My nail polish would chip or take forever to dry with so many layers.  That was before I became more educated about this nail polish world.  Even with using a base coat, I am getting some serious staining on my nails.  The last time I took my polish off (before the husband's choice mani), my husband said that my nails look like I had a 2-pack-a-day habit.  I mean they are practically orange!  Needless to say, I am not a smoker.  I need to remember to do some things to better take care of my natural nails!  They need a day of rest so they can get oxygen and sunlight (if there is any).  They need to be soaked and scrubbed and buffed.  Oh, that brings me to another topic.  My nails have been peeling lately.  That is unusual for me so I didn't want to do any buffing so that I didn't remove too many layers of my nail at one time.  Anyway, I digress.

This post is just to show you how bad things have gotten with my lovely nails. Here is what I started with.



before any treatment



my kitty cat is in the background

 

I decided to try and remedy this situation (if possible) so I took a look around on Pinterest to see what I could find.  I found 2 to try.  The first one was baking soda and peroxide only.  I soaked in that for like 10 minutes.  Here is what happened there...

 

The 2nd treatment also involved baking soda and peroxide.  It had added hot water though; and it required a light buffing.  Here is what happened with that:

 

 

So, there is quite a bit of improvement.  I would say "I'll just let them grow out" but we are entering winter now and nails don't grow as fast in cold weather.  And Buffalo gets cold!

 

Thanks for visiting!

Brandy