Lazy Hydration + E-file Polishing Ball Bit Tutorial 💧

My new go-to hydration routine!!

One of my favorite compliments ever is when people tell me I have soft hands. I’m like yesss my hard work is paying off! But actually, I am pretty lazy when it comes to hydration and I like to just work it into my daily life so it doesn’t feel like another thing I have to do.

Now that it’s winter and everything is especially dry, I’ve been thinking about easy ways that I keep my hands and nails hydrated and I wanted to share them with you!

I also filmed a tutorial for using one of my favorite new e-file bits, a polishing ball!! This is like a super fine ball bit that you use at the end of your manicure with cuticle oil and it literally polishes your skin and exfoliates it (you can literally see the dead skin coming off!!!) and it’s so satisfying and keeps your nails/skin looking great for weeks. So make sure to watch this at the end of the post!

Also - a quick note on WHY having hydrated nails/hands is so important to keeping your manicure looking great.

Did you know that it’s actually good to have slightly flexible nails? When your nails are flexible, they can absorb trauma/force and bounce back vs. snapping and breaking. If your nails are too hard/brittle, they won’t be able to recover as easily and that’s when breaks can happen. This is also why I prefer using soft gel over acrylic but that’s a different story!

Another thing, if you don’t hydrate your nails during the duration of your manicure with oil, they can start to change shape a little (like shrivel or bend or just be rigid) and it can be difficult for your gel to stay adhered, which can cause lifting and chipping.

Hydration is truly key to keeping your nails strong and looking great and healthy at all times! So let’s get into my *lazy* hydration routine :)

1. Skincare

I do my skincare twice a day, and I’m guessing a lot of you do too! Instead of wiping off excess product after applying it on my face, I always use the rest on my hands/fingers/around my nails!! So my hands are getting gentle exfoliation/face wash, toners, serums, and moisturizer two times per day. I always leave the bathroom with both my face and hands full of skincare!

This also helps with keeping your hands looking great because they’re getting all of the benefits of your skincare! And especially at night, I’ll make sure to put a little retinol or whatever active serum I’m using on my hands and I think it helps combat again a little? Maybe? I hope!

If you’re curious what skincare products I use, check out this collection here!

I would say my holy grail product that I use each time I do my skincare and sometimes more is the First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream. It’s really light and fluffy and soooo hydrating. I also really like how it smells (like extremely faintly rosemary mint-y). I’ve used it for years and I will continue doing so too!

2. Aquaphor

This is boring 😂 but Aquaphor is my FAVORITE cuticle hydrator. I always get asked which ones I recommend and I usually say “use what you love” and also ~Aquaphor~!!! I actually use Aquaphor in my skincare routine so this kind of goes along with #1, I put it on my lips and any dry spots on my face and I also just rub it all over my face at night to lock alllll of the things underneath in :). So I’ll just get a little extra and rub it all over my cuticles at least 2x a day, but usually more because I’ll just do it every time I use it on my lips during the day too!

I just get this huge one from Target and I have a mini one for traveling too!! It’s not sexy, but it works soooooo well. I swear by it.

3. Use What You Love

I’m a major offender of buying lotions or potions just because I want to try them or they’re trendy (I’m trying to be better!!!), and then I end up not really loving the formula or the scent is horrid. I am SO PICKY about scent. I get instant headaches from some scents and I just can’t deal.

So anyways, this is all to say that I think finding something that you LOVE and actually LOVE using and want to reach for and want to keep in your purse or by your nightstand or on your desk, is so much better than just using something because it’s trending on tiktok. If you use any lotion or cuticle oil, that’s better than using nothing!! I know this isn’t revolutionary advice, but since I get questions on what I recommend so much, I just want to say that some hydration is better than none, so use what you like!

And if you’re interested in knowing what *I* love, let me tell you! So for me, I need a lotion to be super hydrating, preferably silky, and not greasy, and smell nice (of course!). I hate when they feel extremely greasy or powdery after you use them. And cuticle oils need to soak in quickly, be thickkkk and luxurious, and smell nice. (There are some really bad scents out there omg). Here are some of my favorites (and they’re easy to get):

Lotion:

Seaweed Bath Co Collagen Hand Cream - Rosemary + Mint - Amazon (this hits on both the silky luxurious formula and great scent!! I love spa-like scents personally so this one is one of my absolute faves!!! I keep it in my purse because it’s mini!)

EOS Shea Better Body Lotion - Vanilla Cashmere - Target (ok this is tiktok viral lotion that I was interested in trying and it really *is* great!!! I love it so much that I bought the peppermint cashmere for the winter! This comes in a bunch of scents, but I really like the vanilla one! It’s very silky and hydrating and not greasy at all. I use it all over my body but also throughout the day on my hands. And I just saw that they have a mini hand version which I might need to try….)

Goldfaden MD Hands To Heart Oil of Grapefruit Anti-Aging + Brightening Hand Treatment - Amazon (They sent me this to try and it’s actually one of my favorite hand treatments I’ve ever tried!! It’s very silky and has grapefruit oil in it, so it smells slightly citrusy which is very fresh and nice! But I especially love how this has skincare ingredients in it like retinol and niacinamide! So I feel like it actually realllyyyyy hydrates and plumps my skin too. It’s definitely a little pricey but worth it IMO!)

Olive & June Hand Treatment - Olive & June (I prefer this one so much over the hand serum because it’s just like 10000x more hydrating! I really love how thick and silky it is, and it’s unscented!!!)

Cuticle Oils:

Kokoist Nail Oils - Kokoist (these came out recently and have quickly become one of my favorite cuticle oils I’ve ever used!! They are SO THICK and luxurious. You can see when I use it in the video below, when you do a dot of the oil, it just stays put. It’s so thick, I’m obsessed! And they each smell like freshly brewed tea, but it’s subtle! Jasmine is my favorite scent so far!)

CND SolarOil - Amazon (we used this in nail school and I still buy it and love it!! It’s also thick and hydrating and uses almond oil, so it smells like almond extract like fresh cookies yummm)

Essie Apricot Cuticle Oil Roller Ball - Amazon (I really love a roller ball for easy application!! These are just perfect for keeping in your bag. This one is really hydrating and I feel like the scent is sooo subtle I hardly notice it (in a good way)!!)

Miniluxe Cuticle Oil - Amazon (I just realized this is available on amazon and I’m SO EXCITED! This is one of my OG top favorite cuticle oils because it’s a roller ball & it smells like a spa!!! This one is a little higher of a price point too but the scent & application ease make it worth it in my opinion!)

Optional Extras:

Hydrating Gloves - I have some from Cote that are really nice but a little pricey. I LOVE using them though, so I would recommend just picking some up from Target (aquaphor brand💖) or Amazon and using it 1x a month. And if you have dry feet, these are INCREDIBLE too!!!

Hand Scrubs - I love using a scrub after a manicure to exfoliate my entire hand!! And then you hydrate with a lotion + cuticle oil combo above and your hands will literally look brand new!!! I feel like this is a use what you use situation here too, but some of my favorites are:

Olive & June Mani + Pedi Scrub (I really like how tiny the scrub particles are in this one!)

Seaweed Bath Co Rosemary Mint Scrub (smells sooo good)

Again - use what you love/have, but use it!! Nothing transforms your hands quite like a scrub! I’ll use one every time I do a manicure, so usually 1-2x a month.

4. E-File + Polishing Ball Bit

If you use an e-file for your removal & dry manicure work, this is such an easy thing to add to your routine and I SWEAR BY IT for keeping my skin hangnail free and keeping my nails looking great for the 2-3 weeks between manicures!!

The ball bit is larger than a cuticle bit, but smaller than a removal bit, and it’s a diamond bit so it’s just super gentle on your skin. You pair it with cuticle oil and it gently exfoliates dead skin and smooths out any jagged edges left behind from cuticle work!

I feel like I get a lot of questions about how to make your cuticle area look so clean and perfect, and this will reallyyyy help. Especially if you aren’t perfect at nipping (looking at myself here lol). I always leave little bits of skin and this just cleans everything up so nicely!! Here’s what you need:

E-File: Amazon one I like, and my new one from Nail Mart USA which I’m obsessed with (I still need to do a review - coming soon!!!)

Polishing Ball Bit: Erica’s ATA (I use this one) but I also want to try these from Nail Mart USA! You can use code KARA10 for 10% off Nail Mart USA too!

Cuticle Oil: I have been loving the Kokoist ones with this process! They are so thick and perfect!!!

And here is the tutorial for how I use it: