Keep in mind that cuticle oil doesn't help the nail to grow faster, but rather what it does is hydrate your nails to help prevent breakage, which keeps them strong and healthy. The reason why Simply Pure™ does such a fantastic job at helping nail growth is because of the oils that are used. According to Anna of Bliss Kiss, "Only two molecules are small enough to move through the 100 layers of keratin that make up your nails—water and sebum (our body oil). My research has shown that jojoba is almost identical in molecular structure to sebum." [source]. 

This product seemed too good to be true, so of course I wanted to try it. $6 for a cuticle oil pen doesn't sound so bad, but after you add $9 shipping and convert that into Canadian dollars, you're looking at almost $20 for one pen.

April 12, 2016. This is my "before" shot of my nails. Before I started using cuticle oil, and apparently before I started cleaning my hands up for pictures. Look at all that dark nail polish residue all over my hand! My nails were short and brittle, and you can see that the skin of around my index finger is even peeling a bit.

April 23, 2016. You can already tell how much healthier they look after just 11 days. You can see some nail growth on my middle and ring finger, and the skin around my nails looks much less dry as well.

May 9, 2016. As you can see, there's no rhyme or reason to the timeframes I've been taking these pictures. And who knows why I took this picture vertically in the middle of a Walmart of all places. But you can see that my nails are starting to grow. This is how long my nails usually got before they started to break. However, you can even see that I still had a bit of peeling still on my index finger.

June 9, 2016. My index finger had a bit of an accident which is why it's shorter than the others, but you can see some great nail growth on the other fingers. A bit dry around the skin, but that's my own fault. I started decreasing how often I used the cuticle oil (ie. I kept forgetting to use it).



November 27, 2016. This is one of the most recent pictures of my naked nails. Unfortunately I didn't get any other naked pictures of them before *gulp* the accident... I tried picking up a huge box when I was shopping and broke my middle nail way down to the nub. And on my picture hand! I would have maybe shrugged it off it happened to my right hand, but it happened to the hand that I take pictures of. Regardless, you can see how much healthier my nails look. They're extremely long, possibly the longest that they've ever been, and they're no longer peeling. And if you look at my thumbnail, you can see how long it's grown too! I never took my nail pictures with my thumbnail in the frame because of those terrible horizontal breaks. I no longer get those horrible breaks though, and my thumbnail is now almost as long as my other nails!

A lot of articles will tell you to simply face the fact that matte polishes aren't long-wearing, and that matte topcoats aren't quick drying (i.e. you're more than likely to wreck them within an hour of painting them, either by reading, putting a jacket on, or accidentally knocking your hand into something). And this is simply not the case! You can get days of wear out of your favourite mattes and glossies (under a matte topcoat), and you don't need expensive equipment or supplies.

Your first basic necessity for matte nails is a matte topcoat (duh). My favourite one is New York Color Matte Me Crazy! It is so inexpensive and affordable, and is only about $2 at my local Walmart. There are many options out there for matte topcoats, but I really like this one because it is cheap and it works for me. 

All you have to do to achieve beautiful and longer lasting matte nails is to apply your nail polish over a base coat like normal, apply a glossy topcoat, and then finish with your matte topcoat. This is so stupidly easy! Remember to wrap the tips of your nail with both of your topcoats after doing your vertical coat of the nail. This will better help protect your tips from chipping and fading. By applying a normal topcoat, your nails have more protection than if you only used a matte topcoat. 

I don't know what it is about applying a glossy topcoat before using a matte topcoat, but I find that it also gives my nails a nicer and even more of a matte finish. I don't know how to explain the science behind this and can't find anything that explains it, but it just works. 

Because matte topcoats take a little longer to dry than a standard glossy topcoat, you're also going to want to make sure that you avoid any accidental bumps and nicks to your perfectly manicured nails while they're drying. A simple and quick solution to this is to apply a cuticle oil over your nails and cuticles while they're drying. The oil basically acts as a barrier if you bump into anything, and you can avoid most damage to your wet nails this way. However, this isn't an instantly drying nail solution. You're still going to want to be a bit careful while your nails are drying, but this will prevent against most accidents. By applying a cuticle oil you're also moisturizing your cuticles and the skin around your nails. This will help your nails to become healthy and flexible, which is a better surface for your nail polish to adhere itself to (i.e. possibly prolonging the wear of your nail polish!). 

For those of you who were too lazy to read my article and just want to know how to get longer lasting matte nails, here's the low down: Base coat, any nail polish, glossy topcoat, then matte topcoat. 

How do you like rocking your matte nails? Let me know in the comments below!