If there is anything that strikes me about the owner of this brand and her sister (they share a co-working space as the latter is a makeup artist & YouTuber <who you should check out by the way –Farri By Sisi Ope>), it is the fact that the atmosphere of the studio is saturated with Gospel Songs 24/7. Aside from the fact that their services are excellent, that is a major selling point.
Before meeting Abimbola of EmbellishbySarahJames, I was more or less clueless about the right way to care for nails. In fact, all I knew was that our nails needed to be moisturized all the time but did I know there were nail care myths? Did I know how to detect fake nail products? Did I even know one could earn a certificate from nail artistry? These and many more are what I learnt from meeting Abimbola.
Aside from being a nail artist, Bimbo is a content creator and a blogger who shares tips on nail care and lifestyle, as well as on faith. She studied Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management for her first degree. After her first degree, she went ahead to study Strategic Marketing for her Master’s Degree at the University of Greenwich, London. To burst your bubble, she has 5 nail certifications from a beauty school, also located in London.
On asking her about some tips to help groom healthy nails, here are some she gave:
Don’t use coarse files on your nails:
Different nail files have different textures so be careful of the exact one you use on your nails. Also, do not over – file.
Your nails are very fragile:
When wounded, they heal very slowly. Do not randomly tear off ripped skin around your fingers.
Do not use your nails
e.g using your nail to open cans. The nails get easily traumatized and could sustain several internal injuries you are not aware of.
At this point in the conversation, I recalled a previous experience I had where I noticed green patches on my nails after taking out some nail extensions. I just assumed I was lacking a certain Vitamin and moved on. However, meeting with Abimbola, I learnt to ‘Pay attention to the colour of your nail. A sudden change in colour on the nails could be a sign of trauma to the nails’.
In addition, I got schooled on taking my nails to random ‘nail technicians’ who are seemingly cheap but could be using counterfeit products. Abimbola was able to let me in on the fact that random cheap super glues should not be used to fix nail extensions.
‘Those who use it do with the aim to make your nail extensions last longer but in the long run, it does more harm than good’.
This is one of the reasons I stopped fixing my nails at roadside nail technicians.
The tips aren’t done…
Keep your fingers moisturized…Be careful not to use acrylic powders that contain a cement-like substance called Methyl Methacrylate (MMA).
This is a chemical in form of an acrylic powder that causes nail damage, infections, skin ailments and respiratory problems when constantly inhaled. It’s been banned in the USA, UK and some other countries with nails regulation laws. You can detect that you’ve been served MMA if, after minutes of trying to soak off the nails using nail dissolver, the nails refuse to budge, sissss, you just got served!
MMA is a chemical used in fixing nails which is in form of an acrylic powder - causes nail damage, infections, skin ailments and respiratory problems when constantly inhaled... Click To TweetFinally,
Do not remove your nail extensions with your teeth…
A lot of Nigerians are guilty of this. Using your teeth on your nails instead of properly taking them out by soaking it off is not advisable and harmful to the nails.
For the nail art, we were inspired by the colour of summer… bright, colourful and fun and this beautiful Nail art piece was born. I call it ‘The Half-Blood Moon‘ lol.
On her blog, I shared a few tips on skincare and affordable Nigerian skincare brands that you can try out. You can read that post HERE
I hope you found this post helpful. Let me know below, which of the above tips you would be putting to use as from now.
Word of the Day
For we are God’s handiwork,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do.
(Ephesians 2:10)
Till my next post,
Always reflect God’s perfection xx.
Sharing Happiness one Brand at a time,
