How to Have Nice-Looking Nails Without Polish

Giving your nails a rest day from wearing polish? Be confident to go bare and have your nails looking pretty and healthy sans colorful nail paint.

Use gloves to protect your hands

We can't scrimp on housework, we all know that. However, exposure to detergents can be harsh for our hands and nails. When scrubbing bathroom floors or washing dishes, slap on a pair of rubber gloves to protect the hands from harsh detergents and cleaning agents. You can also use laundry detergent or dishwashing liquid with moisturizing properties.

Have hand cream ready

In your purse, car, or near your kitchen sink. As you massage hand cream on your hands, don't forget to rub your cuticles too with hand and nail cream.

Buff your nails once a month

Aqua Minerals Nail Kit can be used on days when you have no time to get your nails professionally done. The buffer leaves your nails shiny even days after treatment while the hand cream cares for your hardworking hands leaving it with a nice, elegant scent.

Buffing removes rough ridges and leaves your nails smooth and shiny even without clear nail polish. Do this once a month for beautiful nails. I'm using Aqua Minerals nail kit which includes a nail file, nail buffer, cuticle oil, and hand cream to give my nails some TLC when I have no time to go to the salon. The buffer also leaves my nails shiny even days after my DIY home treatment. By the way, don't do this too often as too much buffing can weaken the nails.

Don't cut your cuticles or pull hangnails.

Telenovela queen Thalia said in her book Belleza that cuticles are like weeds. When you cut them, they just grow back. Apply cuticle remover gel instead to dissolve cuticles and push them back with a metal stick soaked with cotton. I also use Cure gel to remove dry skin and cuticles. I can't say enough about pulling hangnails. They're painful and leave you with a bleeding, painful wound.

Consider vegan or toluene-free formulas

I love dark polish, yet I know they leave my nails with a stain. I try alternating my polish with light and dark polish and when I still want to go dark, I use a vegan formula such as Zoya polish, which is gentler for my nails.

Eat better

Just like your skin, your overall health will show as well with how your nails look. Add healthy and nail-strengthening food to your diet. Also, you may take supplements for healthy nails.

Get nail-whitening treatments

There are add-on nail treatments to whiten nails. Add this to your next polish-free hand and nail pampering session to remove yellowing from dark polish stains.

Resting your nails from nail polish and nail art is actually a step in taking care of your nails, so I hope you like these prettifying tips in making your nails presentation-worthy during its rest day.

Nail polish photo from Zoya Facebook Page.

A Look At the 2016 Belle De Jour Power Planner

One of the most popular planners here in the Philippines is the Belle De Jour Power Planner, which has a very good following among many women and has created a community for 10 years. It is more than just a planner with a pretty cover. Through the years, it has evolved into organizing not just your day-to-day activities but also helping you become a better you. I'm also glad to have been writing for their website in sharing my tips in beauty, fitness, and health.

So here's an overview of the 2016 Belle De Jour Power Planner.

The first few pages start you on a good note... by allowing you to give yourself  a general sketch your plan for the year. Remember when New Year's Resolutions were part of someone's practice at the start of the year? This one is something like it but a little more fun and less imposing. It lets you write out your goals - personal, health, finance, career, etc. and probably a fun dream you would like to do, like probably climbing a mountain or conquering a fear. Understandably, the goals may be subject to change. It's okay, I don't judge. It happens to me too.

The Happiness list what  you need to look at when you're feeling down, because as the page says,  "Being clear about what makes you happy is the first step to being happy."

Just like the ornaments called dreamcatchers, which filter out bad dreams and only allow good thoughts to enter our mind, the dream board does something like it. This whole blank space is to be filled with photos, doodles, sketches, designs, words, and cutouts that give you inspiration, drive, and hope. It may be something like a photo of the designer bag you've been saving up for, or a destination you would want to go to. It may be your dream house, or maybe something simple like a dish you really loved and would want to master. Basically, it's your good vibes page.

Inasmuch as we all love shopping and pampering ourselves, we also have to be reminded to be responsible of our money, and our planner helps us budget our hard-earned money and keeps track of how much we're spending, helping us save for our future.

This for me is a very important feature, the menstrual tracker. Keeping track of your monthly period isn't just avoiding the unnecessary dyahe stain by being prepared. Your period in fact, is a measurement of your overall health. My doctor asks me when there's something wrong with me how my period is. And I even get this with Western medicine. The doctor who did my annual physical exam asked me about my period, not my blood pressure, not my diet, and not my medical history. The menstrual tracker keeps track of your flow, if it's regular and if there are months when you skip or there are months that they are happening more frequent, and if you need to see a doctor.

The planner itself is full of inspiration - from the colorful designs, to the quotable quotes, and even added bonus are the tips we get every month as well as words of encouragement. It helps you take care of yourself in every single way.

The booklet full of awesome coupons from partner brands. Of course we have to treat ourselves to awesome things, right?

These are just some of the features I'll be excited to use once 2016 rolls in. Hopefully, this will get me inspired. Maybe that would be the time I get my handspring or unassisted headstand right. This is practically good vibes in a book, and if you have a really good friend or relative who would need some good vibes, this is the perfect gift.