This seems a good place to start

Bare naked nails warning! I'm kicking this blog off with a post about my adventures in nail care. I've been making a serious effort to condition and grow my thin, peeling, dry crappy nails.

So far, this has involved a LOT of intensive moiturising of both the nail plate and the cuticles.
I also make sure I keep a protective layer of polish (even if it's just one coat of clear treatment) on my nails at all times and wear gloves when I wash up. Soaking nails in water and detergent causes peeling.

Before - flaky peeling nails 27/4/15

After - much less peeling 20/05/15

Looking good, right? You can really see the nails look smoother and the peeling has been repaired. No miracle cure, they're not super strong and hard but they're not brittle either and there's been a big improvement.

I've been using a product called Trind Nail Repair (TNR) - it's a glossy paint on treatment. For the first two weeks I followed their instructions and removed and re-applied the stuff once a day. Every damn day. I wasn't sure that inflicting all that drying nail polish remover on my nails was a good idea but the TNR seemed to hold its own. Unlike some hardeners that just make the nails hard and brittle, the TNR helps reinforce the nail structure while retaining flexibility.
I also started using Trind's Nail Balsam. A wondrous blue elixir that drenches the nail and cuticles with moisture - my nails just suck it right up. And it's non-greasy so you can put polish or the TNR on straight after using it.

My nail treatment regime

And everything was going so well for a few weeks until I decided to buff my nails and then apply my Balsam and TNR. I've got thin nails, so I'm wary of buffing them too much, I only do it once a month (or less) and I'm very gentle. I can only guess this was what made my nails too sensitive to the TNR or perhaps I'd been using it too intensively because soon after I painted it on my nails got sore.

I went to bed and woke up the next day with nails pulling away from the nail bed. That's the only way I can describe it. You can see in the photo below, the white free edge has encroached on the pink nail bed and the line dividing them has become ragged. I'm guessing this will eventually grow out.

Well, I hope so.

Oh dear.

The soreness disappeared after a couple of days but now I have funny looking nails. :/
And a gap in my nail care regime - I was getting good results with the TNR and I still think my nails need help. So I've been using Trind's Keratin Restore and Keratin Repair, which as far as I can gather are their recommended solution for nails too thin and damaged to withstand the awesome power of TNR. The Keratin Nail protector has a strong and not very pleasant smell of formaldehyde. But apart from having fingers that smell like a morgue I think it's taking good care of my nails.

So...that's it for my first post on this blog.

I'm duplicating the content from my tumblr here on my blogger blog. It seems like a good idea to have two platforms so I have more opportunity to follow more cool nail bloggers.
Expect me to spend a lot of time messing around with the layout and making mistakes while I get used to this new environment.

Meanwhile, let me know what nal care regimes have worked for you? Can you recommend any products for thin peeling nails? A really awesome cuticle moisturiser? Comment freely :D

xx Kat