Q. In your books you say that you don’t believe in nipping or clipping cuticles. After I’ve pushed my cuticles back you can still see them, although then they seem to settle down and look OK. Is that what you do, or do you have any other tips on what to do to the cuticle once it’s been pushed back?
A. Our favourite nail-grooming trick is to massage oil into cuticles nightly. This has a double-whammy benefit: it nourishes the nail bed, improving blood and nutrient flow to the nails to make them stronger and more flexible, over time. But it also softens and nourishes the cuticle area itself: one of the reasons cuticles ‘show up’ (as you say yours do) is that they’re dry. Ironically, cuticle removers can actually be quite drying, but oil treatments counterbalance this. And you know what? Pretty much any old oil will do – sweet almond oil is great, but olive oil is pretty darned effective, too. Decant it into a little dropper bottle, and keep it on your bedside table.