The instructions for a hand serum run: take it on the back of the hand, spread it over both hands, work it in, reach between the fingers, and finally, massage around the nails with light presses. Most people skip the last line. Once the backs of the hands feel supple, the job feels done.
Yet the eye does not rest on the broad surface of the hand. It rests on the fingertips: the fingers around a glass, the finger pointing at a screen, the fingers offering a business card. If the skin around the nails is dry and torn, the impression is settled there, however well the back of the hand has been cared for. This article takes the last ten seconds of the routine on their own and describes, in detail, how to apply a hand serum around the nails.
Why the skin around the nails dries so easily
The cuticle at the base of the nail and the skin along its sides are among the driest parts of the hand. The fingertips touch things more often than any other part, get wet in washing and wet work, are rubbed by paper and cloth, and sit exposed to dry air. And because the area is so small, serum applied to the back of the hand does not reach it unless it is sent there deliberately.
A dry cuticle hardens and lifts into a hangnail. Pull the hangnail and the skin around it roughens. The basics of caring for the nail contours are to keep them from drying out and never to pull. Both rest on the last ten seconds of every application.
The fingertips are the part of the hand that dries first and is moisturised last. Moisture applied to the back of the hand struggles to reach them, and what does reach them is the first to go at the next wash. That is why the nail contours need not an afterthought but ten seconds of their own, fixed within the sequence.
The last ten seconds, written as movements
- With the backs of the hands and the spaces between the fingers done, check how much serum remains on the palms and the pads of the fingers. If little is left, add half a drop to the back of one hand.
- Place the pad of the opposite thumb at the base of a nail. Press lightly over the cuticle, towards where the nail emerges. Do not rub: press and release.
- Hold the fingertip between thumb and forefinger and stroke the grooves on either side of the nail from base to tip. One pass each side.
- Repeat on all five fingers, then change hands.
- Finally, bring the fingertips of both hands lightly together and let the pads of the fingers share whatever serum remains.
Two seconds a finger, about ten seconds a hand. Two movements, press-and-release and stroke, are all that is needed. No force is involved. There is no need to push the cuticles back or to work serum under the nail.
Amount, frequency, and what to do about hangnails
Whatever is left after the rest of the hand is enough for the nail contours. Whether the morning drop or the two evening drops, spread so that some remains to be sent to the fingertips at the end. Add half a drop if short, but there is no need to apply extra around the nails alone. Too much leaves a film on the nail surface and fingerprints on the phone screen.
Frequency is the same as for the whole hand: every application. At night in particular, when the fingertips touch nothing for hours, the ten seconds can be stretched a little and each finger pressed with care. When there is a hangnail, do not pull. Cut it at the base with clean clippers or small scissors, then press a little serum around the nail. If redness or pain persists, see a dermatologist.
These ten seconds need no mirror. On the train, before a meeting, waiting at a crossing. Smoothing serum over the back of the hand draws the eye; pressing a thumb to the base of a nail goes almost unnoticed. Even in moments when reapplying is out of the question, the nail contours alone can be kept up, and often that is the part that counts.
Fingertips with nail polish, and without
With nail polish on, the skin around the nails dries just the same. If anything, the more immaculate the polish, the more a dry cuticle beside it shows. The method does not change: the serum goes to the cuticle and the grooves on either side, not to the surface of the nail. With a texture that leaves no stickiness, nothing is left on the polish.
On bare nails, a thin film over the nail surface itself does no harm. Ridges and chips are associated with long periods spent wet and with handling detergent without gloves. Moisturising the nail contours and not leaving the hands wet are a pair of habits that belong together. The whole method, from the back of the hand to the fingertips, is on our hand serum guide.
In Soie's hand serum
Soie's Enlight Hand Serum is formulated to care for the nails and fingertips as well, and its instructions end with a massage around the nails. Dimethyl sulfone and horsetail extract (skin-conditioning ingredients) together with hydrolysed keratin support a clean, well-kept look at the fingertips. Because it leaves no stickiness, a screen or a keyboard can be touched the moment the fingertips are done.
Do not skip the last ten seconds. Of all the steps in using a hand serum, the one around the nails is the shortest and the most looked at.
