A Nail Dehydrator?!

I know, I know - sounds kinda weird - but hear me out on this one. During my week-long course that I did early last year to train as a Nail Technician, I learnt just important it is to 'prep' your nails before any kind of nail application. One step in particular which really grabbed my attention when getting all genned up on the details was the concept of cleansing the nail as the very final step before going in with whatever nail system you fancy. In many cases, it's taken care of by a quick wipe with lint-free wipe that's slightly saturated with some sort of sanitiser/cleanser, but in others, there may even be a designated nail product that you must use in order to do the exact same thing. In the Nail Technician world, it's often referred to as a 'bonder' or a 'primer' but in layman's terms - it's simply a dehydrator that you apply to the nails before glamming them up as a way to break down the natural oils found on the nail plate that can interfere with the adhesion of the nail product and as a result, be the reason why things start to lift, peel and chip away. It's become such an integral part of my professional kit that I fancied seeing if there was anything on the highstreet that I could perhaps pick up to use on myself, personally and eventually, I saw this product from Essence...

This is the 'Clean and Start' Nail Cleanser and it retails for a rather bargainous £1.70. Yes, you heard that right. As always with all of Essence products, it's pretty darn affordable but if we're going on how impressed I've been with anything from that I've tried so far - I had high hopes that it would be rather awesome too. I also figured that as I'd never tried anything of the kind before on myself, it made sense to not throw myself into the deep end price-wise too much and so all in all, this product really called out to me and I'd say it was a success! Simply use the brush applicator - as you would with a regular polish (or perhaps as a Nail Tech - a gel polish) and watch as your nails instantly look more dehydrated. Sounds kinda gross and almost the opposite of what you want (we all want nice hydrated, healthy nails, right?) but in the case of applying something over the top, it  works wonders at ensuring everything lasts and looks awesome far, far longer. As I said, you're removing all of the oils left on your nail plate - whether of the natural variety, or from any product you've used such as hand cream - and so, things are much more likely to adhere better. I've used this one in particular a good few times now with regular nail polish - as I always tend to when I'm giving my own nails a #GlowUp - and I have to say, I have really noticed a difference in how well my nails last and look. It's an easy step that takes no time at all, yet it really seems to help make my nail polish cling onto my nails for longer and if you're going take the time to do them in the first place - that's just what you want, yeah? I'd highly suggest you give it (or something like it) a go...