Long Overdue: Naked November Results

Ok, first just a quick reminder to enter the New Year's Giveaway that you can read all about here.  There are a lot of really awesome prizes to win, so make sure you enter before New Year's Day!

Down to business!  Here are my nails just after I finished doing Naked November.

Left Hand

 Right Hand

As you can see, the skin around my nails has vastly improved.  After experimenting for a month to see what skin care products would work best for me, I found that Lush Lemony Flutter is my holy grail.  It smoothed the dry skin, plumped the weathered skin, and helped eradicate the tears and frays.  MASSIVE CAVEAT HERE: Remember, not all products work the same for all people.  Much like with topcoats, cuticle and skin care is highly dependent on your skin type and your body chemistry.  I've tried so many cuticle products, but I've never seen results quite like this.  The Lemony Flutter has also helped to restore the moisture in my actual nails as well, which, as you may recall, was sorely missing before I embarked on this challenge.  I'm pretty sure that the lack of moisture was a larger cause for my damaged nails than even the damage caused by picking my polish or the havoc wreaked on them by Rejuvacote.

As you can see in the comparison above, most of the damage has grown out, the skin has smoothed, and my nails look much healthier and happier.  The sad part, though, was that my thumb with the bubbles hadn't grown out completely, which caused my nail to break super far down into the quick.  If you see any of my photos on my Facebook or IG pages, you'll see that my thumb is shaped a little strangely.  I didn't want to file it all down to the meat, so I chose to take only that corner off.  And because of the problems I'm still having from tears, I've also decided to change my nail shape to rounded until I can get them built back up.  I'm not a fan of round on myself, but I just have to get over it if I want long and healthy nails!  I mean, I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually, right?

So, what do you think about going without polish for a month?  Could you do it?  Do you think that it helped me gain healthier and stronger nails?  I'd love to hear your thoughts below!