Firstly and most importantly, never allow your nails to get too dry. Always use hand cream after you wash your hands and regularly throughout the day as required. This will help your nails and cuticles to retain their moisture and stop them breaking or peeling. Moisturisers like those by Aesop are a good choice as they last all day and work well with your skin. Don’t cut your cuticles, but gently push them back when they are soft, for example after a bath or shower. If you are still encourtering problems with dry skin I would recommend using Eve Lom as their creams are extremely good!

If your nails are dry or brittle or you get hangnails, it could be a problem with your diet. Calcium deficiency can cause breaking or peeling, and white spots can often be caused by not getting enough iron. These things can all easily be remedied by making sure you eat a balanced diet. Manual work, housework and washing up can seriously damage your nails so wear gloves especially where washing up liquid is involved, and always moisturise when you’re finished.

Nail varnish looks great but can really damage the nails if used too much. Only paint your nails when you want to go out and look your best, there’s really no point going to all that effort otherwise when they will just get chipped anyway. When you do paint your nails, always use a base coat to prevent the colour from staining your nails. OPI is a good place to start for a great range of colours that are long lasting, and they do base coats and nail treatments too. When you take off your nail polish use as little remover as possible and, yes you guessed it, wash and moisturise your hands straight afterwards to make sure your nails don’t dry out.

Some leading spas have a series of beauty products that can be used domestically without needing a therapist or special equipment and many of these products are “as used” in the spa’s own treatments.There are soothing and cooling products that will carry on the good work at home when the treatment finishes, extending the sense of well being, improving mood and enhancing health. These at least allow you to extend the benefits of the indulgent treatments you’ve experienced as part of the spa day and are essential for those who don’t have the time to actually attend a session at the spa of their choice.They are a reminder of the indulgent treatment enjoyed and often spa quality products to pamper hands, feet, legs and face are often superior to commercially available alternatives.During pregnancy women have to take even more care of their skin and overall health, so many mums to be prefer to use spa quality cosmetics and creams specially developed with pregnancy in mind.These luxurious products help to soothe, calm and nourish tight, stressed skin.

You may not be able to give yourself a massage for example, but you can at least rediscover the relaxation of the manicure treatment you received at home by doing it yourself and recreating the complete relaxation of fabulous manicure and pedicure spa treatments. Nail shaping, cuticle care and polish can be done alone or with a friend and products that can be applied domestically include a foot massage cooling mask to make feet feel revitalized soft and truly pampered while heel balm is equally easy to apply yourself.