My New Holy Grail Cuticle Product: Badger Cuticle Care

I've been receiving comments over the past several weeks about how my cuticles and nails are looking better (in my polish posts), so I'm finally ready to reveal to you my secret weapon (which I've been using once a day for the past three months):

Badger Cuticle Care

(retail: $5.99, 0.75 oz)

From the Badger website: 

USDA Certified Organic

• Soothing Shea & Cocoa Butters nourish and repair dry, splitting cuticles.
• Portable tin can travel anywhere.
• Use daily for maintenance, or as an intensive overnight treatment.

Carry Beauty in your Hands. Badgers know how to dig the Earth, and also what a toll that can take on the cuticles - that's why this is one of our favorite balms! Our Cuticle Care formula deeply soothes and restores cuticles with soothing Shea Butter and nourishing Seabuckthorn CO₂ extract. Delightfully fragranced with essential oils of Geranium, Mandarin, Lemongrass and Ginger. Repair and protect dry, splitting cuticles. Note: Naturally occurring beads of Shea Butter rise to the surface.

Directions for use: Lightly rub fingertips over the surface of the balm & apply directly to cuticles. For intensive therapy, apply liberally and cover hands with cotton gloves overnight. Use regularly and expect results.

Several months ago when I first received some products from Badger for review, I quickly fell in love with the Damascus Rose Antioxidant Face Oil (click here for my review). When I researched the company for that review and found that they use food-grade olive oil in some of their products (expensive!) and other great, natural ingredients, I really hoped that I would fall in love with their Cuticle Care product. There's something about rubbing all-natural ingredients into my delicate cuticles that just seems so...right.

I don't even know where to begin with this one, so let me try to make it as clear and to the point as possible:

I love this product. It has absolutely transformed my cuticles. You can look at my polish swatches since April (the month before I started using Badger Cuticle Care), and I think you'll see that my cuticles look SO much more healthy now than they ever did before. Also, I'm NOT claiming that this product can help with nail growth, but have you seen how long my nails are lately? I haven't changed anything in my diet or beauty routine to try and help my nails grow, and the only thing I can attribute this to is the fact that my cuticles seem healthier and in much better shape these days (please note: this is just a theory and I have no scientific evidence to back this up).

As they say, the proof is in the pudding. So...

Here's a photo from my NYC matte top coat review, taken in April of this year:

 

 And here's a photo taken from my NYC Expert Last Polish review taken last week:

Granted, the lighting is different, but I think you can see how long my nails have grown since April (this is the longest they've been in recent memory), and how much better my cuticles look, as well as the skin on the sides of my nails. 

 So here's what I've been doing:

• Every single night when I'm sitting on the couch watching TV or reading a book, I bust out my tin of Badger Cuticle Care and work a small amount into each of my cuticles (following the directions mentioned above). The entire process takes less than five minutes and I'm done.

• And every time that I change my nail polish color, right after my new color has dried, I wash my hands and apply a small amount of Cuticle Care to my cuticles to keep them from drying out due to the acetone in my remover. 

Now, I don't want any of you to rush out, buy this product and expect to have perfect cuticles after the first or second use. This product doesn't work like that. The key here is continued use. Just like with any moisturizier or lotion, you only see results when you actually use the product. If you expect to skip three or four days and still have nice-looking cuticules, you might be in for a let-down. I haven't skipped a day of use in three months and the results have been fabulous, but I'm sure that if I only used this product one or twice a week or skipped it altogether for a few weeks, the results wouldn't be this impressive.

Truly, the key to improving your cuticles lies in consistency. I've used a lot of cuticle creams and balms over the years, and none of them work if you don't use them consistently.

So why THIS cuticle balm? Well, that's simple: it's better than any other cuticle balm or cream I've ever used. The fragrance is lovely (an all-natural blend of geranium, lemongrass and other essential oils), the consistency is smooth and greasy (cuticle balm is the only product on the planet that I WANT to be greasy--otherwise it just disappears too quickly) and it's super easy to work into the skin. And let me be clear: it's not greasy in a petroleum way (there is NO petroleum in this product). It's greasy in a shea butter and olive oil type of way (the first and second ingredients in this product).

Which brings me to the third reason why I adore this product: the ingredients (most of which are certified organic). Shea butter has always worked wonders on my skin, and so has olive oil. The fact that those are the first two ingredients in this product, coupled with the fact that this product contains no parabens, phthalates or any other controversial ingredients, makes it feel that much better to me (especially when I'm rubbing it into my skin on a nightly basis).

One more thing I'd like to add: like I said before, I've been using this product every single night (and sometimes more on the days when I change my nail color) and I haven't even scratched the surface on this tin. Since you only need to rub your finger across the surface of the product and never actually dip your finger into the product, it will last you FOREVER. I mean, I'm not even close to being halfway empty and it's been three months of continued use. So for $5.99, I think you'll get at least six months of use from one tin, if not a year.

FINAL VERDICT: My new Holy Grail cuticle balm, without a doubt. I love everything about this stuff, from its soothing fragrance to its awesome ingredients. What I love the most is how my cuticles feel and look after I use this product and, with continued use, I think it would improve just about anyone's cuticles. Before I started using this product, my cuticles would get so bad that I would avoid doing nail polish swatches on this blog out of embarrassment. So I think it says a lot that I'm not embarrassed one bit about my nails anymore, and it's because of Badger Cuticle Care. But remember: the key to using this product is consistency (as with any moisturizer), or your cuticles will go back to their original state. But this product is such a joy to use, I don't mind one bit having to be committed to using it. The ingredients are excellent, and I honestly think this product is worth twice its price (which is another reason I'm highly recommending it--the value is excellent considering the certified organic ingredients and how long one tin will last you). Badger Cuticle Care  is a treat I think we all deserve. I can't recommend this one highly enough.

You can purchase Badger Cuticle Care on the Badger website (orders of $25 or more ship free). To find where Badger products are sold in your area, click here.

Please stay tuned because I've got more Badger products to you show you in the weeks to come, including their famous lip balms.

A sample of this product was given to Nouveau Cheap for editorial purposes, either directly from the manufacturer or from the agency that works on behalf of the manufacturer. All reviews on NouveauCheap.blogspot.com are the honest opinion of its author and editorial samples do not, in any way, affect the outcome of product reviews.