When I first watched Mean Girls, I felt I’d met a kindered spirit when Karen Smith uttered the line “My nail beds suck.” I remember whispering “Mine too Karen, mine too.” Unfortunately, I take out all my stress and agitation on my cuticles and holy crap does it ever show. Instead of the short, ragged nails that the hands of perpetual nail biters (you lucky bastards) have, the ends of my fingers are bright red, dry as hell, cracked and usually sporting dried blood. It got to the point that at a manicure appointment when the technician clipped my skin by accident, I didn’t even feel the pain and just stuck my finger in my mouth on reflex.

As of this moment, I am proud to report that, while I still chew on my fingers on occasion, they have little to no wear and tear on them. The culprit behind my newfound nail beds is the Beautifying Nail Kit from Premier Spa Boutique. Armed with everything a gnawer like me needs, they don’t help you kick the habit so much as cover up the evidence. 

Coming in three flavours – sorry, fragrances – the kit includes a file, cuticle oil, moisturizer, and buffer. Whenever I felt the twinge of my addiction about to surface, I’d slather on the oil, smoothing down the ragged and pointy cuticle pieces and top it off with the hand cream to last longer. This has been a part of my daily routine for the last month. If you need further convincing, I had my nails done very recently and (like I always do) warned the technician that my cuticles are less than perfect. I nearly fell over with happiness when she said “I’ve seen way worse. This isn’t that bad at all.”

Trust me, with my fingers, that is the highest compliment of all. 

Retail price: $49.99 on the website.

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Bianca Teixeira writes about style for Toronto Standard. Follow her on Twitter at @BeeLauraTee.

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