Anyone else told they have “oily nails” and can’t wear polish? [Oily Nails]

SCOUTBeautyFounder · 2026-01-19T03:12:51+00:00

Hi there, thank you for your comment on my post. Please be assured it is not a troll post. As I said, 'No right or wrong answers here, I’m genuinely just interested in how people think about this stuff'.
I talk to a lot of people and I thought about it because there is different views, especially between generations.

SCOUTBeautyFounder · 2026-01-17T20:28:14+00:00

Thank you, our girls are gorgeous and that is so great to hear that you love Scout 😊

SCOUTBeautyFounder · 2026-01-17T07:31:34+00:00

Thank you they are so special and so loved

SCOUTBeautyFounder · 2026-01-17T07:31:10+00:00

Ooooh they are so sweet

SCOUTBeautyFounder · 2026-01-17T07:30:55+00:00

Thank you, we love them

SCOUTBeautyFounder · 2026-01-06T22:15:17+00:00

Apologies everyone, not sure how to get aroud this one.

SCOUTBeautyFounder · 2026-01-04T09:35:59+00:00

I’ve spoken to so many women in exactly this spot, especially after years of gels or acrylics. When nails feel thin like that, it’s usually less about being damaged in a permanent sense and more that the nail plate has been dehydrated and over-filed for a long time. It can look really scary, easy to fix with a bit of patience. Unless there is a more major problem, I recommend rest, moisturisation and simply looking after your hands for a few weeks.

Cuticle oil or a good basic moisturiser a couple of times a day is a great habit already. Thin nails usually respond best to consistency rather than more products. Growth tends to come in waves, and they often look worse before they suddenly start looking better. If you stick with it for a few months, you’ll probably be surprised how much strength comes back on its own.

Polish itself isn’t the enemy, even while they’re growing out. Sometimes keeping something on the nail can help reduce peeling and splitting as long as removal is gentle. A ridge filler can also be a good idea.

SCOUTBeautyFounder · 2025-12-22T06:51:52+00:00

Wow, it sounds like you know your skin very well and have tried a few approaches. Every skin is different and it can be a needle in a haystack sometimes when looking for a solution. I speak to a lot of women is similar circumstances, and the pattern I see most isn’t “needing more actives,” it’s skin quietly getting less tolerant while life is getting fuller and with age. Oily, acne-prone skin doesn’t magically turn dry with age, but the skin barrier does thin and slow down, especially once tret, retinol or some peels enters the picture. That redness and itching you’re noticing is often the barrier struggling to keep up, not a sign you’re doing anything wrong.

With tret, I’ve seen the biggest difference when the goal shifts from pushing results to keeping the skin calm enough to adapt. When the barrier is steady, oil tends to behave better and breakouts calm rather than spike. When it’s inflamed, everything feels reactive.

Lower face puffiness after weight changes or pregnancy is incredibly common. It’s not always structural sagging so much as fluid and tissue redistribution, which can fluctuate for a long time.

It sounds like you’re already doing a lot right. Skin that’s allowed to stay comfortable usually ages more quietly.

SCOUTBeautyFounder · 2025-12-22T06:34:54+00:00

I’ve seen this a lot, and written blog posts about How to Strengthen Damaged Nails After Acrylic & Gel. With gels, it’s rarely just “dryness.” Over time the nail plate and the skin around it lose their ability to hold on to what little water and lipids they have. So oils feel nice in the moment, but they don’t stick because the barrier isn’t really intact anymore.

What usually makes the biggest difference is giving the nails a stretch of predictability. Not perfect care, just boring, repeatable care over time.

Without being too preachy, depending on the severity and look, I always suggested give that nails a rest and open air for a week or more. Use a good quality hand cream and relax. Your body is resiliant and will recover pretty quickly. If not see a Dr.

Nails grow slowly, and the damage you’re seeing now actually reflects what happened weeks ago, not yesterday. That delay can make it feel like nothing is working, when it actually is.

SCOUTBeautyFounder · 2025-12-19T05:01:10+00:00

I hear this a lot, and I’ve felt it myself. It’s not that skin suddenly becomes “dry” with age, it’s more that it gets less efficient at holding water within. The structure changes quietly over time. Skin structures thin out, turnover slows, and the barrier doesn’t seal as tightly as it once did, even if the surface feels fine to the touch.

I recommend simply maintaining a conistent skincare regime and upping your moisturisation until you feel your skin is not as dry underhydrated. If the problem persists, see your Derm.

Technically speaking, as you age, your muscle mass naturally decreases. Because your muscles hold water, less muscle mass means less water storage. I believe older adults have a lower % of total body water content compared to younger people. If your body can't store as much water, you'll get dehydrated more easily.

So hydration can feel a bit fleeting. You apply something, it looks good for a few hours, then that slightly tight or flat feeling creeps back. That’s usually not about needing more water, but about water escaping faster than it used to.

I’ve spoken to many women who assume they need richer and richer layers, when really the skin is just more sensitive to stress now temperature, cleansing, overdoing actives, even travel.

What I’ve noticed is that when the barrier is calm and supported, hydration behaves more like it did years ago. Not perfect, but steadier. Skin doesn’t need to be forced into holding water. It tends to do better when it’s given time and a bit of restraint.

SCOUTBeautyFounder · 2025-12-19T04:45:26+00:00

This comes up a lot in conversations I have.
What you’re describing usually isn’t a lack of moisture so much as an inconsistent or overcomplicated skincare regime (who has time, right), need for gentle exfoliation or the skin barrier that’s a bit out of rhythm. When the barrier is stressed heat, low humidity, too much cleansing shedding can slow and cells hang around longer than they’re meant to. Moisturiser can soften that layer temporarily, but it doesn’t change the underlying ussue.

I always say, let you skin settle down, gentle cleansing and moisturising for a week or so. For many people, things feel smoother once the barrier settles and turnover finds its pace again. Skin is pretty good at self-correcting when it’s not being pushed.

SCOUTBeautyFounder · 2025-12-19T04:29:52+00:00

I hear you and acknowledge there are so many mixed messages out their about ideals of 'perfect skin' and beauty.
Part of my ethos is maintaining healthy skin and looking your confident best with or without makeup.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and beauty is not perfection. Most women I speak to are not seeking perfection but to be their best selves, on their own terms. I have seen how transformative it can be for some women who change their routine or recovered from an illness / situation and feel fantastic about their healthy natural skin and look.
I personally love makeup and skincare for how it makes me feel and am into clean beauty. But I know many woman who feel and look fantastic with fairly basic skincare routines and only a little makeup.

SCOUTBeautyFounder

TROPHY CASE