Found this on line:
"The cuticles will peel, split and bleed when they lack moisture and oil. Having ones hands in water a lot, using household cleaning solutions without wearing gloves, adn working with paper and textiles a lot will wick the natural oils and moisture form the delicate tissues and from the nail plate. Lotions do not contain the needed amounts of essential oils to correct the problem and can only treat the immediate surface skin - the portion you can touch.

Go to Sally Beauty Supply and get a nail and cuticle oil called Botanical Oil. It contains jojoba oil, vitamin E and other essential conditioning and moisturizing oils. Apply several times a day and massage into the skin and nails. You should see an improvement within a few days, and a marked improvement within a couple of weeks.

Read more at http://www.healthboards.com/boards/a...ktrack=kcplink"

I use "surgeons secret", i got it on QVC. they sell it at stores now.
But the olive oil sounds like the way to go. in the winter i sometimes wear the white gloves you get at CVS or Walgreens. i do the same thing with my feet..and put the lotion on first
Drink plenty of water..the winter is rough on our skin.

Mine do the same thing...went to the Dr about something else and happened to mention my nails. The fabric absorbs moisture and the oils from our skin while we quilt, therefore dries out our skin and nails causing our nails to "shale" and our fingers to crack. What he recommended a was soak, you know, the home manicure parifain wax thing. Anyway, believe it or not, it actually works. My fingers only crack and nails shale now if I'm quilting for 3 or 4 straight days, 8-9 hrs a day and I haven't taken the time to do the wax treatment.
When we go to quilt shows, they don't want us to touch the quilts with our bare hands, and give us gloves, so naturally we have to think of this in reverse...the fabric absorbs the oils and moisture from our skin.

I have the same problem just from working with fabric and doing household chores. My girlfriend recommended a product sold at some salons called "Dabby". It is out of Florida and you can find it online, just google Dabby but they only sell it wholesale. If used daily it works better than anything. Hope this helps, it has helped me. Also, lots of good lotion with "lanolin".

my carpet cleaning guy told me, you should never walk barefoot on your carpet, for just this reason..the oils in your feet, come off onto the carpet..i wear my husbands white work socks all the time..

Mine do that too and my daughter, the soon to be Nail Tech, says it is a deficiency of minerals. She uses oils for her clients. Take mineral or baby oil and fragrance with peppermint or other stuff and enjoy.

Vitamin D is something most women have low levels. I started taking some vit D twice a day about 6 months ago and my nails are much better.

I have to use Vaseline hand and nail every night at bed time or I have the same problem. It really works. Can't remember what ingredient it has that other lotions do not.

I also had that problem for a long time finally the DR. did blood work as also had sore muscles I had parathyroid desease where the calcium was going into the blood from lack of vitamin 'D' I now take 2000 units of vitamin 'D' a day along with 1200 units of calcium but also have to go for regular blood work yes this is a thing to be checked by the doctor

My fingernails split layer-wise when I use nail polish, don't know why. But I quit using nail polish, and I don't have that problem anymore.

I have extremely dry skin and nails too. I also have to keep my nails short because of the peeling. I was perusing the board one day and looked in the recipe section. Lo and behold, there is a recipe in there for quilter's hand cream. It makes a very large batch so make sure you have some empty small jars or a tupperware canister to store it in. I keep mine in the fridge...well labeled of course. It works really well. Give it a try.