Polish pride

A southern lady will always have presentable nails.  Whether they are clean and bare, long or short, perfectly polished.  For me, I love my nails short and always polished.  The trouble is that nail polish doesn't like to stick to my nails.  Sometimes they would last a day, and they would chip and the polish would peel off in large chunks.  I would wear only nude colors so that it wouldn't look so bad when they chipped.  

Top coats have helped for sure.  I'm a big fan of Seche Vite Fast Drying Top Coat (and I also recommend the Restore for it as well).  With the top coat, my polish would last almost 24 hours. I then started to use alcohol on my nails before the base coat.  That has helped greatly!  So I began to experiment with base coats.  I stumbled across a blog recommendation (which I don't even remember the name of the product).  I ran to Ulta to purchase the base coat, and they were out.  The sales person recommended CND's Stickey Base Coat.  This stuff is the BOMB!!  Depending on the polish formulation I use - I can get a full week out of a polish!  That is just amazing!

Here's what I do:

• I use a cuticle remover and push back my cuticles.  
• I wash my hands and file my nails (including buffing)
• I put some alcohol on a cotton pad to remove any residue of water or cuticle remover
• I use CND Stickey Base Coat
• Then two coats of polish
• Followed by a coat of Seche Vite Fast Drying Top Coat

The great part, is that I can usually go to bed within 30 minutes of doing all that.  It's awesome and it works great.  

I really love the gel nails (or Shellac manicures), but I don't like committing to a particular polish color for two weeks.  I can handle a one week commitment - two is too much.  Don't get me wrong, I think they are IDEAL for special events and super busy times when you don't have the time for any kind of touch ups.

And now, I leave to have dinner so that I can do my nails!  

Love y'all!

L