Where am I going wrong with nail varnish?

[hippospot]

I paint my toenails successfully in the summer and get two weeks out of it.

One coat Sally Hansen base coat, then two coats of varnish - usually Mavala.

On my fingernails, however, I always seem to smudge or get a dull finish. How many hours exactly do I have to sit still doing nothing for it to dry completely? Usually I can get 4 days before it chips. I'm just frustrated because I have things to do !

When I tried the Sally Hansen fast-drying top coat (seche vite?) I got a great finish and it did dry much faster HOWEVER it seemed to be more brittle and chipped on the second day. My nails are very short by the way (and I wear rubber gloves for washing up).

I only paint my fingernails once in a blue moon and 9 times out of 10 it's disappointing. I'm not keen on the idea of gel nails.

Thanks!

gel nails are great as they dry quickly and are much more durable.

use more seche vite, i found this worked as it chipped quite soon if i just use one coat. gel nails make my fingers itch and ruin nails.

4 days is about right I'm afraid- very few varnishes last much more than that. The other thing is make sure you put enough on- if you go to a nail bar, you will see they do v thick layers and their mani will usually last a bit longer. And yes you have to leave it for about an hour IME for proper drying- which is why I usually do nails in front of the telly!

Im a Shellac addict. Your nails last 3 weeks, I just keep getting them removed and reapplied. Probably should give nails a break, but they always looks so pretty.

I do mine in bed, use Seche Vite, let them dry for 10 mins and go to sleep withthem outside the covers. Always get a great finish. Lucky if I get 4 days without damage though, not so much chipping as wearing off at the tips, which really shows with dark colours.

Paint them a colour you don't really like or that doesn't go with everything. I've found Sod's law comes into play and the sillier the colour, the longer it lasts.

I love my gel nails. Done every 4 weeks, £22.
Always groomeg.
I just gave up on ordinagy polish. Wasting too much time.

Seche Vite is excellent but it's not made by sally Hansen so possibly you need to double check what your top coat is.

I use Essie base coat, any old polish, then seche vite on top. Have toddler twins and do gardening etc and will get 5 days out of a manicure. Which is pretty good going.

Gel nails every 2 weeks. It's the way ahead!!

OK I've checked, the stuff I put on top is called "Sally Hansen Inst-Dri".

Is Seche Vite better? I have a feeling I couldn't find seche vite and settled for the other one.

I do gel nails at home - I probably get about 10 days out of them. Led lamp, shellac base coat and top coat (from Amazon), and a gel colour in the middle - I have blue sky, shellac, red carpet manicure and various other brands.

Insta Dri is just as good IMO. None of them stop my white tips showing within 24 hours through, that is where gel and the like have a big advantage. I don't like being stuck with the same colour for weeks though and I have known the odd one to randomly peel, which is really annoying.

Toes last because they aren't getting knocked all the time.
I do my nails watching TV after everything has been done. I don't expect more than 4 days.
Gel nails are great. I only get th about 3 times a year as I bore of the colour too easy. They haven't wrecked my nails and I am bad, I peel them off myself.

I love doing my toes and picking out colours. I look forward to the summer when I can get them out every day. BUT I've never had any success with fingernails – for me it just doesn't work - all the endless typing (for work), housework, handwashing, activities with kids, things like gardening and sewing, it never lasts more than a day.

I'm not the type / not enough time to go and get gel nails done so I've just given up. Maybe when I'm retired!

4 days is great i am lucky to get one day!

Gels are the answer. Last 2-3 weeks.

I like Essie Good to Go fast dry topcoat. I've used the seche vite and the Sally Hansen one but the essie one is my fav.

Agree that 4 days is good going really, miner rarely last more than 24 hrs. I have a uv lamp and buy bluesky gel polish off eBay/Amazon, will last 7-10 days on me although I know some people can make it last 3 weeks.

I tried gel nails and it didn't work that great for me. I must be really hard on my hands as there would be a chip in a week. And I dont think you can repair them - they have to be completely removed and redone. And that's the real problem - I've never seen a place that only soaks them off. They always filed the last bits off and that quickly became an issue with my nails very thin and when I stopped doing the gel it took a month for the nasty stained bits to grow out.

I do my own gel nails at home using the Sensationail system. It's not hard to get the hang of, if anything it's easier as the polish doesn't set until you put it under a UV lamp (so there's plenty of time to correct any mistakes) and I can easily go for 10 days between manicures. Doing it yourself is fairly cost effective vs a salon once you've made the initial investment in the UV lamp.

What puts me off gels (apart from the cost and having the same colour for two weeks) is the limited range of colours compared to normal polish and the difficulty of removal, I soak them off in pure acetone but I can't help feeling that is not great safety wise as it is on the skin much more than just wiping polish off with normal remover. Also I never manage to get all the base coat off. Also they do chip or peel occasionally (I had one peel after two days last time I had them done at a salon, luckily it was a thumb and I painted it with a very similar colour I had at home).

Whoknows, you can mix and match the gels from any range which helps a lot. You can also use normal polish as your colour, sandwiched between gel base and top coat. It doesn't last as long-maybe a week -but is then significantly easier to remove. Sensationail do an easy off base which also helps with removal. Obviously if you're paying a salon you wouldn't want them off easily but personally if I'm doing them at home then I'm happy to get a week of nice nails then change them.

I also find that they're a lot easier to remove if you can loosen an edge. Once they've been on a week I tend to find that there is enough growth that the top edge is more exposed. Just lifting this a little -not peeling it all off, just loosening the corner -really helps as it lets the acetone work from underneath which means that with a good remover tool you can gradually work them off from underneath rather than trying to soak through roughly 5 layers.

I highly recommend cnd vinylux 7 day polish. Used with the top coat it easily lasts 2weeks, in fact it's a trouble to get off! You can get it done at the salon or can buy on Amazon. I used to pay about £12 every two weeks.

I was wondering that actually, if you could use normal polish in between gel base and topcoat. I have had them done about 4 times at a salon and always taken them off at home after 2+ weeks, there definitely is some peeling, I also buff the surface first to break the seal a bit. i don't use a tool, I just put some acetone in a ramekin, dunk my fingertips in for a few mins and ease the layers off with another nail / rub it with cotton wool.

Layering regular acrylic means they'll peel and so they don't last as long. However, that may be a bonus if you want to remove them frequently.

It may be a good compromise between true gels that are hard to remove and regular polish that only lasts a couple of days on me.