Nail polish holy grail anyone?

[doubleristretto]

It's there a secret to making your nail polish last through a few days with cooking and as little housework as I can manage? Traditional home polishing without UK lights or long soak offs and on natural nails? I've got good brands, bottom and top coats and reapply top coat daily but it just doesn't last past 24 hours normally, 36 if I'm lucky.

UV lights thanking you, autocorrect!

Are you letting it dry enough between coats? I leave mine 15 mins at least between layers. A sticky base coat helps A LOT - either orly bonder or CND Stickey. A layer of this before and after ever coat (including before top coat - I use seche vite or the nails inc caviar one) with OPI polish gives me a week at least without chips, just a bit of tip wear

Uv light thingy. Only about £30 on amazon. Mine never lasts 24 hours normally and it's two weeks with the uv polish

Ooh, that's good info Rosie, thank you! Multiple base coat, coats. I shall give it a go.

Anecdotally thank you. I've used UV pages before but always found they've damaged the nail in the long run, I think it's the soaking and scraping off rather than the polish itself? Although if some are better than others I would certainly try. I've got the kit at home, I've previously used Shellac and Blue Sky.

My nails always last a week, and I redo them only because of regrowth at base, not chipping.

I use normal, non gel polish.

I always use a base coat - Essie 'all in one base' and 3 coats of polish, followed by Essie 'gel setter' top coat which is not a gel, just meant to look like it.

I have oily nails - so even uv gel can peel off. I've found it helps to wipe my nails down with something to completely get rid of any oils - non oily remover or rubbing alcohol or something. Also (very!) gently use a fine emery board on the surface. The sticky polish works too.

Thank you, you've all been so helpful! So a really good initial adhesion with non-oily nails (I don't think I can face the filing as yet, Feck, but I'll store it up for next time!), sticky base, three layers of colour with base coat above and below and left for at least fifteen minutes between layers. I wonder if I can get away with my top coat? It's new and I had high hopes when I bought it, Renunail 3D top coat. I lost some nail polish in some meatballs I was making last week, nobody noticed

I've found the Rimmed two steps really good for me. Obviously not as long lasting as a UV job but I manage to have them looking decent for about five days which is usually not the case.

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000BB9L0S/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
This stuff is absolutely fabulous, have always had shit nails and polish didn't last longer than 24 hours no matter what I tried.... Not any more, can't recommend this stuff highly enough. Have long string nails and if you use as base coat and top coat makes polish last for ages

Ha ha strong not string 😂

I have five top coats. Some of them are genuinely shit. The best one IMO is Sally Hansen top coat; I can get a week out of my nails like that provided I'm not doing any washing up/too many bath times.

Seche Vite was crap. As was CND Vinylux (my nail varnish peeled off in large patches with both). Am about to try the Essie.

Watching because I suffer with the same annoying thing!

I think it's a combination of nail polish AND top coat. I have some polishes that last better than others. I had an awful, but otherwise raved about, Sally Hansen top coat that pulled the polish off the nail but my current one, from TK Maxx, seems okay. I will however, try the top coat between layers tip though, thanks Rosie