Neat nail polish

[gingercat02]

Boooring I know, but humour me!
I love having painted nails but can't wear any polish at work so it's not worth having them done for a couple of days.
How do I paint them neatly? No matter how hard I try I end up with as much on my fingers as my nails any tips hints welcome

paint with a thin make up brush pva glue round your fingers avoiding the nails so when after you have painted your nails the pva glue will peel off your fingers with the unwanted nail varnish

or just wash your hands and peel the varnish off (i tend to do this)

Paint your dominant hand first.
Make sure you use a top coat to keep your nails neat
If you make a mess, wash your hands in hot water after your nails have dried and the paint will peel off the skin

Sounds obvious but, keep the hand you're painting on a flat surface in good light.
For neatness, when you load the brush, start with the middle section of your nail, and don't go quite to the nail bed - push some of the excess nail polish down towards your cuticle instead. Should only take three strokes per nail, and possibly only one for your little fingers.

Definitely base coat and top coat too (Orly and OPI both have good ones). For clean-up, as the others have said, washing off just with soap/water is even easier the next day - I tend to do my nails at night, and then peel off any bits that did end up around the edges when showering next morning.

I do my own gel nails at home. I do the 'down the middle, push to the cuticle' method and the nice thing with gel is you can tidy up with an orange stick before you cure them.

Rimmell used to do nail varnish that came with a really great, quite wide flat brush, which made such a difference. You can't get it anymore, which is a bit annoying.

I find painting my nails the night before I'm due to wash my hair works, as any varnish that gets in your fingers comes out when you get vigorous on your scalp. Works for me, anyway .

Barry M do a nail polish correction pen that I use to tidy up round the edges and cuticles.

YY to the Barry M Correction Pen. Just wait until the polish is nearly dry before tidying it up (to avoid smudging the wet nails by mistake).

Use a decent topcoat, such as Seche Vite, so the polish dries super-quick.

Rivertam Rommel polishes still have brushes like that. I bought 3 the other day and they all have a wide flat brush.

Rimmel not Rommel!!

Get a nail art brush to use as a clean up brush. Use that with some acetone to clean up anything where your hand wasn't steady enough.

Tidy up with a cotton bud soaked in remover.

Alive my autocorrect did that too. Yes, but that's in their gel polish, isn't it? Which I really don't want. They used to have it just in regular polish (it was a Kate Moss red one I had).

The brush makes a huge difference - OPI are my favourites. I used to have a nail blog and paint my nail several times a week but still would end up with a mess with certain brands because of the shape of their brush.

I use a little brush dipped in acetone to clean up around my nails. You can buy cheap nail art brushes on eBay, or use something like a brow brush (something flat and firm)

Wow so many great ideas. They may seem obvious but not to me. I always do my left hand first and never on a hard surface
Will try all those application ideas and invest in a correction pen. I do try to pick off the bits at the edges but they still look a bit straggly at the edges. Thanks MN

River the ones I bought the other day weren't gel. 2 were a 60 second dry variety and the other was a Katy Perry edition colour. All have the wider brush.

Oh! Well now, that is exciting! Thank you, I shall go for a browse very soon!

Does anyone know why my nail polish brush becomes sticky/'gunky' after a while? It's worse on opaque colours, not so bad on clearer ones.

Should I be cleaning my brushes? Does nail polish have a shelf life? I generally use Estée Lauder, Ciaté, etc.

Op, don't worry. Lotion your hands working into the cuticles. Towel Polish your nails to get excess lotion off your nails. Paint your nails. After they dry out more lotion on. Don't worry yet. In the morning after your shower put on hand lotion again. It should have come off your skin by now.

peanutbutter one of the chemicals in nail polish evaporates off very easily so the nail polish gets thicker. Sounds obvious, but make sure you're doing the bottles up tightly. You can buy drops to replace the chemical and thin the polish back down (I like Seche Restore - can't remember the price but it last for absolutely ages, I think I bought my bottle in like 2012 and I've barely made a dent).

Spam88 thank you- I had no idea such a product existed!
Threads like these is why I'm totally addicted to MN.

Spamthat's really useful, mine goes all gloopy too using nail polish remover is not good thanks.
Dudsville I always thought hand cream would stop the polish sticking well?