Is nail polish harmful to nails?

[citygirl1961]

I used to always paint my nails and then they started splitting and my toe nails had this white all over them.

The podiatrist I go to about twice a year says its fine to wear nail polish as long as you also give it a rest inbetween.

I've almost given it up and my nails are looking better but I do miss having colour on my nails.

Any thoughts on this?

I spent my teenage years using nail polish and it ruined my nails. I now haven’t used it for 6 years or so and my nails are naturally quite nice, other people comment on them!

My toes cope with it fine, but without fail it trashes my fingernails.

Thanks for your replies. I might just paint my toe nails in summer and leave my finger nails. I have got some nail conditioner that I put on them which gives them a shine anyway.

It's completely fine, just use a gentler remover and plenty of cuticle oil everyday and between uses. It'll be the acetone drying them out.

Following on from this, does shellac damage nails? I rarely get my nails done professionally as the polish gets messed up when I'm doing day to day stuff. I have been tempted by shellac.

Shellac, and as far as I know ink London Ilaq are both non-buff power polishes so it won’t damage the nail.

When it’s removed it should flake off and not need scraping with an orange stick or similar.

Buffing and scraping damage the nails & the shellac gets the blame.

You will still need to protect the nails when doing housework and not use your nails as tools.

Nail polish does no damage at all to nails. You don’t need to give them a “rest” or let them “breathe”. It’s a fallacy. They do need moisturiser though just like the rest of you.

What damages them is how you remove it. Picking or peeling it off is disastrous. Acetone remover is too harsh. Get a moisturising polish remover and try to use base coat and a good top coat so you don’t need to remove it too often. Wear gloves too if you have your hands in water a lot.

My routine is Opi Nail Envy or Nailtiques 2, depending what condition my nails are in, followed by any old polish. I like Barry M, China Glaze and Sinful Colours for the range of shades. My favourite topcoat is CND Vinylux 7 Day. It dries really quickly and I can easily get a week or more wear without any chips. Every day or every other day I apply another thin coat of Nail Envy or Nailtiques, and I use Nailtiques nail moisturiser every day too. Lots of people swear by CND Solar Oil but I don’t find it does much. YMMV.

I bit my nails for 30 years and had acrylics for 5 and they were utterly disgusting. They are now strong and healthy, but like your skin and your hair you have to put a little bit of work into the upkeep of them if you want them to look their best. I’m very low maintenance and this takes me about five minutes a day except on polish change day.

Have you tried Dadi oil? Developed by the same scientist but different formulation.

I find cnd solar better for my nails but everyone’s different.

I have always had fast growing but weak and bendy nails that would always flake and rip as soon as they got slightly past my fingernail.

Nail polish would make them even bendier and weaker, nail cream/cuticle oil made no difference and acetone free moisturising remover was just as bad as regular acetone.

I started using nail hardener from Poundland plus neem oil and now have lovely long nails.
I take the hardener off sometimes to oil but darent leave the hardener off too long else they start flaking again

I've been using these all day every day on fingers and toes for years and my nails are fine.

I wore nail polish constantly from being in my teens until very recently (mid 40s). I bemoaned the fact that I had peeling, delicate, weak nails but just thought that's how they were.

Last year I started playing guitar. I didn't want to get nail polish bits all over the guitar so stopped wearing it. My nails are now like iron they're so strong and they never peel. I'm growing the ones on my right hand (again guitar reasons) and they're lovely - before they wouldn't grow past my fingertips without peeling or snapping. Not doing anything else different, by the way.

I do miss colourful nails, though.

I've changed to vegan nail polish because I had to go veggie due to severe allergies. Since doing this I've noticed that my nails are much better. I wear it pretty much all the time but once I take it off I leave it at least overnight to let my nails breathe (now this is probably not a thing just my notion, nails probably don't actually breathe but the short break in my mind does the power of good )

Use a good base coat, take your nail polish off properly with a acetone free removed and make sure you moisturise your nails and cuticles and you'll be fine.