Nail polish on fingers and toes

[Coleen]

I have chipping Sally Hansen Tough as Nails on my fingers, and the polish on my toes is so old I'm not sure what color it is, although I am for certain it's OPI. I think my first pedometric treat will be getting a pedicure and possibly a new polish color to go with it.

[Erika]

I decided to give my nails a break from the constant red (OPI Malaga Wine, how I love you so), so I am currently rocking Go Go Green by Maybelline.



(my nails! no nail fraud this time!)

It makes me think of two things:
* spring
* an exceptionally friendly alien

[manatee]

Coleen, do you like Tough as Nails? I have either that or Hard as Nails (I forget) and I don't like the way it makes my nails feel.

[Coleen]

Hard as Nails, that's it. And I do like it - I treat it as a regular clear polish, and it works fine for me. I buy the one with the pinkish tint, because I think it's a more natural hue.

[manatee]

My toenails are waiting for a second coat of bright blue; my fingernails will then probably become a bright red. Haven't quite decided.

[Twisty]

I finally treated myself to a mani/pedi last Thursday. Neutral on my nails as I cut them all down and a french manicure on my toes. It lasts a long time! Too bad it's not sandal weather . . . well, not for a wimp like me even though the high is 70 today.

[Corinne]

My toenails are a fabulous silver gray called "Queen of Everything." I love the name and the color.

[Dara]

I need a good hardener. I thought I loved the one I was using (Sally Hansen in a blue bottle) but after a few weeks it blistered the hell out of my nails. I think it was that. I was using hydrogen peroxide, as was recommended by some smart Simplester (er, whatever we are) and cleaning them really well. I guess it might have been the remover, though I washed that off. I haven't even been painting my nails, which I miss, because I can't stand how ugly they got. Any recommendations?

[Erika]

I have no recommendations on a hardener for you, Dara, although my sympathies.

I'm branching out colorwise: this time, a deep purple.

[manatee]

I forgot how red nail polish can stain when you take it off. Holy COW.

My fingers now sort of match my toes - I'm wearing Russian Navy, which is this really dark blue with super-fine pinky purply shimmer in it.

[manatee]

Holy cow, I think I've found my perfect brown - it's OPI's Can You Tapas This. LOVE it.

[hikkchikk]

My toenails are golden and sparkly, looking at them makes me feel very glamorous even though I'm wearing my pj's.

[manatee]

I'm wearing China Glaze's Peachy Keen on my toes - I'm not sure I like a color this cute and cheery. I like my colors obnoxious and offbeat.

On my fingers I'm wearing OPI's Suzi Says Feng Shui, which I'm LOVING. Wonderful dusty blue.

[MaiTai]

I'm wearing Revlon's Plum Night on my toes, which is an almost-black purple. I wish I didn't feel like it's horribly unprofessional for me to wear nail polish on my fingernails, but it wouldn't last too long anyway with all the massage oil and hand-washing that goes on every day at work.

[manatee]

I love being able to wear wacky colors on my hands, now that they can neither show up on TV holding a mic or come off as unprofessional to a serious interviewee.

[manatee]

My toes are now a bright jelly green, and my fingernails are a deep scarab-y oil slick green.

[planetmort]

I have that same problem, Suzy. I don't know why they're like that.

I have Maliblue from OPI on my toes right now. It's a very sheer metallic aqua, and a fav of mine.

[Eli]

My fingernails are getting really long now (as in avoid typing with pinky finger long) , and I really want to go a full on vampy red. I just hope I don't break them all moving on Saturday.

My toenails are still an awesomely obnoxious turquoise.

ETA: lovely nails Erika!

[smunch]

OPI's Dutch Tullip on my tootsies. My first pedicure of the season!

[Nora_Charles]

OPI's Red Red Rhine. First pedicure in a year! I almost proposed to my pedicurist after she massaged my feet and calves.

[Irish_78]

I loved the color at my last mani/pedi so much that I went back and bought a bottle. I'm now the proud owner of Essie's After Sex. LOVE it!

[manatee]

My toes are still Suzi Says Feng Shui, my fingers are OPI's Jade Is The New Black with a fishnet crisscross in black.

[CompassRose]

I've got Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Commander in Chic on my toes (supposedly this is a ringer for Chanel Particuliere; it's a nice greyed-out taupe). On my fingers, the same Sally Hansen line in Polar Bare, a very translucent white.

I like the Commander in Chic; not so sure about the white. It's a bit subtle for me. On the other hand, it doesn't show chips as much. I do really love the brush design of this line of polish - it's kind of stubby and rounded, and doesn't smear much. I'm terrible at painting my nails without also painting my whole fingertip, and this brush makes a lot of difference.

[Queen Bee]

I just got OPI for Sephora's Meet Me for Drinks. Other regulars are Firecracker which tends to come out in knee-deep summer and Dripping Rubies.

I use/wash my hands alot so I generally just do the toes.

[Lady_Catherine]

My toenails are OPI's Purple With a Purpose- first pedicure in years! I'll have to go back soon. It was luxurious! <3

[Eli]

My fingernails are painted a gray that I mixed up myself, called Patrick Grayze.

A couple of years ago, I was mad for the idea of properly gray nail polish, not silver or shiny. So I mixed up my own. I love it. I think now it's easier to find true gray nail polish though...

[Heidi]

I recently bought a crapload of nail polish - including a couple Sally Hansen 5 in 1 shades, about 7 OPI colors in a store (Not Really A Waitress-LOVE, Hawaiian Orchid x2-LOVE, Chapel of Love, 3 names I don't remember but they're all hues of pink from coralish to hot pink.) Plus I won two auctions on eBay for two of the Alice in Wonderland shades (Thanks So Muchness and Absolutely Alice) and four of the Shrek shades (Fiercely Fiona, Funky Donkey, What's With the Cattitude, Ogre the Top Blue.) Lotsa polishes!

So right now, on my toes, I have a base color by Sally Hansen that's a nice dark navy blue. Over it, I have a dark - yet kind of sheer - purple with purple, gold and red glitters. It's cute but hard to really see since the glitter is so fine.

My fingers? They rock! The base color is Ogre the Top Blue and it's topped with Absolutely Alice. I adore the way it looks together. And, while I do love glittery polish, I tend to stay away unless it's really especially awesome just because it's so hard to remove. I think my toes are going to be fine because the glittery color just isn't that overpowered with glitter. With Absolutely Alice I can feel the gritty on my nails. Tried to capture just how much it rules with Photo Booth - excuse my hair. It's humid here and it just keeps....growing.

Alice meets Shrek

Photo 76.jpg (69.54 KiB) Viewed 465 times

Dara - not sure if you're still having the problem with weak nails but there are two things I've used in the past that have worked wonders. Avon makes a protein nail strengthener for super cheap and OPI's Nail Envy also is great, though much more expensive. I don't normally have any problems with my nails, somehow I got lucky and inherited my grandma's strong/long/easy to grow nails and was left with my grandfather's short legs. And I didn't inherit a chin or forehead from anyone, it seems, since I'm the only one who is missing both! But anyway, in the last couple years when I would get really sick and end up hospitalized my skin, nails and hair took a beating. I'm guessing it was a side effect of getting next to no nutrients for weeks at a time - it was definitely weird, though, because I usually just have to worry about breakage since my nails don't bend and do get long so they just snap off. Also, my nails are my favorite feature so I get sad when they're gnarly.

My own question now...anybody know a good way to make a mani/pedi last? I currently use OPI Chip Stop, then an OPI base coat, then the color x2, then a quick dry top coat covered by an OPI top coat. The base coat is essential because I do wear a lot of red and dark colors so it helps with staining. I've only recently started with two top coats - the one seems to help the rest of the polish dry a lot quicker and the other makes everything smooth, plus it goes to the edge and slightly underneath my nail. All this has helped but it's still rare to go more than 2 days without chipping. I am washing my hands constantly because of all the stuff I'm taking care of with my mom - flushing drains and IVs, cleaning and changing dressings and the ever so lovely bedpans and bedside toilets. I can't handle NOT wearing polish, long nails tend to attract more dirt and ick under them so most sheer or clear colors are out, I feel lost when my nails are short and so on. But I'm embarrassed and self-conscious by chipped polish while still having little time to actually do my nails. Long-lasting polishes never last long on me, also. Maybe I should don a big bow and giant white gloves to pretend to be Minnie Mouse!

[MaiTai]

Does anyone have any tips on how to apply multiple coats of pale/sheer nail polish without getting streaks where the nail shows through? The only thing that sort of works for me is globbing on the second and third coats thickly with light brush strokes, but it takes forever to dry. I just screwed up my pedicure by running this morning when I thought my nails were dry enough, but apparently I was wrong. Ugh!

[CompassRose]

Does ANYONE'S regular polish ever last more than two days when they actually use their hands and put them in water without rubber gloves? Even the single pro mani-pedi I had, in Vancouver, didn't last more than a few days on my hands (although my toes were nice for what seemed like forever). That's why I don't usually wear polish on my nails, and keep them trimmed short short short - I don't have the patience to worry about my nails when I've got stuff to do.

I've tried some long-lasting polishes myself, and in fact the best one ever has been this Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure line I mentioned upthread. I never bother with base coats or top coats or anything like that, as I'm a Casual Polisher at best, and my hands always look like crap anyway no matter what colour I put on my nails. But I had the Commander in Chic on my hands for a while, three coats, and it must have lasted four, five days without showing any significantly gross wear. The Polar White (which is a bit sheer) was even better, and I managed to keep it on* for a week, by which time the growth margins at the bottoms of the nails were more disturbing than the little chips at the ends.

I'm not doing medical support, mind you, with any of those requirements for obsessive hand cleanliness, so who knows if this would work any better for you. It does come in some nice shades, though not quite so freaky-cool as OPI.

*or rather, didn't make time to sit down and remove it

[Niki]

My toes are sparkly black. I picked up a four pack of mini OPI bottles after paying for Jake's haircut the other day. Out of this pack, Colin picked the pale pink for his toes. Neither one of us painted our fingers.

[Maggi]

My toes are currently sporting an Opi color called "Cajun Shrimp". It is happy and bright, and looks particularly fetching against my green flip-flops.

[Sara]

Does ANYONE'S regular polish ever last more than two days when they actually use their hands and put them in water without rubber gloves?

In my experience, no.

[Lemonshark]

in the spirit of a downtown dutch culture and bike fest we're off to in about 20 min, I've got sally hansen "sunkissed" on my nails, a nice matte orange shade.

I kind of don't like wearing nail polish,it feels weird, but here i am.

[manatee]

When last night's plan to go look at engagement rings fell through, I painted my fingernails Bardot Pink with darker pink polka dots - except for the ring finger, which has dots and hearts.

Yes, I'm a big dork.

[Jennifer]

I have silver sparkles on my toes. Which seems like a good idea at the time, but man, it'll be a bitch to get off, and I can't just paint over that, either. What was I thinking?!

[Corinne]

Today my toes are matte chartreuse. I suspect that eventually I will own every shade of green nail polish in the world.

[manatee]

Corinne, that is a noble quest and I am right there with you. Greens, purples and blues - total sucker.

[Michelle]

Mine either. I've been told that the reason it doesn't last on me is that I have a lot of natural oil on my nail beds and that it's a good thing -- that I have healthy fingernails and hands. I dunno.

Does ANYONE'S regular polish ever last more than two days when they actually use their hands and put them in water without rubber gloves?

In my experience, no.

[Coleen]

I have nothing on my hands, and a neon OPI orange color on my toes. I am thinking it's just about that time for my monthly pedi, though, so I am going to switch to another color, probably a really bright cherry red.

[Erika]

I absolutely lurrrrrve this color.