I'm not allowed to wear nail polish at work generally (safety and cleanliness). If I got cracking right away, maybe I could sport polish for a couple of days. In which case, I'd do two coats, maybe a top coat, and call it a day. I think it's easier if you cut and file one day, polish the next. Otherwise, yes, it's a lot to do on one's self.

I've actually been experimenting with breaking the steps up but still fizzle out by the time it's nail polish night! Argh. A lot of it is what the weather has done to my hands...my nails are uneven lengths, which makes filing take longer (to try to even them out), and the cuticles are all ragged, which makes the cuticle pushing a pain. No wonder I'm burned out after that!

I think it was La Belle who says she doesn't even do all the nail polish coats in one night. I might have to switch to that. Maybe I could divide that up into two nights also. I was worried that it would start chipping by the time I got around to putting more polish on, though...we'll see.

I see that one thing that would help me is to file and do cuticle care every week, which some of you have mentioned you do. I've been waiting till I want to polish. That would keep things at a more manageable level. And I clearly need to use hand cream more often.

I like the idea of the special polishes that don't require base coats and the like, but I'm sensitive to chemicals and have to get the ones that are free of the three chemicals whose names I can't remember... :^/ I'm not sure there's any fancy nail polishes in the less-chemical category. Anyone know?

Diana is in the same boat with the dry nails and breaking. Diana, I had the same thing happen where a nail broke so low it couldn't even be trimmed! OWWW! She was asking about good nail creams. Does anyone have any recs? In the last couple of days, I've been trying castor oil, and today I tried lanolin. I'll have to see how that plays out.

I'm a nail, cuticle and skin picker/ biter (urgh I know!) and any loose or rough bits of skin or nail get me nibbling, I think it's also stress related as post breakup my right thumb was in a terrible mess I'm just starting to rediscover the enthusiasm for my beauty routines. I'm applying cuticle cream nightly and slathering on hand butter then sleeping in cotton gloves. I find this has helped immensely in keeping my nails flexible and strong, cuticles soft and my hands smooth. I've got a light hand cream in my bag too and am trying to rub a little in after hand washing in the day. Weekly I neaten my nails with a glass nail file and give them a soak in a little nail bath I had many years ago from Avon with warm water and a drop of lavender oil to help heal any ragged cuticles or sore bits. Then add a drop of cuticle remover leave a couple of minutes then push back with an orange stick. Then I massage in cuticle cream and hand butter and slip on cotton gloves. Probably takes 15 minutes? I don't generally bother with polish I'm lucky if it lasts 24 hours!

I keep a small glass file and cuticle nippers in my bag so I can deal with any rough or loose bits before I start picking, though thankfully the nightly moisturising seems to be preventing this x

For two decades I got a manicure every week and a pedicure once a month.I had strong healthy nails.

Then one day my manicurist and I parted ways. I went to several different places and was unhappy with the results. Worst manicure ever was from a Russian woman who said she'd been an architect in Russia. Anyway, my feet were sliced and diced and abraded at several different places and then I got a fungus. No polish for a year.

For a while I've been wearing either clear or very pale polish that I do myself.My nails have gotten bad, splitting, breaking, peeling, so I try not to do too much. Once in a while I wear color. I do pretty well most of the time. Can't do pedicures very well, so I get that done once in a while.

Also, I didn't like colored polish because I had developed so many age spots (sun damage.) Then I had them layered away and my hands look so much better with color now. And yes, I always wear sunscreen, but then I go outside and start gardening and off go the gloves and soon the sunscreen is washed away in water and potting soil

I'm surprised so many of you do your own nails. In Italy it's becoming uncommon, my mom, my sister, SIL, all my friends and friends' friends, the moms in my children's classes, everyone gets professionals manicures bi-weekly. I never have. My nails are very fragile and fussy and right now I avoid polish of any kind. I tried bases and strenghteners, nothing worked, it lasts fine minutes anyway so I just gave up. At least my nails look nice, and I just have to keep moisturized and short and file regularly because I have zero cuticles. One thing that's low maintenance!

Can I ask the nail experts another question? (Sorry I keep hijacking your thread, Gigi!)

Is it bad to push your cuticles back? I've noticed that several of you mentioned that you do this. I always thought that manicurists do it to make your nails look longer and prettier, but have also heard that it's bad for the health of your nails. Any thoughts? My cuticles are quite shallow to begin with so I don't want to damage them by pushing too much.

Ways to save time: break the steps down, so you don't do all of it at once. For instance, clip/file after a shower/bath or after doing dishes, which allows you to skip the soak, which is just to soften your nails. You can use a cuticle softener and then push cuticles while watching TV. Do a base coat only. Come back later and do the color coats and top coat. Use fast-drying polish (I like Essie.)

I was given a gift certificate to a very nice nail salon in my town four years ago,,,and I got my first professional manicure, and now I am hooked. I get gel manicures (easier to remove than shellac) twice a month. A little bit spendy but I'm not consuming 2 hours of my own time if I did my own at home with regular polish. (Only takes about an hour at the salon.) I wear blue polish, so it takes at least 2 coats.I am RELIGIOUS about wearing gloves to do dishes and try very hard to not use my nails to do things like pull staples, etc. Occasionally I will do regular polish because the color selection is so much better.

Diana I've heard/ read you're not supposed to push them back but when mine are at their worst they are an overgrown ragged mess. However regular moisturisation seems to be keeping them neat and tidy and I've not really had to do much pushing for the last couple of weeks x

I have strong nails and I file them weekly into a semi short rounded oval. Sometimes I buff them, which looks great, like clear polish. I love the look of polish but I work with my hands a lot and manicures just don't last. But I get a pedicure about every four weeks, year round. I hate the look of unpolished toes and I love the pampering you get with a pedicure. Worth every penny.

Diana, no apologies needed! I'm not an expert, but I did check out three books on how to manicure your nails, and they were geared toward nail technicians. They all said that pushing back the cuticles is OK--it's trimming them off that is the problem. But if you already have very shallow cuticles, maybe you don't even need pushing. I have thick cuticles that are hard even to push, and sometimes I have to use a cuticle knife to release them from the nail plate. (I'm probably going to get burned for saying that!) I sometimes trim off *some* of the cuticle if it is way overgrown or is ragged and just causing problems. In other words, what I'm trimming off is already mostly dead skin.

If you don't get any answers on this thread, Diana, maybe you want to start a thread on your own...it seems like the extra questions are getting lost in the shuffle. There's a lot to know about nails!

MsMaven, please wear gloves when you garden. Twice I've gotten infections from splinters or thorns and had to see the doctor. One of those times they had to burn it out. It was really unpleasant. Please learn from my mistakes!

AG, I often bite mine to shorten instead of clipping too! I like them really short, and when I try to clip them that way, I end up hurting myself. :/

I almost never polish my nails because the polish often doesn't last more than a day or two before chipping (yes, I use a topcoat). I'm on the computer & knitting & cooking & now I've started violin lessons, and all of these things involve my finger tips. Once there's a chip, it drives me nuts, but I hate the smell of nail polish remover, so I just pick at the polish, which is not good for my nails. It's a bad cycle, and now I just avoid it entirely.

I do use Burt's Bees lemon cuticle cream (Louise, I'll pick at loose skin too!). And I polish my toe nails, since those never chip (lol), but now I'm looking into finding non-toxic nail polish to replace my regular stuff. I turned up Piggy Paint, which says it's non-toxic (I haven't researched the ingredients), but since it's aimed at little girls (!), I'm not sure any of the colours will appeal to me.

I love the look of polish, but my hands are in file cabinets all day at work so polish doesn't last on me. I do get mani's for special occasions. Usually I file my nails quite short and use the Burt's Bees lemon cuticle cream. That's all.

See nails, see clippers, clip, clip, ............clip!! Done. I do try and moisturize my hands with aquaphor or eucerin hand but that's it. I had one manicure for my wedding. I know I'm weird but I don't like the feel of polish, I'd pick it off. If I have a party, I moisturize, clip and buff. I know, but it works for me!! I think it's awesome you ladies who can keep up with that kind of maintenance!! I leave that for hair!

From YLF a couple of years ago, I learned to do base coat (Orly), two coats of polish, and then a top coat (Seche Vite or Sally Hansen's red bottle one). I do this after I have brushed my teeth and am in my bed clothes at night while watching the news, Downton Abbey, or whatever. I then go to bed while the polish cures and hardens; that fast dry top coat only protects a little. In the morning, I scrape off the polish on my skin while I am in the shower. My nails grow very fast, so even without chips I need to redo my nails after 6 - 9 days due to the growth. I can hide tiny chips at the tips by filing a bit, and of course paler polish shows the chips less than the dark stuff.