Chipped Polish?
There are many reasons as to why your nail polish falls off. Some of them are out of your control and some of them are in your control. The ones that are out of your control include body chemistry and how your natural nail plate reacts to the base coat. Not all base coats work the best for every person. So, it might just be a question of changing the base coat. But before you even worry about your body chemistry, there are so many good tips that I’m not sure if people realize what they should be doing to help them extend the wear of their manicures.
Tip #1: Clean
Make sure you have zero nail polish on your nails. Then, you have to remove the cuticle. One thing that I should probably point out that’s not always obvious is the cuticle is not actually your skin. The cuticle is the tiny, little dead bits of skin that ride up the nail. Because if you leave them there, the nail polish won’t stick to and the mani will start peeling off faster. To do that, just buy some cuticle remover liquid or gel. They are pretty widely available and inexpensive. You put a little bit down on your cuticle. Take a cuticle pusher. I recommend either an orange stick/ wooden stick, or a hard rubber/ silicone stick. And only use a metal tool if you have extremely stubborn cuticles that ride way up your nail. Most people won’t need a metal tool. So after a minute or so, you’ll take your cuticle pusher and gently push your cuticles back and scrape any dead cuticle off the surface of your nail. Gentle pushing is okay. Scrapping is okay. CUTTING IS NOT OKAY. Not that I’m a license technician or anything, but for most people reading this website, it’s probably safe to say you should never cut your cuticle area! Next, you want to wipe the gel off your nail and wash your hands.
Tip #2: Dehydrate the Nail
There is natural oil on your nails all the time. First, clean your hands by washing them of any product that may already be on your nails. Then, take nail polish remover, dip a q-tip in acetone, and rub it on your nail. I recommend pure acetone- 100% cosmetic grade- because many nail polish removers have oils in them, so if you use that on your nail and you put an oil on your nail, then you are defeating the purpose of dehydrating and striping the nail of oil. The point here is to strip the nail of oil so you can properly anchor the base coat. A base coat will not stick to oil. It’s going to come off more easily. If you just put hand cream on and didn’t take that off your nails, if you just put nail oil on and didn’t properly strip it off the nail surface before applying the base coat, your polish is going to come off more easily because oil will be tapped in between your nail plate and the first layer of polish. That’s why it’s important to take pure acetone, that doesn’t have any oils in it first, and strip the nail.
Tip #3: New Nails
If you are still having problems, the polish is not anchoring to your nail, and it’s peeling off in one sheet, it could be possible that your nails are too fresh, too new, too virgin to nail painting. Fresh, new nails are the worst at keeping new polish on. When the nail is new, it is very shiny, not poresis at all, and nail polish does not want to stick to it as well. So, funny enough, the longer and the more you paint your nails, the more likely your nail polish is going to stay on longer.
Tip #4: Buffing
Now, I generally don’t like recommending buffing, but it is a good point that people bring up to extend the wear and kind of jump past that period of new nails. If your nails are super virgin, they haven’t been really painted ever, and are very shiny-you can tell just by looking at the natural nail- you can buff down a very thin amount. And I write this carefully because I also know my best advice has always been to NOT buff the nail in response to people saying you should buff the nail to get rid of the yellow staining. That’s not in the best interest of your nail thickness and nail health due to it being for only cosmetic reasons, which does not really make sense to me and is counter productive for the goal of having long, sturdy nails that don’t break. However, I can understand the legitimacy of buffing the nail plate gently if you are a first time nail painter. By gently buffing your nails, you will eliminate a little bit of the surface layer, making it matte and more likely for the base coat to anchor onto the nail plate.
Tip #5: Water exposure
Water will penetrate in between the layers of the polish and push them apart. And it will also do that to your natural nail. Water will absorb into your natural nail, expand the nail, and the polish will start to lift off. So if you are a swimmer, or are washing the dishes without gloves, water will chip off your nail polish.