Close Banner

This ad is displayed using third party content and we do not control its accessibility features.

Painting Your Nails At Home? The Real Reason It Never Lasts As Long As The Pro's + Their Best Tips

Author:

Alexandra Engler

November 26, 2023

mbg Beauty Director

By Alexandra Engler

mbg Beauty Director

Alexandra Engler is the beauty director at mindbodygreen and host of the beauty podcast Clean Beauty School. Previously, she's held beauty roles at Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, SELF, and Cosmopolitan; her byline has appeared in Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and Allure.com.

Image by Studio Firma / Stocksy

November 26, 2023

We carefully vet all products and services featured on mindbodygreen using our commerce guidelines. Our selections are never influenced by the commissions earned from our links.

For full disclosure: I’ve taken my budgeting skills to task this year, and have really scaled back on discretionary spending. (I’ll give all credit to our franchise Wellth Check, which I also edit.) And one of the weekly thrills I was willing to cut from my spending was a manicure at a salon. In its place, I’ve become really talented at at-home manis. With a few buffs of the nail file and swipes of varnish, my tips look like they're courtesy of a professional.

So what have I learned? Well, I suppose the very first thing I learned was what a budgeting spreadsheet looked like. But then after that, came these very underrated mani tips that will almost certainly improve the staying power of your polish.

Learn the proper painting techniques

The longevity of your polish is not just about the formula, it’s about how you apply it. Celebrity manicurist Deborah Lippmann once taught me exactly how the pros do it. Place the brush an eighth-inch away from the cuticle as your starting position. Be careful to not get it on the cuticle itself, as polish chips faster there. Once you see the polish deposit on the nail, pull the brush right down the center. As you’re doing this, gently apply more pressure as you go so the bristles fan out and reach the sides.

Now here’s the secret: You need to cap the nail. “To do this, take the very tip of your brush and swipe it across the very tip of your nail, and that will keep your polish on for days longer." Follow up with a top coat, let it dry, and your mani is good to go.

Skip the soak

There’s a reason “dry manis” have become so popular even in the salon: Avoiding water before and after can help set the mani, which will help you avoid chips down the line.

postbiotic hand cream

"When your nails are soaked in water, they expand," manicurist and founder of Varnish Lane, Lauren Dunne once told us. The soak can distort and widen the nails' shape, and when you paint polish over the nail and it dries "[this causes] your polish to chip prematurely."

You should not only skip the soak prior, but for several hours after as the varnish fully dries, which can actually take several hours. Again, soaking nails in water causes the nails to expand and contract, which can lift the pigment before it has the chance to set. In practice, this means, skipping a bath or doing dishes.

However, this doesn’t mean you should skip hydration. So while I no longer soak my nails before my mani, I always apply a hand cream. Hydration and antioxidants are non negotiable for skin and nail health—plus an ideal hand cream will also contain ingredients that can address specific skin concerns like wrinkles, dark spots, and crepiness. So not only does your mani look good, but your hands do too. Find our all-time favorite hand creams here

Dry with cool air

After I apply my polish, I grab my hair drier, switch to cool mode, and let that cool air get to work. Sure, a warm blast is more sensorially appealing—well, this time of year at least—but nails dry slower with hot hair. Not to mention, it can cause the polish to bubble and can dry out the surrounding skin.