Beauty Bit - "Stickey Sandwich"

One thing I always notice about people are their hands and nails.  I think this is largely because my mother had beautiful hands, and her nails were always clean, shaped, and painted.  She was a secretary at a time before computers, when you had to pound on typewriter keys, and rifle through paper files in a cabinet rather than on a drive on the server.

And you know what?  She seldom got chips on her nail polish!  Besides her work, she cooked, did dishes, etc. - all of the things most of us do, and she would usually change her polish because she was tired of it, rather than because most of it had chipped off.

My oldest sister is the same way.  My middle sister has only started wearing polish on occasion in the last couple of years, and she wears clear or light polish like I do, because her nails chip quickly too.  I could paint my nails one afternoon, sit for an hour to make sure they were dry, and by the time I would go from one room to the next, there would be a chip in the polish. AAAACCCKK!!

A few years ago, I got my very first manicure at a salon, and it lasted about the same amount of time.  Which was even more annoying, since I'd PAID for it.  One of my nieces, who has been getting the new gel manicures, convinced me to try one.  It did stay nice for about 2 weeks.  But when it was removed, my nails were a mess, really flaky, and took about a month to recover.

Now don't get me wrong.  I do not always have my nails painted.  But I like my nails to look nice, and when they actually are painted, I tend to not pick at my cuticles like I do otherwise.

Among the many blogs on several topics that I read, one introduced me to a concept that I'd never heard of:  the "Stickey Sandwich."  Huh?  Well, it's outlined in this post, once you get past the review of the Chanel nail polish.  (Which is interesting in and of itself, but not what I'm talking about here.)  Recently, a Beans Beauty store opened here in Philadelphia, and I thought maybe they would have some of the products.  Sure enough, they had the CND Stickey base coat.  They also had the top coat, but since I had just bought a new bottle of something else a couple of weeks before, I decided to just give that a try.

Well, guess what?  Even if you don't use Chanel polish, the Stickey Sandwich seems to be a success - at least it was for me!  I mean - YAY!!!  I've used the process with inexpensive polishes as well as a couple of the pricier ones that I have, and each time, I've had my home manicure last with few or only very tiny chips for four days.  For me, four days was not even a remote possibility as far as a manicure was concerned.  Ever.

As they say, your mileage may vary.   But if you have always had trouble with your nail polish before, I would say give it a try.  Few beauty-related tips have really turned out to be true in my experience, but this is one that has.

So, polish away!  And let me know if you have any luck if you give it a try.