Best Nail Care products and Tips and Tricks to making your polish last.

I have tried a million different nail products and by far I think OPI nail polish and China Glaze are the best quality.  There's a lot of gurus out there who recommend drug store nail polish and I'm going to have to disagree.  Sure it's affordable, but it's terrible!  You really get what you pay for.  Even Sally Hansen is terrible! 

Here's a list of nail products I think are great:

Nail polish remover: Any acetone remover gets everything off!  Glitter, black polish, red polish- you name it.
Cuticle oil: Avoplex cuticle oil is amazing.  It smells good and makes your cuticles look nice and healthy.
Nail Sanitizer: NAS 99 by OPI is great to disinfect the nail before you polish.  It also breaks down oils and creams that you put on to treat your cuticles.  It will help cut the oils so your polish stays on.
To Prevent Chipping: Chip Skip by OPI is wonderful to keep your nail polish from chipping.  Mine has lasted 2 weeks!
Base Coat: OPI Bast coat hands down.
Top Coat: Seche Vite - dries super fast!  Also OPI Top Coat leave a very shiny finish but it thickens up very fast.
Nail Drying:  Dip dry in the spray is amazing!  Nails dry within a minute!

Tips and Tricks:

First of all the most important thing I can tell you is to paint every layer on very thin.  I know it seems logical to paint thick so you need less coats, but even with thin coats you can get the right color with 2-3 coats.  The thing is the thicker you paint it the more likely it is to chip and peel.  Another really important thing is to make sure there aren't any oils or lotions on your nails before you paint.  That's where NAS 99 or rubbing alcohol will do the trick.  Just wipe nail with a cotton ball before you start painting.  Using Chip Skip also helps with this.  It creates an alkaline surface so the polish will adhere better to the nail.  Do not forget to do base coat and top coat.  These should be two separate products.  I don't every buy the two in one Base&Top coats.  They don't work.  Both serve different functions so how can you jam them into one bottle?!  Build your polish collection slowly.  If you're investing in OPI Colors start with colors you can wear every day and that you'll use.  If you buy fun colors try to find different uses for them or they'll just sit there and get thick.  I recommend, for those of you on a budget, just buy the neutrals and everyday colors and leave the fun colors for the nail shop.  Get them when you get a manicure.  Unless you can wear fun colors on a daily basis...disregard my advice.  Another tip: Do not cut your cuticles down, just gently push them down.  Cutting them will only lead to infections.  Only cut what is hanging off your finger.  Be sure to use something like Avoplex to keep your cuticles moisturized.  Even some olive oil does the trick.  To make applying nail polish easy work in three strokes and wait a minute before applying each layer. 

Word of advice when using Crackle polish - wait until your polish is completely dry before applying a thin coat of Crackle polish.  You'll see the best results.  For an interesting crackle paint it on sideways or in an X shape.  Use different colors underneath to get some really fun nails.

Hope this helps!