Nail Polish And Health

[Guest DisDwarf]

Is it true that you shouldn't paint-polish your whole nails, but you should leave a small area in the beginning of the nail (towards the finger) unpolished and unpainted to allow it to "breathe" and that if you don't do so the nails may "die"?

[Guest Joanna Phipps]

One podiatrist told me that the part of the nail you can see is dead anyway, the only living material is up inside the finger. I wouldn't worry about it, and it think it would look odd if you did leave a part of it unpainted.

[Shannonline]

I haven't heard of anyone getting sick from nail polish.. but then I do live a sheltered existence

[Guest sarah f]

I know from experience that this doesn't happen. You might look around and see for yourself all of the girls out there that have their nails painted all the way.

Sarah F

[Guest ~Brenda~]

You know I have been meaning to post a topic on this subject for the longest time and keep forgetting. My experience has been that if I keep my toes painted continuously for months at a time, my toenails begin to deteroriate. I have taken the nailpolish off after a prolonged period of constantly painting my toes to discover that all of my toenails are now white and kind of soft. After a few days of no nail polish, my toenails harden again and are clear.

For me, constant nailpolish is not good for my toenails (not an issue for my fingernails since I am always painting them and later taking the polish off due to obvious reasons), I periodically take the polish off so that my toenails can breath.

Also what I do, is not to be too obsessive about painting my toes (like I used to). I simply paint them nicely and completely, and then let the nail polish wear away over the next few weeks and then paint them again. In this way my toenails get that oportunity to breath.

Anyway, that has been my experience.

Brenda

[Shannonline]

I painted my toenails about 18 months ago and I let them grow out.. I started to wonder how long it would take for them to grow out. It was pretty much a year!! 0_0 I strangely kinda liked the look of my nails growing out with that half painted look :S

But saying that I have hair regrowth coming through that I don't know what to do with. I want my natural color back so much

[Guest Donna Jean]

Hmmmmmmm..

Never heard of that...But, I'm always willing to learn....

I do keep my toenails painted for long periods of time and the polish wears off...I then strip them down and repaint...kinda like Brenda,...

I'll have to do a Google on this...I wana know.....

Thanks for the heads up, DisDwarf!

HUGGS!

Donna Jean

[Sally]

I am the oddball here as I have never cared for painted toenails - a good thing since mine are so far away from me!

I would think that if you continually kept them painted, touching them up every time that any uncolored area begins to show it could be a problem but I really don't think that most people would have any real trouble with nail polish - now acrylic nails are a different matter!

Love ya,

Pain Toed Sally

[Guest DisDwarf]

You know I have been meaning to post a topic on this subject for the longest time and keep forgetting. My experience has been that if I keep my toes painted continuously for months at a time, my toenails begin to deteroriate. I have taken the nailpolish off after a prolonged period of constantly painting my toes to discover that all of my toenails are now white and kind of soft. After a few days of no nail polish, my toenails harden again and are clear.

Have you tried using a base coat, then colour, then a top coat? Or you just use colour only? Im not sure yet, but I somehow think that it's more correct to put the colour on top of base coat rather than directly on the nails.

[Guest ~Brenda~]

Have you tried using a base coat, then colour, then a top coat? Or you just use colour only? Im not sure yet, but I somehow think that it's more correct to put the colour on top of base coat rather than directly on the nails.

You are right hon. I do just put the nail polish directly on my nails. I have never used a base coat. I'll try that....

Thanks for the tip

HUGS

Brenda

[Guest erikka2046]

I find base coat really help the polish stays longer and less chipped. Also, the base coat seems makes the top coat more easier to apply.

Erikka

[Guest DisDwarf]

This is the whitish part of the nail I was referring to, it's called Lunula and Wikipedia doesn't say anything about health side effects if one covers it with nail polish. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunula_%28anatomy%29

I got my base and top coats at Sephora. They seem to work well. The beautiful woman there (i told you im lesbian LOL) was very helping and also suggested me some nice "manlish" (LOL) colours I could paint my nails with (she saw mine, long and nail-polished, that day I think I had used white colour). Interesting thing, there were other men there looking at cosmetics stuff etc, and the woman showed no surprise at men with nail polish (and a girlish bag, pink wallet etc LOL) shopping for base/top coats haha. At last, some people seem not to be brainwashed into traditional gender roles. I got a black colour too on that day, and I tried it the next day in a fastfood restaurant, but then a woman looked at me showing great surprise/curiosity and saying "woa!" as if she was looking at an alien species LOL.

One strange thing: I read, I think it was on Wikipedia somewhere... it said we shouldn't use just hardening base coat or nail polish but also sometimes use something to moisture the nails because otherwise they will become so hard they may break off. I think I found this info after looking at manicure-related articles. Have you heard something about that?

Interesting, too: girls lucky enough in life to have been born in female bodies apparently enjoy testing nail polishes by painting one hand over base coat and the other without, so they can see which nail polish is more stable without the need for base coat. I've found youtube videos with such experiments and they look nice, they slide-show you pics over a week to see how the nail polish becomes weaker as days pass and you can compare various brands etc (I think OPI seems good, well for the time being I use Maybelline and some Nivea and Sephora but someday I'll try some OPI too). If only I could be as careful as them and not paint my fingers as well!! LOL!