Thanks girls. I painted my nails black for Halloween and was surprised at how much I liked it and decided I needed to girlie it up some more.
Schedule your manicure before your shower. Don’t worry if your left hand leaves clumsy polish marks all over the cuticles of your right hand. Just slap it on regardless.
Once the polish is completely, 100% dry, jump in the shower or take a bath. Let your hands get really wet. I suggest washing your hair to ensure wrinkly wet fingers. Then it’s a breeze to scrape the messy excess polish off your cuticles.
The keys: dry polish, then wrinkly wet hands.
I can’t remember where I saw this trick, but it does seem to cut down on the bubbles. Turn the bottle upside down (with the cap on, of course 
) and roll it back and forth between your hands. It takes a little bit longer but it’s worth it for the lack of bubbles.
Thanks, Doc! I’ll try it.
BTW, and this is off-topic but I started this thread so who cares, your handle puts me in mind of a very good book by Lissa Rankin MD, called *What’s Up Down There: Questions You’d Only Ask Your Gynecologist if She Was Your Best Friend. *It’s a terrifically positive and helpful book that I recommend to anyone with a vagina.
As a matter of fact I did purchase them recently. I’m going to really check the labels when I get home.:dubious: Thanks for the heads up. You may have solved the mystery 
That’s what I did. 
Thanks for the tip!
Last night I decided I was going to try a newsprint transfer. I painted my nails light gray, waited for them to dry, tried the newsprint thing. Didn’t work.
Took the polish off, started from the beginning again. Still not a satisfactory result. I managed to wipe the faulty bits of print off without repainting.
Decided on a nice stripey waterfall look, started working with a thin striping brush. Got through three highlight colors before I realized it would work better with a different brush. Took all the polish off to start again.
Painted gray, waited for it to dry, started with the fan brush. Complete fail. Took all the polish off again.
Finally decided to just to a quick-dry purple and say the hell with the rest of it. Once that was dry, I found myself completely unable to stop myself from making dots with three different colors. It looks really good, but I can’t get over the fact that I did my damn nails four times last night.
A good topcoat is seriously like fingernail magic. I used to get bubbles no matter how long I let the polish dry between coats. Now I slap on two coats, one right after the other, and slap on the topcoat. Dry to the touch in 2 minutes, rock-hard within 45, and not a single blip or bubble.
Four times!?!? :eek: You’re a better woman than me!
You are hardcore! 
They look pretty awesome, though. 
Just another plug for China Glaze; their polish stays on for me much better than OPI (or any other brand I’ve tried). Their strong adhesion base coat and no-chip top coat are also fantastic for me, but YMMV. One thing I’ve learned over the past year or two since I’ve started doing my nails is that base- and top coats are highly individual; what works for one person won’t necessarily work for another.
One more tip, as well, for polish on cuticles: A nail art brush worked in remover has been a miracle product for me. It’s so much easier to control, and I don’t have to go shower right after I mess up my nails. 
Rachellelogram - I got some of the Seche Vite you recommended. Wow! I am really impressed with it. Thank you for the tip. I also bought some Seche Restore, but I haven’t used it yet.
I just recently started using pure acetone for this–it’s brilliant. Much less rubbing, and the extra polish comes right off.
I got my first Julep Maven box yesterday! I’m excited to try the stuff that came in it, but I spent a significant amount of time this weekend on geeky Doctor Who nail art, and I’m not ready to take it off yet.
What kind of box did you get? I get the “It Girl” box. This month I added the fall colored glitter to mine. It looks so nice with the brown. Very Autumn.
Can you get a shot of your Dr. Who nails? I’d love to see them.
I got the Boho Glam box–a nice sparkly orange, navy blue, and I think I got a free silvery sparkle color.
Doctors hand here, villains hand here. You’ll notice the villain hand looks a little kludgey, I’m left-handed and have almost zero dexterity with my right. The Dalek was a bitch.
Those are so cool!
Index = hmm, not sure…
Middle = 11
Ring = 5
Pinky = 4
Did I guess right?
Yup–the index finger is 10, but the pinstripes didn’t come out so good and the only brown I had is a little too dark. Eleven is definitely my favorite, that one came out awesome.
Oh, duh! I can totally see it now.