Just like on your hands, you must make sure that all of the lotion is off of your toenails before you even begin to think about polishing them. Use a towel to get most of it off, pushing down your toenail towards your cuticle just like you did with your nails. Get into those grooves! When you have rubbed off all of the lotion you can get with your towel, take your cuticle nippers and only cut off what is sticking up and BEGGING to be cut off. Remember scar tissue, and only cut off what is necessary. Just like your fingernails, you cuticle will quickly become trained to stay back, and any thick parts will respond well to your treatments and slough off fairly quickly.
Take some acetone on a gauze pad and wipe off your toenails, again, being careful of your painted fingernails. Now, here is a trick that I love. You are going to use a paper towel to separate your toes for polishing. Take one full sized paper towel and roll it up tightly into a long cord. Weave this cord in between your toes, beginning underneath the big toe and bringing it up through the space between that toe and the one next to it. Weave it all the way through your toes (on one foot only, please), ending under the pinky toe. Both ends of the cord should be under your foot, so they wont accidentally get into your polish. This works a lot better than the manufactured “toe separators,” which have a tendency to move around and eventually get in the way of polishing, or even worse, mar a finished polish job.
You are now ready to move on to the Polish That Lasts section, but remember, unless you go barefooted A LOT, do not use topcoat. And, let those toes dry for a LONG TIME before you put shoes on them!
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