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"If you&amp;#x27;re anything like me, you&amp;#x27;ve thought long and hard about why you even need to bother applying four full coats of nail polish in order to have a beautiful, long-lasting manicure. I&amp;#x27;ll admit, I&amp;#x27;ve certainly tried taking my fair share of shortcuts. Instead of four, I used to just apply two&amp;amp;#8212;one coat of color and a topcoat, simply because A) it literally cut my application time in half, and B) it literally cut drying time in half too! Win-win, right? Wrong. My polish almost always chipped after a day or so, and while chatting with Roxanne Valinoti, CND education manager, she let me in on a little well-known secret: Four is the magic number when it comes to nail polish. Whether you like it or not, a base coat, two coats of color, and a topcoat are necessary for a picture-perfect manicure. And here&amp;#x27;s why: The Base Coat: &amp;quot;It&amp;#x27;s an essential layer for polish, as it improves adhesion and prevents staining. It&amp;#x27;s formulated to anchor color to the nail and improve wearability, as it acts as resilient double-sided sticky tape.&amp;quot; (Try CND Sticky Basecoat, $8.50 at Ulta.com!) The First Coat of Color: &amp;quot;It should be thin and semisheer. It lays the foundation for your color; perfect application and smooth, even coverage is the key to a long-lasting manicure.&amp;quot; The Second Coat of Color: &amp;quot;It delivers the true color and coverage. Sealing the extension edge of the nail will help the polish last longer and protect the nail from daily activities such as typing, texting, etc.&amp;quot; The Topcoat: &amp;quot;It improves the wear by coating the polish with a protective shield while increasing the sheen. Topcoats are designed to be hard (unlike base coats), strong, and scratch-resistant. And quick-dry topcoats have a higher balance of solvents, which allow them to dry much faster!&amp;quot; Well, there you have it! Do you always apply four coats of polish? If not, will you start? Photo Credit: Mark Leibowitz"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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