Our hands have been all wrapped up for winter in gloves and mittens but with the first daffodils popping out in Stephen’s Green it’s time to think about nails again. As a professional make up artist you want your hands to look great all day long and then apply the same tips to looking after your clients.

Simple things to remember include always applying a base coat, using a good quality polish and finish off with a transparent top-coat to stop chipping. At work make sure your clients sit still and let their nails dry before they answer the phone or pull on shoes again. It’s very difficult to fill in bits without re-doing the nail or even the whole hand again; not good for her or for you.

You could try using the Nail Doctor as recommended on Beaut.ie - spritz it onto the final coat to speed up the drying process. You don’t have to spend a fortune to find good polish but do look for brands with staying power and a good shine. Pop into Tescos for the Barbara Daly range if you need good value polishes for practice sessions – at €5 a pop you can’t go wrong. Read about it here on the Off the Rails site. Another surprising place to find budget nail polish is Marks and Sparks; their Mini Nail Colour Collection gives you lots of scope to mix and match. But for polish with a deep pigment for that film-star glow you need to move up the scale. Our MUAs love the new Chanel colours and Lancôme all of which you can find in Dublin.

Tell us which colours you’re using this Spring!