I recently started paining my nails. It's definitely very handy that it easily gets of skin because I can't for the life of me manage to only paint my nails. I'm currently looking to get those top coats, because the nail polish chips off pretty easily after a few days, which is quite annoying.
If the surface of your nail is uneven it will also cause your polish to chip. My nails have these vertical ridges, which if not smoothed out cause polish to chip very quickly. The natural growth pattern of my nails + engaging in activities like gardening, hand washing dishes and clothes means I generally get about half a day of fully polished nails before the polish starts to chip.
Here's an example of the ridges to which I refer in the paragraph above:
Glass nail files can help keep the nails from splitting at the tips.
moisturizing the nails seems to make them a little more durable too. They make special stuff for this, but I just use regular moisturizer.
some polishes need more than one (or even two!) coats.
certain colors seem to behave differently than other colors ie: yellow polishes are much harder to work with than red.
don't get as worried about the finish until you put the top coat on. The top coat hides a lot of irregularities.
experiment with different base coats and top coats. They can produce wildly different effects. some base coats are simple and durable, while others can have ridge filling properties, and others still can be peelable. Top coats also vary in quality and effect like having matte finishes or extra sparkles.
If you ever struggle to open a bottle, run it under hot water for a while and try again.
The nail polish will sort of settle into place in an even way. You don't need to carefully brush it on until it's even. I usually just do one stroke down the middle and then one on either side, and then it will sort of level out on its own. Depending on the polish and brush, one down the middle might be sufficient.
Kinda hard to describe, but once you get a feel for it, the whole process is way faster and easier.
Be sure to experiment with having more/less in the bush, and pay attention to whether it was too little or too much.