Polish Peel Appeal

I love to peel off my nail polish before using nail polish remover to finish the job. I kind of like the way it feels, the act of peeling it. Weird, I know (but I don't think I'm alone). I also like the fact that I use less nail polish remover that way and that the area around may nails doesn't get stained as much when removing darker polishes. 

The problem with peeling my polish, I've found, is that the edges of my thumbs which I use to pick at the edges of my polish to lift and peel start to get damaged by the constant picking ( I've been polishing/peeling my nails on average of every other day, which means a lot of picking). My thumb nails have chipped and cracked as a result. Not good for a nice looking manicure, obviously. 

I started thinking that I needed to use something else to start the pick and peel process (that sounds kind of gross) and save my thumb nails. Then I came across this tool at my local Wal-Mart:


 SENSATIONAL Gel Polish Removal Tool. That's the actual name but I do agree, it's sensational! I had to "borrow" this picture off the net since I threw away the original packaging before taking a picture of it, but here's the tool in person:




The shape actually remind me of a nail the way it curves. It works perfectly for my purposes. I learned I have to be careful pushing down too hard on my nail. The edges are sharp enough to actually dig into the nail itself and scrape at it. Here it is in action:



The polish can be peeled off in almost one entire piece (at least for that manicure), or can be started in one corner and manually peeled the rest of the way. I've used it several times since purchasing it (about a week and 5 manicures ago) and it still gets the (salvaged) thumbs up from me :)