nothing--else--is replied to your photo: I’m so addicted to these, it’s a problem. ...
What I want to know is how your nails look so pretty when you are done painting them. All my finger tips end up painted with polish.
I achieve reasonably decent looking manicures for two reasons.
1) Practice, as dull as it sounds. I've been doing my own nails off and on since I was 18. I've gotten a lot better at not slopping polish all over the place, though there is often a re-learning curve when I chop my nails down to shorties.
2) My secret weapon: pure acetone and a small, stiff makeup brush.
I got the brush at Target - it's an ELF concealer brush and they're $1, which is great because you do replace them a couple of times a year. I dip the brush in, tap it off a bit, and then run it along my cuticle line to make a nice tidy edge there, and then re-dip and catch anything I've slopped onto my skin. It's the best trick I have ever learned! I do it after each coat - you want to do it before topcoat or you'll never shift it.
The more precise you get with practice, the less you'll have to clean up, though I don't know that there'll ever be a day I don't have some kind of tidying to do.