I have thin, brittle nails. And in order to prevent them from splitting and breaking, I keep nail polish on them at all times. When I was an undergraduate student, I had acrylic nails, and I went to the salon every two weeks to have them filled.

But when I moved to Tennessee last August to attend graduate school, I found I didn't have the time or money to devote to acrylics. I started painting my nails, but that was also time consuming. And after three days, the polish would chip away, and my nails would break.

Then Nicole by O-P-I introduced Nic's Sticks. The idea of a nail lacquer that could just pump, paint and go was ingenious. The company's Web site read that it "fits in pocket or purse." Nic's Sticks was a product designed for the woman like me, a woman on the go.

Save: I want a manicure quick fix as much as the next person, but I found Nic's Sticks to be as time consuming as traditional lacquer. My sister-in-law bought me two Nic's Sticks for my birthday: Date Night and Express-ion of Love. I tested Date Night first. I shook the stick gently like the Web site instructed. The stick read, "To prime, point brush down and pump three or more times." It took five pumps for polish to appear on the brush.

If there was ample lacquer on the brush, I had a smoothly polished nail, but if I started painting before there was enough lacquer, I wound up with streaking. Sometimes, the polish flowed out onto the brush on its own, and sometimes, I had to pump the stick.

When I applied a second coat, the brush became hard and fanned out. I didn't have a lot of control, and some polish wound up on my skin. I also noticed if I applied the second coat before the lacquer was 100 percent dry, it left a gummy texture on my nail. But according the video on the Web site, the lacquer should have dried in one minute.

To make sure I didn't have a bum stick, I tested Express-ion of Love on the other hand. The stick took six pumps to prime. When I applied the color, I fell in love with the hue. It was a little stubborn with the first nail, but once I got into a momentum, the polish applied smoothly.

One time, I pumped the stick and a little fleck of paint squirted out and landed on my pajama pants. The second stick's brush wasn't as stiff as the first's, so I didn't get any polish on my skin. But I did experience more streaking when I applied the second coat.

SAVE: I want a manicure quick fix as much as the next person, but I found Nic's Sticks to be as time consuming as traditional lacquer. I had to go back and remove all the polish from my skin and re-polish nails with streaks and gummy textures.