A process, requiring minimal skills, for applying a protective acrylic coating, with or without extending the tips, to the human fingernail as afforded by (1) clearing and roughening the surface of the nail, (2) applying a layer of liquid acrylic monomer, (3) applying a powdered polymethacrylate ester to the wetted nail surface, (4) removing loose powder and smoothing the nail surface, (5) brushing on, as one would with nail polish, a second layer of liquid acrylic monomers and, after curing, (6) finishing the nail in the conventional manner.