The Londontown story starts in a small flower garden in Radlett, England. According to Focus on Beauty Brands, the founder's grandmother made a remedy there from handpicked botanicals and flower oils, to protect hands and nails from the dry English air. The brand itself is New York-based and its products are made in the USA, and company profiles say it was created in 2012 as a nail care system built on that old remedy.

That is why I read Londontown nail polish a little differently from most. The polish is not the point of the brand, the care is. Londontown calls its care line Kur, and the ingredient blend behind it Florium Complex, which the brand describes as rapeseed flower oil, cucumber extract, garlic extract, evening primrose oil, chamomile extract and vitamin E. It goes into the color, the base coats, the oils and even the top coat. The Lakur polishes are the brand's color line, and the brand says they come in more than 90 shades.

The first grid is the color and finish side: Lakur, the sheer Nail Veils, a tinted ridge filler, a concealer, a highlighter and the top coat. The second grid is care and tools, for the work you do before and after the polish.

Here is a test I like: try the routine on one hand. Do the full Kur base, color, top coat sequence on the right and just polish on the left, then compare at day five. You will know in a week whether the extra steps are yours.

Lakur is Londontown's core polish. The brand says it gives gel-like wear and shine, with a self-leveling pigment that gives a plush, cushiony finish, applied with a pro-contour brush. The Lakur Enhanced Color Nail Polish in the photo is a coral-red creme. The brand says to start with a Kur base coat, apply one or two coats of Lakur, let it dry 10 to 15 seconds, then seal with a Kur top coat.

The veils are for people who do not want to commit to color. The Perfecting Nail Veil is ultra-sheer and pairs AHAs with biotin, and the one in the photo is a sheer nude. Londontown's Nail Veil number 3 in Violet Mauve gives a kiss of sheer color, and the brand says it needs no base or top coat.

The Tinted Fortifying Ridge Filler in Petal Pink is a smoothing base for bumpy nails with a sheer, satin tint. You can wear it alone or under polish. The Illuminating Nail Concealer is a brightener for dull, discolored nails that leaves a sheer veil of color. The Shimmering Nail Highlighter is the playful one, a four-in-one with four chameleon shades. The High Gloss Top Coat is the brand's glossiest, made to look like glass and to resist chipping.

My pairing: ridge filler first, one Lakur coat, then the High Gloss on top. That gives you a smooth surface, the color and the shine in three steps.

What I would skip: a full base, color and top coat routine on the Violet Mauve veil. The brand says it needs none of them, so keep it easy.

This is the side of Londontown I would start with if my nails were in bad shape. The Nourishing Cuticle Oil is the Kur for dry cuticles, with jojoba, sweet almond and rice bran oils, and the brand says the new formula adds three more plant oils. Fresh Glow Cuticle Remover is a milky formula that dissolves cuticles so no clippers or cutters are needed.

The repair pair is the most interesting. Get Well Nail Recovery is made for thin, peeling nails, including nails left rough by acrylics or UV gel, and it has glycolic and malic acids, biotin and iron. Get Strong Nail Hardener uses multi-polymer technology, and the brand says two coats form a shield-like barrier and resilience improves in as little as one week. For the first two weeks it says to apply two coats every other day.

Mani Bright Nail Scrub is described as whitening toothpaste for stained nails, and it comes with a brush. Accelerating Drying Oil is the one-drop finish, made to seal your polish within minutes. Then two tools: the Glass Cuticle Pusher, made of tempered crystal glass with a flat beveled end and a pointed one, and the Black Glass Nail File, which the listing gives no details for.

Here is a pairing I like: cuticle oil at night, and the drying oil right after polish in the morning.

What I would skip: using the hardener and the recovery treatment on the same nails at the same time. Pick the one that matches your problem, peeling or breaking.

I think Londontown makes the most sense when you buy it the way it began, as care with color on top. A cuticle oil, a base coat and one polish you love will do more than a drawer of shades.

Here is my rule of thumb: fix the nail first, then decide what color it wears. Start with the oil and the hardener for two weeks, add the Lakur after that, and let the top coat do the finishing. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Non Toxic Nail Polish and Clear Nail Polish Is the Most Grown-Up Manicure.