Tag Archives: nails

random musings

Mani

1 Comment

159: New nail colorI have a very self-serving dream. I dream of having amazing nails.

Silly, perhaps? But I want that. SO bad. I want pretty nails. Not chipped up, split, sad things that I normally have.

My hair has always been my appearance obsession. It still is, but not to the degree it used to be. I’m really happy with the short cut I keep today, so I don’t find myself focusing on it as much as I once did. Now my focus is my nails.

Oh I’m all about pedicures and cute toe nails. Its one thing I maintain just fine, you just never see them. Boots and tennis shoes don’t exactly show off the cute polish I always have on my toes. So suddenly my focus is on my finger nails. Blame Pinterest, perhaps. I don’t know.

I’ve never been one to go get professional manicures, and I’ve only had tips put on once for my senior prom. I wear contacts and for some reason long nails hinder my taking my contacts out. Its a personal issue, I know, and a really dumb thing given how many women have long nails and wear contacts. But suffice to say, I’m never going to have super long nails.

But I want my short nails to look good nonetheless! I used to hate painting my nails. I felt colored fingernails were distracting and didn’t look right on me. (Even as I’d admire it on other women.) Somewhere in the last year, that’s changed. I want color on my nails. I want to show them off.

However, bartending just makes it pointless. I paint my nails. I go to work. I come home with chipped nails, split nails, and atleast once a month I have a finger wrapped in a band-aid because I cut myself one way or another.

I’m pitiful! Oh and don’t tell me to try these “chip-free” or “long-lasting” polishes. I’ve tried them all.  (Now, I’ve not done the gel polish thing, because I’m afraid spending the money and still not last.) None of them have stood the test of slinging beer and mixing drinks at a fast pace.

So for now… I accept that on my days off I’ll keep nice-as-I-can nails, and then on work days accept it won’t last. Some day I’ll have cute nails. Someday.

general-post, random musings

Leopard print nails?

8 Comments

On one of my recent flights, I was reading a magazine. I saw a little blurb about nail polish strips that intrigued me.

The basic idea is its a nail polish sticker. A sticker made of nail polish. Whatever. But the cool part was that they were all these designs that you would have to pay big money to get in a salon… if they could even do it in the first place. So, my next trip to the store, I had to look at them. As I expected, a little pricey, but even MORE intriguing.

I am in a cousin’s wedding later this year, and she is using leapard print as a bit of theme in the wedding. One of the polish styles is leopard print, so the other day I broke down and bought a package of leopard print nail polish strips to “give it a try.” They’ve been taunting me from my dresser ever since.

So tonight, I broke down and tried them. I haaate color on my finger nails. (Except black. For some reason I don’t mind black nail polish on my finger nails.) I usually either have a french manicure, clear polish or they’re nekkid. I stared down the nail polish strips. I just could NOT do it on my finger nails. I just couldn’t do leopard print polish on my fingers for the world to see.

I pulled the strips out of the package and decided that surely I could use them on my toe nails. In fact, I could probably use one strip for two toes (since toe nails are so much smaller than finger nails.)

I carefully took my bright red, chipped polish off. Trimmed my nails. Then I obsessively read the instructions. Three times.

Then I started.

IT WAS SO EASY!! Now, we’ll see if they last the promised 10 days or not, but as for applying the polish strips? Simple. And I did successfully use only half the package (by doubling up toes to strips, with only ONE toe showing a bit of a gap from a size discrepancy from thumb to big toe size). The idea behind the strips? Way cool. The leopard print?

Well.

IT’S NOT ME!

I keep staring at my usually bright red, pink or maroon toes in a mixture of amusement and horror.

See for yourself:

It’s one part cool. One part hilarious. One part wrong. At the end of the night? I’m glad I gave these a shot. And I am glad they actually work! But. Yeah. This is going to take some getting used to…

Note: This is not a paid review of any sort.