Reboot

Hello again!

Although I have not posted here in years, I have continued to give myself a weekly manicure, and I thought I might try to reboot this blog and at least post weekly pictures, since I've gotten quite good at them. (The manicures, not the pictures -- I need more practice with those.)

In fact, within the last two years I've stopped getting salon manicures altogether (I didn't do it that often to begin with because $$$), since I am now actually better at doing my own nails than the professionals are.

I've also become more and more convinced of the importance of good base coat and top coat. 

Six or so months ago I ordered a lot different topcoats from The Nail Superstore and I have been slowly trying them out. Recently, I've been using the one pictured below.

Goes on kind of blue but dries true to the polish's original color

I am pleased with this top coat's performance for me so far. Although I am at present of the opinion that base coat is more important than top coat, I recently wore some OPI polish with this on top for nearly two weeks and it held up quite well for the first ten days or so. Impressive!

This week, I've used it again, on top of the CVS brand (apparently from New Hampshire - judging by the fine print!) Pop-Arazzi's Quiet on the Set.

I must be pretty obsessed with this color, because I own at least three other polishes that are almost identical. I do think soft pink fingernails and red toenails are the most classic look, and so they tend to be my choice when I'm not feeling at all edgy.

Here's how this week's nails - which I did last night - looked when I woke up this morning:

The top coat adds staying-power as well as a nice dose of glossy shine.

Shine on, friends. Until next week! Or, you know, whenever ;)

Comparing Contrasts

As I mentioned at the end if my last post, I did a Latin-related manicure in mid-July and it was so helpful in class that I left it on for nearly two weeks and tolerated much more chipping from it than I would have from a manicure that was not also an infographic. 

You guys are probably not that interested in Latin grammar, so I won't explain the whole thing here. Let it suffice to say it involved each nail bearing one (or, for the thumbs, two) Roman numerals, which were not that hard to do with the skinny brushes I have in black and white. 

For the background I chose a taupe which I bought with the intention of using as a French manicure base. It made a great base for this too and I am looking forward to using it as a canvas for more designs in the future. 

 

Here you can see that I did some of the Roman numerals in white and some in black. They both looked good on the beige base but I was especially inspired by the visual contrast between the nude and the black numbers that looked almost like wild animal scratch marks from a 60's movie with a jungle vixen. The name of the base polish bears me out on this one - it's called Fashion Safari (from New York Color). 

This week, I switched to a contrast between my finger and toe polishes. I have been trying to figure out how to wear this extreme orange Reign in Spain Birchbox sent me recently. It's not easy because it really looks ghastly against my pale skin. It might make an all right accent color (haven't tried that yet) and it came out rather well on the toes with a layer of purple-toned sparkles in top. 

The conventional wisdom to make toes' and fingers' colors seem logical together without being too matchy-matchy is to choose colors across the color wheel from each other. (A concept you probably remember from sixth grade art class.) That's what I did this week, choosing an unadorned purple for my fingers. 

On the topic of toes, do you guys have a favorite length for your toenails? I think I cut mine too short this time, but I hate how they look like talons when they get too long! What do you think?

Two Recent Looks: Mermaid and Chevron

This is what I have been up to recently: 

- Going to pretty churches. 

- Reading a lot of Latin. 

- Going to Milwaukee's Summerfest music festival with my roommate and her friends, who were really into saying they were mermaids? (Kids these days!) Anyway, my nails that night happened to be somewhat appropriate:

Although one of them was wearing a deeper blue that was more wine-dark than sea foam. 

- Working out regularly. Yay for sore muscles!

- Trying out a chevron look on my nails. This has been a crowd-pleaser in the streets of Milwaukee. 

This look was, surprisingly, easier to achieve on my right hand than my left. I'm looking forward to getting more adept with the thinner brushes I used for this and have a Latin nail project (only me, right?) that will use them in the pipeline for next week. 

Til then, swim hard, mermaids ;)

The Statement Nail

The statement nail - one nail that is accented with a different color, more intricacy, or more bling than the other ones - has been trendy for a while now. So much so that some folks have already moved on to the statement toenail. At the moment I'm wearing a very old school, classic, and classy red on my toes, so my "statements" have been confined to my ten upper digits.

Is there a right or wrong finger to pick as your statement? I am really curious what others' thoughts on this are. I have chosen to make all different nails stand out, and here's what I think:

Thumb - Good, but only as a sort of side-kick statement. Having all nine (or eight) other nails one way and one or both of the thumbs a different way might make it look like you forgot about them while you were painting your nails and not like you made a conscious choice for them to stand out. Thumbs already stand out. It's part of what makes us human.

Pointer finger - Bottom of the barrel in terms of a statement choice. My pointers usually get the most wear, so it's like drawing attention to the most-likely-to-chip nail. Also it sort of subtly feels like you're always pointing things out.

Middle finger - In the past (like, way in the past, think summer camp in the mid-90's) I've had people take a statement middle finger in the wrong way: a veiled f-you to everyone I meet. This is less likely of a reaction for me to get as a friendly thirty-something than it was as an angsty, baby-tee wearing teen, and I've done it this week.

I think statement nails tend to work particularly well when they are tied in with the rest of the manicure, as this solid gold statement on top of a gold-tipped French does.

What do you think, does it still seem like I'm flipping you off? I hope not! :)

Ring finger - The most visually appealing and most obvious choice, especially if you've just gotten engaged or are getting married. I tend to highlight my right ring finger, where I wear a claddagh ring my boyfriend got me and not my ringless wedding-band finger.

Pinky - Can come off a little weird because of how unbalanced it is visually, but I think it's a good weird and not a bad weird like the pointer finger. It's like an M Night Shyamalan movie: with an unexpected twist at the end, but less and less interesting the more often you've seen it.

What are your favorite fingers to make a statement with? Do you think statement nails are professional enough to wear to work? Are there any color schemes that work particularly well together? Let me know what you think!

Happy Birthday to Me

Sometimes when you are spending the summer taking a very intensive Latin class, it's hard to feel like you're celebrating your birthday right. So this year I decided to get myself a mani/pedi and a massage at a salon in downtown Milwaukee. (Also I baked a cake.)

I chose good colors for both my hands and my feet: a shiny gray for my hands and a slightly more cherry than classic red for my feet. (Unfortunately I did not think to record brand and color names.) 

There is not much not to like about getting a pedicure: eucalyptus foot bath, massage chair, gentle exfoliation, ahhhh. 

Unfortunately I think I am too picky about my fingernails to like anything but a really expert manicure. I can be more precise about the shape of my nails with a nail clipper than this woman (who was very nice) could with a file. Also the manicure chipped, like, instantly. So I have already redone it with two Color Club colors, Status Update and Reign in Spain. 

You can see that, due to my slightly obsessive evening of the nail shape, the lengths of my nails are more uneven than I am usually okay with. Live and learn, I guess. Good lesson for a birthday. 

On the topic of learning, one of the best things about the whole experience was the manicurist telling me she really thinks it's worth it to get a base coat by Essie or OPI, especially considering how often I do my nails and how strong they are naturally. Professional advice has finally convinced me to put it on the list for my next Walgreens trip. 

Do you guys have any nail-related birthday routines? Any stories about disappointing professional manis? Dish!

New week, new city, new nails

Not having to work on Sunday is a weird feeling. So is being in an apartment without Internet, which is exactly where I am right now, in Milwaukee. 

On days like these, I tend to create reasonably elaborate manicures and I also tend to spend a ridiculous amount of money at Walgreens (and not be able to really remember what it was I bought there several hours later).

One thing I do recall buying is gold glitter nail polish. Here's what a lonely and disoriented Sunday has resulted in in terms of my hands. 

I always take pictures on my phone so I don't know why updating from it leads to poorer photo quality but it does. 

Happy June, everyone! Wish me luck for meeting my new roommate and finding my class via the Milwaukee bus system tomorrow. (And for successfully obtaining the shockingly large quantity of items I forgot at Walgreens.)

More like "This Month's Nails"

So I haven't been posting for a while. Sorry! May is my busiest month at work. Also some exciting things have been happening in terms of employment (as opposed to subcontracting)... So send me your good vibes as I navigate various state and local bureaucracies!

Just because I have not been writing doesn't mean I have not been manicuring. Or photographing. So here are some recent looks my digits have been sporting!


One trend I have really liked is just a plain matte color in a paste-like tone. I did this with mauve and gray (apparently, though, I only photographed the gray in very bad lighting):

Just take my word for it - it looked awesome. I thought it was both stylish and professional enough to wear to my job interview.

This was photographed nearly a week after the manicure was actually done. It does show a little wear and tear, but really not that much. Another perk of the matte top coat is how well it improves polishes' staying power!


At the beginning of the month (I guess?) when my nails were short, I did a similar pastel look, but kept the polish's intended shimmery finish.

This look is not in fashion right now, but I think it is classic, classy, and totally worth having somewhere in my manicure rotation.


Another look I tried was floral-inspired nail art. I'd love to hear what you guys think about this because basically I hated both these looks and took them off pretty much right after photographing them. What do you think?

This incorporates the idea of petals, matte emerald, and pastel purple and pink. For some reason it didn't do it for me though. (Note my awesomely colored purple walls as the background, though.)

This, I realize, may not look floral at first glance, but is a riff on a dandy-lion themed dress I have. I think it's the yellow in it that's so irritating and I might try the design on the tips again with a different base color (teal? purple? gray?) underneath.

And finally, here is what my hands look like right now. 

I'm not sure whether I'll post more or less frequently during my super-busy summer... Thanks for hanging in there so far and stay tuned to find out!