HANDS, NAILS, ETC.

UGH my nails and toes are DISGUSTING because I haven't been able to get to the salon.,. and I won't for some time because I am broke(ish). How can I make these hideous raptor claws look okay without spending too much money?

Oh nooes! A manicure here is only $12-16. Is that not possible where you are?

I am in love with Berlin there done that from the OPI Germany collection right now. It's the perfect shade of grey.

Bought it and totally in agreement with this.

Am thinking might soon go with a bare nail and red tip. Because...because.

All red at the moment.

Laurel - I'm so glad you like it! I really think it's just the best grey I've found. Speaking of grey, I got a Shellac mani last Saturday and here it is just now. This is therefore day 5 and it still looks totally brand new:

http://i.imgur.com/9OBcR.jpg

You can't tell the color because I can't get it in good lighting but it's a very light grey that I like a lot (tho obv not as much as Berlin There Done That). Got Shellac because I'm goign away for 5 days starting tomorrow and it's longevity is good for trips. I heard that you can paint and do nail art on top of Shellac so when I get bakc next week I'm going to try to do BTDT tips. I think the grey on grey might be pretty neat.

please excuse typos and incorrect "it's" and whatnot - I am multitasking and all caffeined up right now

I guess I always get Shellac manis so I forget a regular one is pretty damn cheap.

painted my nails for the first time in...well a long time...purpley black with silver crackle over top

dunno that I like the crackle. Out of the corner of my eye it looks like nail fungus, lol.

but I'm going to pull out my polishes and play again this weekend.

No photos bc I am terrible at nailpolish and my nails look like a 5 year old's lol

ooh but any recommendations for good low-price nail polish brands are welcome.

Bang for my buck, I really like the Sally Hansen ones I've got! I forget which particular line I purchased but I can check at home.

Crackle coats are cool, and you don't have to worry about the surface quality! You can put a nice gloss topcoat over them to bump up the shine & make it look a little less chalky/more professional.

Right after I said I would go bare nails, I scrabbled them across a hardcover book and broke one. Crazy-glued back together and buffed it down but I can't expose the broken part now. O well.

:/

I'm really not into crackle. It just looks strange to me and not in a good way.

yeah I'm not convinced

I've got a few essie polishes and the colors are good but not very opaque--can take like 3 coats to get full coverage. Not very effective.

In love with China Glaze and OPI tbh.

OPI seems p good, I've seen quite a few on blogs that are one-coaters which is v appealing to moi

krazy glue?!

"Hard as Nails XTreme Wear" is the one coater that I got for $2.50 (on sale) - I forgot I could GIS!

Yeah! It didn't totally break off, it just cracked on one side, so I glued the crack together and smoothed the surface and painted over it.

must paint:

http://www.blogto.com/upload/2012/10/2012103-nail-art-toronto.jpg

o

m

g

AAAAHHHHH@@@!!!!

how do you even do that? <--- nail-art challenged

Right?? RIGHT??

VG they sell tools that you can use to make tiny lines.. I've also seen suggestions you could use a mechanical pencil or toothpick.. pour some black polish onto tin foil, dip nib in, pretend you are old timey person with quill and ink? I'm not great at it.. this girl must've had someone else do it IMO.. or is just amazing

dayum

Yeah looking at it I think it's free-hand! I thought stencils, because the hard part is getting the ends of the narrow lines squared off, but the letter shapes are SLIGHTLY too irregular to be stencils. Like the A. Being freehand painting makes it even cooler!

It's pretty masterful! A stencil is not a bad idea though - an exacto knife and masking or painter's tape could get that job done, I bet!

Pre-made stencil and nail pen, I'll bet.

The image was from the top of an article about nail salons in Toronto, but they didn't say if it had been done by one of them. I found this - not a bad idea tbh: http://manicures-pedicures.wonderhowto.com/how-to/make-nail-art-stencils-0132784/

Those nails...so badass!

xpost wow that's a cool technique! That'd be harder to do with letters though - less 'real estate' to pick up with the toothpick

http://www.xojane.com/files/morticianails.jpeg

This was done with gel pens. !!!

holy shit

okay I have had ZERO interest in my nails until like two days ago and now I want to make them look amazing like THAT

damn!

and if you can do it with freaking GEL PENS I am all in

I doodle on anything I can get my hands on, why not my NAILS ffs

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/LimitedLiabilityGirl/Blueleop.jpg

Second-ever attempt at leopard, already getting better!

Man, flat white nail polish is a disaster, it goes on HORRIBLY. The only thing you can do w it is use it as a background and put other stuff on top because it's really streaky even after 3 coats.

Some fingers turned out better than others, I will re-do some maybe tonight or tmrw.

Nice!

I'm rocking some nail stickers at work (an OPI Sephora set that is a black lace pattern over a peach/Caucasian nude background) and nobody has said anything so I guess I'm cool. Well, not cool like cool, just cool like not getting the side eye for ostentatious nails.

Ooooh, you did it! Can you get a photo? I've seen black lace on a red background but I think I like the sound of peach better.

I took a picture but I can't remember my shitting Yahoo ID/password to sign into Flickr to post it. I'll email it to you.

nice bow!!

artfully done, orbit. they look gr8!

hey do you want to hear something freaky?
I noticed around February this year that one of my big toenails had just stopped growing. It was actually a little worrying. The polish would start to grow out on all my other toes except that one. About a month ago it started growing back again, like a new nail under the old one. It takes ages though. My mate who had a baby noticed that the pedicure she got about the time she found out she was pregnant still hadn't completely grown out after she'd had the baby :/

Heh the bow is the scarf from a 1940s persian lamb ladies' coat that died a long time ago, but this grey silk with orange pagodas on it was the lining fabric and I kept the neck tie. It's the perfect shape to make those Victorian heiress-style draping bows.

Mission totally accomplished: my boss grabbed my wrist yesterday and pulled it closer to her eyes and then pushed it back at me vehemently and said "WHAT DID YOU DO to your nails?" She hates them.

That's like yr parents noticing and hating your music as a teenager. WIN

Pulled myself together long enough for this:

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/LimitedLiabilityGirl/Polka.jpg

Not showing you the mani in between because I didn't really like it. I used a dusty orange that looked great on me a month ago and I thought would be fall-ish but without a tan on my hands it didn't look as good. Save it til next summer.

OMG I LOVE THAT

Huh. I didn't think it was that great, and it photographs even worse. I don't have any spring or apple greens, which I think this combo needed. Not happy w my color choices. Light pink base coat btw, that's not bare nail.