Nails

[Guest EmmaPark94]

Hi, Friends,

This topic's about nails -- how do you like yours? Do you just trim them, do French tips, or do you like to paint them? Do you have any favorite polishes or tools or anything? Post it here. Have fun!

[Guest meagan]

My nails take harsh abuse at work. They look disastrous during work days. Before estrogen I had no issue with my nails, but after estrogen. Baking bread seems to be hard on them for some reason. Breaks, chips, etc.

Days off are something else entirely. Always paint them. I need them to be as fantastic as they can be. I feel like I have mastered my nails and I get compliments on them all the time. I always get asked where I get them done. I love Essie and O.P.I., they have a good color selection, set fast, easy to apply, lots of shine and lasts long.

Current favorite colors...

Essie --- Play date

Essie --- Mojito

Essie --- Beach Bum Blu

O.P.I. --- Jade is the New Black

O.P.I. --- Pink Flamenco

O.P.I. --- Louvre Me Louvre Me Not

O.P.I. --- Bogota Blackberry

Hailey

[tracy_j]

I would love to paint mine but work forbids it and my partner gets really upset so generally its too much of a problem!

I do keep my nails as nice as possible and rub cream into them several times a day. It has stopped most of the splitting.

Tracy

[Guest Sarah Faith]

Sometimes I let them go and look not so great, but pretty often I will file them down and use gel nail polish. I MUCH prefer gel polish over the crappy stuff that starts chipping in like 2 days.

[Charlize]

While i can rarely afford it i do love the shape and finish the salon can apply. It is simply so smooth and getting a premium job (gel) for a bit extra gives more than a week of beauty. I had mine done last week with red polish on my toes(it holds up well down there) and gel fingers in a light purplish pink. A week later and even though i work on the farm my fingers look great. Not a chip yet. If i use polish from the store i have to do them every week and they still look a bit ragged. The pros flow each coat on beautifully. It is a pleasure to watch and even better to wear. I'm getting hooked by the salon but will have to hope that the farm profits increase or should i say begin to exist.

Hugs,

Charlize

[Guest Mickey]

I love painting my nails, and they are almost always painted these days. I have a bunch of colors but they are all just regular polish. I have a pink that is a cheap gel polish and it is great. The regular stuff chips, often the very next day. The gel polish, 2 weeks after I'd done them, I still had no chips, they looked great still, except for the gap between the polish and my cuticles. I will only use the gel polish on my fingers from now on. I just need to get more colors in the gel stuff. lol

[Guest Fiona]

I started getting mani-pedis which I will continue to do with my wife. I have my finger nails done in a very light pink using Factor X (found at Sephora) polish including a foundation and over-coat that seems to be far stronger than the simple clear polish. As for my toes, my wife does those for me and I pick pretty purples and pinks and whatnot. I've not had great results with the more inexpensive polish, so I'm having high hopes for this much more expensive polish. But so far, so good. It even FEELS so much thicker and stronger...

[Guest ashleynikole]

I will not pretend that I know how to do my nails well, but having well done nails is very important to me. So I get them done about every 3-4 weeks and my toes every 6-8 weeks. I'll have them use gel polish because they help my nails stay stronger so much longer and I don't get chips or cracks hardly ever.

God bless

Ashley

[Guest Lizzie McTrucker]

I've had acrylic nails for, goodness, feels like 2 years but I don't think it's been that long.

I started with a classic french manicure but after awhile I got bored with it, so I decided to add some personality and pizazz and I started having them done in a hot pink color, which I loved and got so many compliments on (seriously, like usually once a day or every other day I'd get a compliment). Since the bf is Irish, I'm having them done in a sparkly dark green color. I have a dark green from China Glaze and a sparkly light green on top (more sheer than anything so the dark green comes through from the bottom) and that is by FingerPaints. I'm pretty strict about getting them done every 2-3 weeks, no matter where in the US I am, I find a place nearby to get them filled and filed down to a workable length.

Also now my nails looks pretty all the time and I haven't broken a nail yet.

[Guest Kendra K]

My toes I paint and can keep them that way, but my fingers sadly no since I'm not out.

So I paint my fingers at home and remove the polish in the morning. So at best I get a few hours with the fingers painted, I consider it worth it.

Trouble is I can't get them smooth. I had read that the really cheap polishes don't get smooth like the others.

Anyone want to give their input?

[Guest]

My toes I paint and can keep them that way, but my fingers sadly no since I'm not out.

So I paint my fingers at home and remove the polish in the morning. So at best I get a few hours with the fingers painted, I consider it worth it.

Trouble is I can't get them smooth. I had read that the really cheap polishes don't get smooth like the others.

Anyone want to give their input?

Even the best polish wont be smooth if the nail is wavy. The onky way ive personally seen nails smoothed out it to use shelack or enamal which is fairly thick, so smooths everything out...

[Guest Sarah Faith]

My toes I paint and can keep them that way, but my fingers sadly no since I'm not out.

So I paint my fingers at home and remove the polish in the morning. So at best I get a few hours with the fingers painted, I consider it worth it.

Trouble is I can't get them smooth. I had read that the really cheap polishes don't get smooth like the others.

Anyone want to give their input?

It takes some level of skill and practice to get really smooth nails with the cheaper polish. The smoothest nails I have achieved has always been with gel nail polish which is what the professionals use. Some of that has to do with the fact that it requires as many layers as it does, but yeah it's pricy especially since you need to buy a lot of other items such as a LED Lamp to cure them.

Im really not a huge fan of the cheap polish and dry polishes anymore due to the fact that it peels off so fast.. If you can afford it I would definitely suggest gel.

[Guest Lizzie McTrucker]

The only downside with gel polish, considering her situation though, is by the time it takes to do the nails, and cure/harden the polish, and the time it would take to remove said gel..she'd have like, hardly no time to enjoy them.

[Guest Kendra K]

The only downside with gel polish, considering her situation though, is by the time it takes to do the nails, and cure/harden the polish, and the time it would take to remove said gel..she'd have like, hardly no time to enjoy them.

True about the fingers, but not my toes.

I'll have to think about gels.

[Guest]

The thing that bothers me about the UV cured polish are the articles that I've read about skin cancer on the fingers due to the UV curing lights. I've used it a couple times and I can even feel my fingers tingle from the UV.

[Guest ToriLynn]

I love painting my nails and Love OPI nail lacquer. As far as color, I love blue's, coppers, lighter reds, and Meagan already mentioned it but OPI Jade is the new Black is really pretty. But really any color that catches my eye that day, I am a hugh makeup junkie and until 4 months ago i think i had something like 60 different colors of nail polish.

Makeup Junkie but trying to get better. Maybe.

Tori