New Years Glitter-Works

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great 2011, and have an even better 2012. I've been very busy since Christmas, it's actually taken several days to complete my nail designs. It does take me an average of half an hour to give myself a manicure because of all the maybe layers of treatment clear coats I apply to myself, but that all depends on how much filing I do of my nails. I like to use a soft grit file (120 usually) so I don't damage my nails, but that does mean it takes longer for the length to be removed. i find it's more accurate though. I do apply nail glue to the areas that I'm afraid will tear, and waiting for the glue to dry takes a while. My nails are shorter than normal (although still long) this time, because I'm trying to protect them from breaking as they are in a pretty fragile state right now, and I'm trying to give my short index nail a fighting chance. Because it's winter, the air is drier and my nails have become more brittle, and my cuticles and skin are drier than normal, which causes them to peal and bleed on occasion, so I'm using nail oil and hand cream/lotion like there is no tomorrow. Like I mentioned on my Nail Care blog post, you can never apply too much nail oil/lotion. 

Well that was a lot of boring things I just said. I have several hours to kill on this post, so I apologize for the random things I say today. On to the nail design… I don't actually like it. The colour was cool to start with, but I think it's too bronzy and "old-lady" for me. It really doesn't match my skin tone. I then added silver glitter in the hopes of livening it up, but there isn't enough colour for me. I'm finding it boring. I haven't been painting funky designs recently because I'm trying not to draw attention to my short nail, and I haven't had a lot of time lately. So for my next design, I'm thinking rainbows. Lots of colour. This design was supposed to me fireworks, and I suppose they do look like fireworks, but very boring fireworks. I'm sorry. Maybe it suits some people though.

This design is simple pimple. After a base coat, apply a couple of thick coats of Quo by Orly's "Rock Show", then once that's dry, I used Art Deco's "Silver" and made a few stripes in the corners of my nails, then added random dots. Apply a top coat, and you're done!

All glitter polish is very hard to remove, and the "Glitter In My Stoking" polish took a very long time to take off my tips, and I know this silver will take even longer. I'm not looking forward to it, but it must be done. Picking it off would be a lot faster, but I'd rather not permanently damage my nails, or I will regret it in 5 minutes or 40 years. I couldn't remove all of the "Glitter In My Stoking" polish from my right pinky nail because the tips ripped almost completely off last week, so I had to abandon my attempts and just cover the left over polish with Rock Show. I glued the nail back on and spend a very long time carefully filing it with my 240 grit file. It's not as short as I'd like it (I prefer my nails long, but I need to think about what's sensible, and what would likely cause me to lose my nail), but I got restless after a while. I know the 240 grit is pretty much a buffer, but it was so close to coming off completely that I wanted to be super careful and take no chances. You can see in my picture where it's been ripped. 

Sorry that this design is boring, in my opinion, and I hope to come up with something better next time. Take care of your nails, and thanks for reading!