![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Nail art! It is a thing, and I really like it. :3
Some of you already know, but for the past two years, I've been enjoying nail art. Both admiring of others' works, and making my own!
When I was a kid, I wanted pretty pink nails. But unfortunately, my nails are genetically paper-thin. My sister's nails are paper-thin, my mom's, my maternal grandmother's, and I'm sure pretty much all the previous women on my mother's side, going back generations. :P My nails are so thin, once they have an 8th of an inch of length, I can bend them down 90 degrees and they'll snap back up into place. Usually without breaking at all. (Now, my father's nails are CLAWS. Stiff, strong, will happily grown to half an inch and stay that way if they aren't trimmed. This frustrates me to no end, because of course he doesn't do anything with them. ARGH. If only I'd inherited his lovely nail genes!!!!!!1!!! *headdesk*)
Aside from being pretty much useless as tools, thin nails do not wear nail polish well. Nail polish is stiff, without much bend at all. And when something stiff is applied over a flexible base, it breaks and chips. Quickly. A manicure on my thin and weak natural nails will last two days at most, if I don't baby it. If I do baby it--wear gloves whenever washing dishes or taking a shower or anything else that involves heavy hand work--they can last a week. This is frustrating, especially when most nail polish brands brag about lasting for weeks. Sure, polish can last--on a strong natural nail. On weak bendy ones??? No brand will. :C
Finally realizing that my nails are the exception to the norm, I did a random google about how fake nails worked. And that opened up a huuuge new world! XD Here is the link to my favorite nail guru, Suzie of Nail Career Education.
For anyone who doesn't know how fake nails work, the traditional way is to sculpt them. You have an acrylic powder, a liquid monomer. Combine the two on the tip of a paintbrush, put the resulting wet blob on a nail, and shape it into place before it dries. Add more blobs if needed. It hardens within a couple of minutes. Then use nail files to grind it into the final shape and smoothness. Apply polish!
The above is obviously simplified, but that's it in a nutshell. And this is what I've been practicing. :3 See below!
These are my first four attempts at sculpting nails. As Jenna Marbles teaches us, trying to sculpt your first acrylic nails attempts on your own hand--or someone else's--is not wise. So I bought 10 plastic practice fingers off Amazon. I've set a rule for myself to complete my first 10 sculpted nails on these fingers before I will consider applying any acrylic to my own. Safety first!
Controlling the thickness of the nail is difficult. And it sounds funny, but I forget just how small you have to work! All those nail vids are filmed zoomed waaaay in, and the nails look positively huge. But in reality, you're working on a tiny surface. O.o It definitely takes practice.
But I am improving! I did two the nails on the right of the pic above last night, and I definitely see improvement. :3 Applying acrylic to my natural nails comes ever closer! And then, one day, I too will have strong, long, beautifully painted nails. *happy sigh*
I'll be sharing some nail art pics in the future, for fun. ^^V I do enjoy painting my natural nails, as weak as they are. It's still satisfying to create wearable art!! XD
When I was a kid, I wanted pretty pink nails. But unfortunately, my nails are genetically paper-thin. My sister's nails are paper-thin, my mom's, my maternal grandmother's, and I'm sure pretty much all the previous women on my mother's side, going back generations. :P My nails are so thin, once they have an 8th of an inch of length, I can bend them down 90 degrees and they'll snap back up into place. Usually without breaking at all. (Now, my father's nails are CLAWS. Stiff, strong, will happily grown to half an inch and stay that way if they aren't trimmed. This frustrates me to no end, because of course he doesn't do anything with them. ARGH. If only I'd inherited his lovely nail genes!!!!!!1!!! *headdesk*)
Aside from being pretty much useless as tools, thin nails do not wear nail polish well. Nail polish is stiff, without much bend at all. And when something stiff is applied over a flexible base, it breaks and chips. Quickly. A manicure on my thin and weak natural nails will last two days at most, if I don't baby it. If I do baby it--wear gloves whenever washing dishes or taking a shower or anything else that involves heavy hand work--they can last a week. This is frustrating, especially when most nail polish brands brag about lasting for weeks. Sure, polish can last--on a strong natural nail. On weak bendy ones??? No brand will. :C
Finally realizing that my nails are the exception to the norm, I did a random google about how fake nails worked. And that opened up a huuuge new world! XD Here is the link to my favorite nail guru, Suzie of Nail Career Education.
For anyone who doesn't know how fake nails work, the traditional way is to sculpt them. You have an acrylic powder, a liquid monomer. Combine the two on the tip of a paintbrush, put the resulting wet blob on a nail, and shape it into place before it dries. Add more blobs if needed. It hardens within a couple of minutes. Then use nail files to grind it into the final shape and smoothness. Apply polish!
The above is obviously simplified, but that's it in a nutshell. And this is what I've been practicing. :3 See below!
These are my first four attempts at sculpting nails. As Jenna Marbles teaches us, trying to sculpt your first acrylic nails attempts on your own hand--or someone else's--is not wise. So I bought 10 plastic practice fingers off Amazon. I've set a rule for myself to complete my first 10 sculpted nails on these fingers before I will consider applying any acrylic to my own. Safety first!
Controlling the thickness of the nail is difficult. And it sounds funny, but I forget just how small you have to work! All those nail vids are filmed zoomed waaaay in, and the nails look positively huge. But in reality, you're working on a tiny surface. O.o It definitely takes practice.
But I am improving! I did two the nails on the right of the pic above last night, and I definitely see improvement. :3 Applying acrylic to my natural nails comes ever closer! And then, one day, I too will have strong, long, beautifully painted nails. *happy sigh*
I'll be sharing some nail art pics in the future, for fun. ^^V I do enjoy painting my natural nails, as weak as they are. It's still satisfying to create wearable art!! XD