Now for something COMPLETELY different! A break from politics and health matters. I’ve always like manicured nails, but used to do them myself. When I was unwell last year, I broke a couple of nails and went to get a couple of tips put on. Don’t ask me how, but I ended up with some gel or other nail product. Oh, yes, they look good, but these drill things they use these days totally wreck your nails (in my opinion).
Drills used to remove nail products
Miss O 1 and my nails
I even went blue at one point.
Two reasons I decided to stop going to the salon and return to looking after my own nails. The health of my nails as noted above and the medical bills for my real health issues were eating into my discretionary spending budget!
I have a fetish for sparkly nail polish. It maybe an age related thing, like purple hats (I don’t wear purple hats). There is a problem with sparkly nail polish – it is hard to remove!
Polish gone, sparkles remain
That is after two lots of nail polish remover. The polish is all gone, but the sparkles stubbornly remain.
Finally – got ’em gone!
Finally, after a bit of filing, I managed to get most of the sparkles off. Now for a brush of undercoat and we are good to go!
Always use undercoat otherwise polish will stain your nails.
First coat of colour
The first coat of colour looked nothing like the colour of the polish in the bottle! And yes, for the eagle-eyed, I have no idea about the stain on the tablecloth either – didn’t notice it until I was cropping the pictures. That is what washing machines are for!
Between coat drying time diversion
No, I haven’t messed up my pictures – a spot of delicious frozen yoghurt while the first coat dried was welcome relief from the Melbourne heat. Then on with the second coat and now it looks a little more like the polish in the bottle.
My nails are a little shorter than usual now, as they were so weak when I stopped going to the salon I kept chipping them. They will grow. I have some nail treatment which I did last month and I will do again next month, for fourteen days. It helps recover the strength.
Random Observations of Life 
They are looking good, and after all you’ve been through recently, this must be wonderful therapy!
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I actually prefer doing them myself. But once you get into that salon cycle it is hard to get out again.
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Sadly looking good is actually bad for our health!
I haven’t used nail varnish for a few years, since reading about the toxic ingredients they contain, one of them being Formaldehyde. Most of the ingredients in nail polishes are cancerous, affect the nervous system or interfere with our hormones, so now I just use a nail file to keep them trimmed and buff them. Acetone is quite bad too…
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I use acetone-free nail polish remover. I’ve read the bad stuff about nail polish, but once an addict, always an addict…..
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I can never have nails like you at your shortest 🙂 I’m simply not allowed because I work in a lab. But even when I was allowed those gel-things ruined my nails so much that it took me months to recover, so I completely understand you. Try some nail-hardener and olive oil massages, this helped me a lot.
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I think it is the drill that does the damage. I watched it over time etch into my nails, so stopped them using it a few visits before I stopped going.
There is a salon in town that concentrates in natural nails, so when my medical bills drop a bit, I’ll maybe pay them a visit.
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I think they really believe that each customer who gets gel nails aims to stick to them for a lifetime and doesn’t care about what’s underneath them 🙂
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Yep, gel or S&N when I’m 80 on a pension. I don’t think so!!!
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hahaha! You never know!!
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[…] Painting my nails sounds like appropriate therapy under the circumstances. […]
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