This is to let the nail polish community know that I no longer support Drunk Fairy Polish or its owners in any way. What happened on October 5th, 2024 was horrible and I reject such behavior completely.
More information can be found at this link: Reddit
Tag: #nailpolish
Painting Your Nails 101
This post is for my bestie of 48 years (ye gads, we’re ancient!), who of course knows how to paint her nails, but is a refresher course and I wanted to add in some tips and tricks I’ve learned. Of course, there’s no one right way to do things, and I am hardly an expert, but this is the routine I’ve developed and it works well for me.
You should always start with clean, prepped nails. File, do not trim with clippers, your nails to the length you want. Remove any cuticle adhering to your nail bed (see this great diagram of all the various parts of the nail for specific terms), I prefer to use a liquid cuticle remover (I like the Sally Hansen brand) and an orange stick. You can also gently use an efile around your Eponychium but be careful not to damage it or your nail bed itself when doing so.
I apply the cuticle remover around all five nails, then wait about a minute, while I scrub with the orange stick. Then I use a soft nail brush under running water to remove the detritus. Dry with a towel, then buff the nail bed surface gently with a fine grit buffer to remove any ridges.
Before applying a good base coat, wipe your nails with a 91% rubbing alcohol using a lintless wipe (you don’t want any whispies in your polish) and let dry for a minute or two.
Pick a good quality base coat, and let that dry for two to three minutes, then start applying your selected lacquer color. Alternately, you an use a ridge-filling base coat, most of which come with a slight tint to hide any signs of VNL (visible nail line), which are good to use if your polish is very sheer.
When it comes to lacquer I typically apply two to three thin coats, keeping the coats thin helps with drying time and doesn’t build up to be too thick. I wait three minutes between each layer, but be aware temperature and humidity can be a factor, adjust your time as needed. You want a thin layer of dry polish on a coat before applying another.
In the event you get some polish into your cuticle area (happens to the best of us), just use a bit of remover and a small brush to gently remove it. I like the Elf cosmetic brush, but a variety of sites sell various angled or straight brushes for cleanup.
Once you have your lacquer on, apply a good quality top coat, there are tons of good ones out there.
Depending on my schedule, I may add a layer of a Seche Vite, a really quick drying top coat over the topcoat I’m using as it hardens the mani very quickly, but it does contain Toulene, which some people prefer to avoid, so fyi on that aspect.
I also love the drying drops from Zoya, they work very well to speed up the dry time of a mani.
To remove my polish when I’m ready to redo my mani, I use plastic clips to hold a lintless pad on my nails for a couple of minutes, like these. I use Mineral Fusion, which is an acetone free remover (because I have a gel overlay on my natural nails).
I do one hand at a time, from start to finish, then the other. I generally like to carve out at least a half an hour to an hour where I’m not doing things that would smudge or dent my mani as it dries, the sofa and a good book are often my go-tos for that. Now go ye and paint your nails!
The Plastic Bag Trick for Flakies
Those of us who use flakie nail polish know how hard it and large format glitter can be to remove. I don’t remember who told me about this trick, it was in one of the Facebook groups I’m in, but thanks to them for it, as this technique works amazingly well. It lets you get Flakie polish off quickly and easily. As always, use nail polish remover in a safe space and ensure proper ventilation, and if you’re using a new remover, do a small patch test before this method to ensure it won’t cause irritation.
Needed:
– A small bowl, glass or porcelain (probably best not to use plastic).
– Some gentle nail polish remover (I use Mineral Fusion).
– A small plastic bag (I use a sandwich size ZipLoc).
– Somewhat hot water (hot enough to put your hand in but not too hot) to fill the bowl about halfway.
Steps:
– Fill the small bowl with the hot water.
– Pour a small amount of the nail polish remover into the bag, enough to cover the fingertips of one hand, say between a 1/4 to 1/2 cup.
– Place your hand into the bag, and the bag into the bowl.
– Swish your fingers around, using them to rub against your nails for about a minute or two.
– Dispose of the bag once you’re done if you’re using one, as it generally can’t be reused.
Quicker than you’d think, the flakies start coming off and drifting to the bottom of the bag. Keep swishing and before you know it, your nails are clean! You may want to go over them one last time with a cotton round and some remover to be sure you got everything, but there should be no stubborn flakies left to deal with. Easy as pie.
How I Use a Gel Overlay
A while back, inspired by a post in ALL the Polishes group on Facebook, I started using a gel overlay on my nails. Note this is sometimes done with Builder Gel, I just use a plain base, the Milky White by Kokoist.
It’s fairly straightforward, and has been a total game-changer for my nails. They’re stronger, my manis last longer, and I get no chipping or breaking as I had been having in the past.
Here’s what you need:
– A good UV/LED lamp to cure the gel
– Either a plain or colored gel base, or builder gel
– A gel topcoat (I use a non-staining one from Kokoist)
– Files in various grits (I use an efile with a couple of different bits)
– Rubbing alcohol
– Lint-free wipes (you don’t want to get cotton whispies cured into your gel)
– Acetone-free polish remover (I use Mineral Fusion)
– Some good quality nail brushes in thin widths
– I use a silicone tool from Madam Glam to remove gel that slips into the cuticle area, but a orange stick will work as well
– And I recommend Protein Bond from Young Nails
Here’s how I do it:
The first time I prepped my nails as I would before any polish; file to shape, clean up cuticles, gently buff any irregularities in the nail bed, wipe with alcohol.
Apply two coats of Young Nails Protein Bond, waiting about two minutes between each coat to let it dry.
Slowly brush a coat of your base/builder gel onto the nail, trying not to get it into the cuticle if you can help it. I tend to use a thin nail brush to spread it to the edges to avoid spillage.
Before curing, turn your finger upside down to allow the gel to flow towards the center, which helps to build a nice apex.
I spot cure each finger for 5 seconds and then when I have one hand done I cure for 60 seconds (note different products and lamps may need different times than these, consult with the instructions to be sure.)
I then apply a gel non-staining top coat to ensure any lacquer I use doesn’t stain the milky white base, cured as above.
Wipe with alcohol, and you’re done! You can apply lacquer base and polish and top coat right over that.
Over the space of a week I find I need to do a fill-in, at this point I do one hand per week (I have a puppy and can’t spend several hours at a time on my nails.)
Before I fill in the growth area, I use an e-file to bring down the depth of the previous coats of gel. I don’t ever take it all off if I can help it, I just make it thin enough so that the new coat doesn’t make my nails too thick.
When starting out with an efile, be very careful and go slowly. It’s a skill that takes time to learn, a light touch at first will take longer but also prevent injury and nail breakage. You can also file by hand of course.
Once I have my nails filed down and prepped again (see the above steps), I use a thin brush to put the gel into the area that has grown out, and then top that with a very thin layer of gel on my whole nail. Non-staining top coat over the whole thing, cure as above, wipe, and done.
As with most things, practice makes perfect with this process, and you can refer to the Builder Gel thread in ALL the Polishes for more tips and tricks, but this is how I do it and it works very well for me.
Note I have received no compensation from any company for any products mentioned, I buy all my own supplies.
How It Began
So many moons ago, I fell in love with color. Probably when I was a tiny tot and my mother signed me up for art lessons at the Cleveland Museum of Art. And taking photography in high school opened up a whole new world for me. In college (I have a BFA in Photography from Syracuse University) I took my first color theory class and BOOM, my love for color was given the firmest of footings.
Fast forward to 45+ years later and I’m still a color fanatic. I’m ND and tend to do very deep dives into subjects, as my husband says “Laura never tiptoes into anything, she always leaps in with both feet.” And I do!
My latest obsession is nail polish and nail art. I first did my own nails years ago, back in the mid 1980’s, and boy have things changed since then! I moved away from doing my nails for a long time; having kids, moving to a farm, being busy with critters and work and gardening meant I didn’t have the time or the motivation to paint my nails.
And then came the pandemic. Covid changed so much in all our lives, and for me it meant pandemic hobbies, including baking sourdough bread (which is rather hilarious as I eat keto and as such don’t eat bread), and doing my nails. Really, the spark for it came the summer of 2020, when I went to my family’s beach house on the OBX. My mother always kept a collection of shimmery polish at the beach, just to do her toes. And that summer I decided to do mine in her memory. But most of it was old and crusty, so I went and got some more.
And that my friends, led me where I am now. I fell down the rabbit hole of indie nail polish, and nail stamping/art, and haven’t come up for air since. Polish lets me play with color in a way I’d never found before, and I love it! I started an Instagram account for my nailfies, look for me as @chromafae there. I also have a Facebook page under the same name.
I’m not an expert. I’m not a swatcher. I don’t get paid to post pics of the polish I use, with one exception every bottle of polish I’ve ever used has been bought and paid for by me. (I was sent a topper once that I never used and probably should and review, mea culpa on that.)
But I do think it’s important for the average polish user to review polish, as we’re the ones, who by virtue of our lack of being expert swatchers, are the ones who truly can provide insight on a given polish. Is it easy to use? How is the formula? Does it provide coverage with two coats or does it need three or more? If it’s a flakie does it need a special top coat to grab the glitter? And for me, one of the most important criteria; does the polish look like the pics on the website when I swatch it at home?
As a photog I know how difficult it can be to get accurate photos of polish. And I really appreciate when makers include photos on different skin tones and under different light sources, I think that’s really important. I also tend to avoid makers who have what I consider problematic views on social issues. I vote with my wallet, and if you have values that clash with mine, I won’t be buying your polish, it’s that simple.
As I go on with this blog I’ll be exploring lots of stuff, stop by every now and then to see what I’m thinking about and working on. And feel free to like my FB and Insta pages, I’m pretty good about follow backs. Thanks for stopping by!
ChromaFae 