A lot happened in 2017, but arguably the most important thing to happen is that I fell in love with painting my nails again… Okay, I said arguably.
Often when we get busy we put the little things we like to do on the back burner to make more time for “important” things like work or school. Even though we enjoy painting our nails, we can live without it, so we walk around with naked nails.
GIF via Laughing GIF
Or maybe, if you’re like me, you weren’t very good at painting your nails to begin with, so you just kind of gave up. Well, I’m here to tell you that IT DOESN’T MATTER! Nail technology has advanced, and now even amateurs like myself can paint their nails without making a huge mess!
Here are three products that have helped me tremendously:
1. Liquid latex (I use Pueen Tape that I found at Walmart) is the most useful product to ever grace store shelves. You may have seen nail art accounts on Instagram using this product to keep their fingers polish free when doing complicated designs. You simply paint the skin around your nail with the liquid latex, wait for it to dry, and then peel it off after you’ve finished painting your nails.
2. A peel-off base coat (I use UNT) is also a life saver. Instead of spending hours trying to take off glitter nail polish with regular old nail polish remover, peel-off base coats, like the name suggests, allow you to just peel the nail polish right off! No scrubbing required! Bonus: You can keep the nail peelies and hoard them forever!
3. Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Step 2 is a glossy topcoat that works together with the Step 1 color polish to have a similar effect as actual gel nail polish, making color last longer without flaking. Here’s a super secret life hack: You can use this topcoat with ANY NAIL POLISH. It works the same, and you don’t have to pay for the Miracle Gel Step 1. It’s some good stuff.
Photo via My personal collection of nail polish!
The important thing about nail polish is picking colors that make you feel good and bring you joy. As you can tell I like my glitter nail polish. Life is too short to not look down and see your nails sparkling in the sunlight. However, there is one type of nail polish that is without-a-doubt better than glitter polish in every way.
HOLO.
GIF via Tumblr
Isn’t it beautiful?
DO NOT BE FOOLED. Holo is not your everyday glitter polish. While normal glitter just sparkles in the light, holo reflects rainbows! If you don’t see the rainbows, then it ain’t holo, my friend.
I first learned of my love for holo when watching Simply Nailogical videos on Youtube. You might know her as one of the first people to attempt the 100 coats of nail polish challenge.
GIF via tenor
The account’s owner Cristine (Youtuber, Canadian, Beautiful Person, and Holo Queen) makes nail art tutorial videos and is a proud “holosexual” (someone who loves holo). Her life’s goal is to make sure everyone knows the difference between true holo and other products that companies try to pass for holo. If you’d like to learn more about what holo is, and if you might be a holosexual, you can watch her video here! She is one of the reasons I decided to start painting and caring for my nails again.
My nails changing from blue to purple because of the cold.
Even though taking the time to shape (with files PLEASE) and paint your nails can seem like a waste of time in our busy lives, it is important to make time for yourself. Painting my nails always gives me a break from the stress of my most recent paper or test, and it just makes me smile. It’s nice to treat yourself and take a little extra time to breathe and put on sparkly or mood changing nail polish! You deserve it!