Rules For An Awesome Nail Salon

1. Provide a wide array of slightly dried out and/or separated polishes.
   
2. Manicurists should not allow customers to interrupt their conversations with each other, nor should they allow proximity to each other to limit conversation. That’s what shouting is for.
   
3. Use well-worn paper nail files aggressively.
   Avoid fine-grit boards if possible.
   
4. Always use ambiguously clean tools, with gusto!
   
5. If manicurists are not with a customer, they should stand around eating loudly and talking more loudly.
   
6. Have a rice cooker cooking rice, somewhere.
   Make sure aroma is evident.
   
7. Instruct employees to wash vegetables in the hand sink. (Recommended: Broccoli)
   
8. Allow manicurists to take personal phone calls while working on customer’s nails. Extra points if conversation is during polish portion of manicure.
   
9. Make sure there are no magazines anywhere.
   
10. Always try to include at least three misspelling per sign.
    
11. It should take no less than four rounds under the dryer to dry thick layers of polish.
    
12. All chairs should be uncomfortable, with torn vinyl and stains where applicable. 

In case you were wondering, it was $8, and probably worth it.
(Assuming I didn't catch nail herpes.)

Here's A Tip...

I put these gold sparkles on my nails after seeing a tutorial on The Hairpin last week. But here is the thing, I took photos of the process, which aren't really necessary since we have the video, but I didn’t take a photo of the finished manicure until today... a week later. They still look good, no? The sparkles and extra layers of polish protect the tips of your nails from getting destroyed! Such a nice bonus!

One Word Arguments Against 3D Nail Art

Buttons

Wiping

Cooking

Germs

Typing

Wedgies

Rummaging

Boogers

Ponytails

O.B.

Hideous

These are just the first things I thought of, I’m sure there are like a billion more. Feel free to add your own in the comments.

What Are You Lookin’ At, Ombré?

You’ve probably seen the ombré nail polish trend in magazines, if you haven’t come across anyone who has bothered to do it in real life. It’s not that it’s that hard to do, as far as nail art goes, but collecting colors in a nice progression (finding, paying for, storing) has always seemed to me like more trouble than the trend was worth. Even buying one of the pre-assembled sets seems like kind of a waste. How often do you really want ombré nails? And then you end up with five nail polish colors that are practically the same.

Rings On Her Fingers and Gels On Her Toes

Is a close-up photo of my crazy toes exactly what you were in the mood to see today? Oh good! I was worried.

I spent the last week of June on the beach, and in preparation for my trip, I did a DIY Gelish manicure AND pedicure. (Tiger Blossom, I totally dig it.)

Seche Vite Sandwich, Hold The Chips

I wrote about Seche Vite ages ago, but if you haven’t tried it yet, here’s a little story, and a tip, that may convince you of its awesomeness.

Gelishious 2: I Try DIY

A few months ago, friend/reader Aline wrote a guest post about doing your own gel manicure. It was great, and her nails looked fantastic, but I kind of figured I would never do it myself. It seemed like a lot of work, I didn’t want to store the lamp, and I didn’t need gels frequently enough to deal with all that. But…

She Sells Sea Shellac At The Sea Shore

I finally tried a gel manicure! Well, it was Shellac, but I think they are all basically the same thing. However, Shellac is 3-free! No formaldehyde, toluene or DBP. It was sort of a last minute decision before my trip. I figured it would be a great time to torture a "tough" manicure and see what it could hold up to.

Palisades Paint

If you are really really neat, or really really messy, have I got a product for YOU!

On Dasher, On Dancer, On Chancer, you Vixen!

Have you done your Holiday Manicure yet? Personally, my nails are a mess, but last week I scheduled appointments for a manicure, waxing and…. EYELASH EXTENSIONS, for tomorrow. I can’t wait. I knew if I didn’t plan ahead, it woudn’t end up getting done, so tomorrow I get to go have some professional primping. That means I have to get all my work done today. Hopefully.

Gelishious

Today we have our first ever guest post! Friend and reader, Aline, tells us all about Gelish Soak-Off Gel Polish, and how to achieve the perfect retro red manicure. A classic holiday look!

Ice Ice... Maybe.

From the moment I finished my Wyndham Collection manicure, I’ve been dying to try the holographic Wyndham Overglaze Topcoat on other colors. I thought it would look cool and icey over light colors, especially metallics, so I tried it on a few of my palest and shimmeriest polishes.

Festive Flecks

This sparkly set of polish from Nails Inc turned out to be even more festive (meaning green) than I had imagined!

'Tis The Season... For Sparkles

If there was ever a time for a glittery manicure, it’s now. The holiday season always calls for a little (or a lot) of extra sparkle, and nail polish has been having “a moment” for quite awhile now. It’s probably due to the economy and the fact that you can totally splurge on an expensive nail polish for about $25. (PS. I dropped my Chanel Peridot today and smashed the cap. Luckily, the bottle itself is fine and the inner cap is intact. I’m still a little pissed though.) Wether it’s the economy or just a random boom in nail polish technology, it’s the perfect time to try something new.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Well, it’s fall, alright. It can be a little confusing, what with the snow over Halloween weekend and then hitting 68 degrees today. (Not that I’m complaining.) But it's definitely fall. I mean, technically it’s been fall since September 23rd, but since we just fall’ed back the clocks, now we’re REALLY in it. 

In honor of fall, the season that would be totally awesome if it weren’t the farthest point from when it will ever be really warm again, I’m dedicating this week to color changing stuff.

My (Semi) Precious

I subscribe to whole bunch of fashion magazines “for research” and I am pretty sure every single one of them has mentioned Chanel’s Peridot nail color recently. Once in awhile, Chanel comes out with a nail polish color that I consider splurge-worthy, and seriously, what else does Chanel make that I could possibly afford? I finally got a bottle last week, and it is, indeed, worthy-of-splurge.

Hey Bootiful!

Sally Hansen Salon Effects have gotten all Halloweeny! While I was at the drugstore this morning (I picked up a few things I’ll write about soon) I noticed a display of haunted nail polish strips. Ghosts, skulls & crossbones, red fishnet, a Frankenstein-y one called Hot Wired and, of course, spider webs. Actually, aside from the ghosts and the spider webs, these could be even better when it’s NOT Halloween. If there are any left on Nov.1, I might try to scoop some on sale.

Eeets-a Magnetic-a!

I read about Magneffect nail polish in a magazine and was going to buy it, try it and write about it. I heard it was coming out in October, but didn’t realize it would be, like, right away. It’s only October 4th! JEEZ. Anyway, I guess I don’t have to do all that now, because you can just watch this awesome video to find out all about it. Also, go fig, Sephora has a version too. You can get the real deal from a few different places online, like Planet Beauty.

Glamour Nails: A Discussion with Myself

Wow, your nails are really getting long!

I know! It’s crazy. They grow so fast in the summer.
I don’t even know how I haven’t broken them yet.

You think you’re going to keep them long?

Orange You Glad...

If you haven’t noticed, orange nail polish is everywhere. Watching you. Just kidding! But it is definitely everywhere. It’s the natural progression from the orangey-reds of last summer. It only makes sense that polish would get oranger and oranger and go all they way to the most orangey. There is a whole range of orange shades available now. Most are plain gloss, but some have a bit of shimmer. If orangey-orange is too orange for you, there are a lot of darker reddish oranges too, and even some “hot corals.” (Like hot pink, only more orange.) If orangey-orange is not orange enough, there is neon orange! Of course, maybe you’ve already been doing orange. In which case, orange you fashion forward!