About a year ago, I started paying attention to my nails. I realized that I felt more finished and chic if I had them trimmed and coated with some clear polish. It takes my nails a bizarrely long time to dry and I do NOT have the dexterity necessary to apply color, so I stick to clear.
Once I started maintaining my own nails, I somehow became more attuned to the world of nail care. And it’s a big, expensive, rather competitive world. I’d been immune to it before, but now I feel some pressure to keep my nails looking relatively fancy. Which I resent a bit. It’s not like I do a lot of welding or farming or anything that would make ladylike nails a true problem. But occasionally I’ll hesitate because I’m worried that some random task will ruin my nails. And then I do it anyway because eff that.
Do you feel pressure to keep your nails polished and pretty? What do you feel is the source of that pressure? Do you get regular manicures or do your nails yourself? Is it fun, a chore, or some mixture thereof?
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I do feel the need to keep a subtle color on my toenails during sandal-wearing weather, but other than that, I haven’t painted my fingernails in YEARS. It would definitely interfere with my daily tasks (or, at the very least, seem frivolous considering how much time my hands spend dealing with potting soil, diapers, dishwater, etc.) Also, I’ve become more concerned lately with the chemicals in fingernail polish remover, so I’m not sure how I feel about the need to use it on a regular basis. I’ve NEVER had a professional manicure, and I don’t think you could pay me enough to have a stranger mess with my hands.
i have always maintained my nails – either professional (when money was available) or myself. I am a corporate executive and always feel more put together if my nails are in good shape.
My latest “find” is gel manicures. They are a godsend! They stay perfect for weeks and no fuss maintenance – just keep them filed. You have to stick to one color (though I have heard of people painting over them – i have not tried) but if you like a neutral nail – it’s no problem. There are several brands and lots of color choices too. They also protect my natural nails and breakage has been significantly reduced. At my favorite nail salon – it’s $30 but lasts about 3 weeks – so better than regular manicures in time and money.
I do my own nails now. I have experienced the “dangers” and problems of gel nails, acryllic nails, acetone, etc. They all make your nails brittle, dry, and split and peel. Acetone actually can go into the bloodstream!
I prefer to do my own nails. Lately I have been using peel on polish strips. They are trimmed after applying the “polish” to the nail, stays on a long time, especially if you apply a topcoat, and helps me not to chew on my fingers! They stayed nice even for crafting!
Sal, as always, love your blog. I wrote about this very subject a couple of weeks ago! http://stylemammal.blogspot.com/2012/02/accept-smudges.html
Lauren
No pressure! Can’t imagine what form that pressure would take.. I just enjoy having painted nails. I think they add feminity and flair. Also, it’s easy and fairly cheap to be cutting edge fashionable with nail polish.
I do them myself, although I’ve had a few mani and pedis as a treat.
I love doing my nails. I used to do them all the time and had quite a big assortment of nail polish (sparkly green and iridescent pink come to mind). Now that I work in a lab and have to wear latex gloves all the time, I usually only file and buff them, if I even remember doing that. Nail polish cracks and looks ugly after about half a dayof work. Plus, the gloves or something seem to have ruined my nails, which break all the time so I have to keep them very short. It’s a bit sad, but can’t be changed atm.
“And then I do it anyway because eff that.” <– That feeling is one I know very well. I like it, actually, because it somehow demonstrates that I can be feminine and fashion-conscious and pragmatic and down-to-earth at the same time, that these attributes don't have to be mutually exclusive.
Do you wear the gloves with powder on the inside? When I wore nitrile gloves every day for work with the powder on the inside all my nails got so dry and brittle that they split. The tips of my fingers cracked and bled, too! I had to switch to the unpowdered ones and just deal with the sweaty palms.
It’s important to me to have them trimmed and clean. But I don’t like all the chemicals in nail-care products and don’t think most people notice beyond “tidy” enough to justify exposing myself to the nasty fumes, etc.
I totally agree! If I really want my nails shiny I buff them. I use my hands way too much for a manicure to survive for long anyway.
No pressure whatsoever. In fact, if I got my nails did, I’d be the only person in my whole department who does. Lab science is not the place for nail polish — even in biology some preps use acetone and there’s phenol and god knows what else. And even once you’re the PI and have moved out of active material handling, the culture just doesn’t demand nails.
I take my calcium and vitamin D, and maintain my nails myself with a Tweezerman clipper. The only pressure I feel is from my keyboard — I hate the feeling if my nails are long enough to tap even a tiny bit. And if they get 1/8″ long I feel like they’re positively TALONS.
I do my own nails, and have since I was a teenager. I love keeping them polished and feel a bit dowdy if I don’t. For a little while after I had my first child, I felt like I didn’t have time for it. I missed it so much that I will now take a quick break at work and put on a couple coats and then let them dry while I type. It’s a little bit of glamour for me, and even a little subversive when I wear unusual colors at the office. I have never felt pressure to keep them polished since very few women around me ever polish theirs.
I do think about tasks that will mess up my polish, but usually a pair of gloves takes care of it. And if it does get ruined it’s usually just a couple of days before I will redo them anyway since I polish them about once a week.
I love having a clean manicure, I feel like it finishes an outfit. I’ve only had one prefessional pedi and one mani..I was VERY disapointed on the mani..she globbed it on thick and got polish all over my cuticles ..I can do better then what she did. So from there I was convinced to continue doing my own which I’ve gotten quite good at
plus then I don’t have try and make small talk with a stranger Lol. In winter I don’t do my toes unless I am going out and able to wear peep toes ..figure its their breaktime from the constant changing up in the summer.
Absolutely not.
I started wearing nail polish in highschool to try to stop bitting my nails, and also as doing my nails would give me something to do with my hands while watching tv, other than eating cookies and chips! It worked on the nail biting… but I just chewon my cuticules instead. I always do my manicure myself, but I occasionaly splurge on pedicures- but always when it’s part of a fun day out with a girlfriend; otherwise, I just do those myself too.
I always have at least a clear coat on my nails, but in the last year, I’ve really been enjoying darker colours- there’s this taupy grey I have that seems to go with everything, and I love how it gives a bit of an edge to everything I wear- the same pretty dress all of a sudden looks a little bit more rock-chic with navy blue nails. But I try to stay away from glitter and bright reds, simply because they are not my taste.
I feel pressure from myself to kep my nails looking good, but my guess is, most people don’t notice. I wore a nose stud at a conservative financial firm for 8 months before anyone noticed- I doubt they noticed my nails!
I paint my toenails in warm weather, but only because I have bruised runners’ toenails, and I’m trying to hide that! As for my fingernails, I’m afraid I have the lifelong bad habit of biting them.
Runners’ feet and knitters’ hands (the wool dries out my cuticles and snags knitted lace) need maintenance to do their jobs well. It’s a mani/pedi every 2 weeks for me.
I’ve always kept my nails neat, but I’m lucky in that they grow strong and pretty without much help. I have long nailbeds, and have never had any issues with infection or what-have-you. Until recently, though, I very rarely ever painted my nails. In high school I did a bunch of glitter polishes, but when I hit college I just didn’t have the time/inclination. Now that I’m almost thirty, I’ve had to pick it up again. Back in October I tried a shellac manicure, and while it looked nice, the aftermath was a nightmare! The woman who did it scraped each nail down, stripping it of its natural shine and perfectness. I should have stopped her after the first nail, but I didn’t know any better. Months later, my nails are still stripped and gross — and growing out very, very slowly. I’m afraid to buff the surface too much because the nails are also very thin and brittle. So I’m keeping them short (no white tips showing) and painting every week. At least now I get to play around with colors and technique, but I still miss my natural nails. I can’t wait until they’re back to normal!
Nope, I refused years ago to get browbeaten into wearing fingernail polish or getting manicures. I wore latex gloves pretty much my entire work day & polished nails sticking to latex gloves is creepy looking. I’ve not polished my fingernails I bet in 15 years & never has that kept me from advancing in my career or proven to be a detriment. Now I do paint funky colors on my toes in the summer – but that’s the extent of my nail polish needs. I keep my fingernails trimmed, clean & lotioned so not to have dry or ragged cuticles.
I knew a lady who would get her nails done every week (the acrylic type things) and yet would go months & months between coloring her hair so she had well manicured (albeit fake nails) and 3 or 4 inches of prominent gray roots. Did the nails offset the roots? Did folks no longer notice the odd hair color thing & say “oh, but her nails how lovely”. Funny how folks can fixate on one thing & ignore the other.
I feel much more put together when my nails are painted, and chipped nails express a lack of care about one’s body & look.
I will say I notice other people’s polish and severely chipped polish bugs me. I cannot figure out why the person doesn’t spend 30 seconds to remove it.
Chipped nail polish here! And I can help explain why I didn’t fix it this morning: 1) it takes more than 30 seconds to take off 4 layers of polish without leaving stains on my fingers and 2) I have a type of excema that affects the hands, so when my skin is actively freaking out there is no way I’m gonna subject it to nail polish remover. So those are some possible reasons folks are walking around with chipped polish.
Also – to avid polishers, I highly recommend Sephora drying drops.
I apologize, I hope I didn’t come off as rude with my comment. Excema, I have it on my hands too and it is not fun. I don’t notice or care if I see a little chipping even in my own polish. Only when it’s obviously been weeks since the color was painted on and there’s more visible nail than polish that is a pet peeve.
No problem, I didn’t think you were rude. I tend to notice details like that on other people too, and I think it’s interesting that you also have excema because that’s probably what leads both of us to notice other peoples hand maintenance (or lack thereof).
My nails were an obsession for literally 15 years; I HAD to have them painted at all times, & touched them up at the end of every day. The colour gave me such a boost, and I had pretty low self-esteem, so this was something I could SEE looked good. (Oddly, I was really low-maintenance otherwise.) It didn’t stop me from doing anything, since I was going to fix it up anyways. But it took a lot of time, daily, just to fix the chips & dry. (Sally Hansen Instant Dry topcoat (something like that) is incredibly fast.)
Then in my late 20′s, I got a motorcycle. For some reason, bringing my hands anywhere in the vicinity of the bike chipped & broke my nails. The gloves peeled polish off. And I was getting pretty sick of all the time my polishing was sucking up anyways. So, I decided that just for the riding season that year, I would skip the polish.
Aaaaaaand… my nails grew out, peeling & splitting reduced by 80% (turns out even the low-acetone remover was really really drying), I got more sleep, and no one noticed. My nails are nicely filed & look great. I’ve never gone back to full-time polish manicures.
I do covet other people’s pretty polish now, though, but not enough to start up that cycle again. I still do my toes, though, they look good for 2-3 weeks at a time!
Hi! I used to keep my nails long. I’d just file them and let them grow to a somewhat comfortable length. But I didn’t polish them because I hardly have the patience to sit and wait for my nail polish to dry. Now because of doing housework and spending more time typing, I keep them short. Sometimes I polish them, mostly when going out, but the thought of having chipped nail polish doesn’t sit well with me so once I feel like I can’t get any work done while keeping my nails nice and polished, I reach for the nail polish remover. It’s a totally different story for my toe nails however. I do my own pedicure and keep them polished at all times. I don’t see the need to spend so much on mani-pedis when I can do them at home.
I will be the odd voice out here—I keep my nails natural and as short as possible. First, because of karate. It’s not part of the culture to have long nails, or even polished nails. Reasons of safety and humility can be cited here. Also, I don’t do well with my keyboard if my nails are long. A last, bonus reason would be that they break off.
I also don’t do anything with my toenails, because they turn white if I use polish on them.
However, I do appreciate a pretty, understated manicure; it can look so put-together.
I used to only paint them for special occasions, but a couple of years back I started painting them pretty regularly with clear nail polish, like you. I, too, have no dexterity and the clear hides my mistakes. I feel like they are much stronger and prettier when they are painted with clear. It is one more thing to keep up with, though!
What’s the best clear polish you have found? I use Sally Hansen’s growth formula.
I am a pianist, so it is not possible for me to wear fake or long nails. I have to keep them short and rarely do I ever paint them. However, I like to keep my toenails painted – and I do that myself. I have had one professional pedicure and loved the way my feet felt afterwards. I have heard horror stories about fungus from nail salons so that keeps me from being a repeat customer.
I’m still struggling to keep my cuticles from looking like a ragged mess. My skin is really dry, and my current job sometimes involves repairing phone equipment. I also pick at them absentmindedly when I’m nervous and don’t always realize I’m doing it.
So, I guess I feel pressure in that area. As far as my actual nails go, I keep them clean and trimmed short. I don’t feel pressure to have them polished (even clear polish). I sometimes see someone with manicured (but short) nails and think it would be nice to have nails like that, but I have no interest in long nails.
OH LAWD DO I! It’s all that saturation of fashion bloggers with hip nails… but when I do mine, I’m lucky if I can stay chip-free for oh, two days? A day?
I have become more conscious of keeping my nails nice since my husband gave me a beautiful new wedding ring for our last anniversary. I do my own nails, up to 3 times a week, depending on my outfits. It takes me about 15-20 minutes total to polish them and let them dry with a good fast-dry topcoat. My favorite look at the moment is pretty neutral – Essie Au Natural (their spelling), which is almost the same color as my nail bed, with a clear top coat (Essie 3-way or Essie Good 2 Go) and then silver glitter polish (OPI) on just the ring fingers. If they chip, you can’t tell!
I paint my fingernails every Sunday rather religiously. I work in a biology lab, but in contrast to the others who have commented who work in the sciences/other fields where they wear gloves much of the day, I do not find this to be a compelling reason to not paint my nails. For me, nail polish is a way to inject fun colors into my life that I don’t wear in my outfits. I’m pretty much a neutrals gal all the way when it comes to clothes, but with nail polish anything goes. I’m currently rocking a deep red on my fingernails, and I love it!
As for toes, I don’t repaint those every week but I do always keep them polished. Another side of working in a lab is the need to always wear closed-toed shoes, so my toes don’t get much airtime.
Basically I guess I like to keep up my nails for my own pleasure. But that’s why I like to dress up on a daily basis, too!
This is pretty much exactly what I wanted to say! I wear neutrals, work in a lab and always wear red nail polish (on short nails) to brighten up my outfits and make me happy. On the very rare days I don’t have any on, I feel sort of drab and self conscious about my hands.
i rarely paint my fingernails – usually only when it’s a special occasion (like a wedding). this year i was making more of an attempt to paint them, because people actually noticed in my office when i got them done. right now i haven’t painted them in awhile, though, because i just hate waiting for them to dry. i also really hate having to take polish off, but i know that chipped polish is worse than unpolished. which is probably why i just avoid polishing them for the most part.
i always keep my toenails painted, though. for some reason, that never chips…. i never bother to take off the last polish of the season before winter so i just watch it grow out/get clipped off.
I always have painted toe nails, they require so little upkeep. But painted fingernails (other than clear) would interfere with my life. I use the jacuzzi almost every night and that plays havoc with painted nails. About twice a week I use a hand “spa” treatment that keeps my hand and nails soft and snag free. Here’s what I do. 1. rub oil into hands, any oil will do baby oil, olive oil, bath oil. 2. massage hand with body scrub, if you don’t have body scrub try a teaspoon of sugar. Rub hands and finger nails, and between fingers. 3. Rinse. 4. follow with hand cream. I live in Arizona where it so dry, but this keeps my hands and nails looking nice.
Thanks for the tip, I will def try this! My job and traveling between Michigan and Arizona really wreck my hands and I’ve been looking for something to try.
I feel no pressure to do anything. I only cut my nails when they are starting to split because I broke them doing something or they are catching on things. Sometimes they are short and sometimes they are long. I’ve never felt pressure and in fact I’ve found myself thinking it’s ridiculous to do anything to your hands that prevents you from engaging in life. This doesn’t mean my hands aren’t important – I value them immensely because I use them to create art… but I value my hands for what they do, not what they look like. I have a very low tolerance for people that won’t use their hands because of the possibility of messing up their nails. Add in the infections and chemicals involved in salon nail treatments and the industry to support people coating people’s nails with crap and assuaging physical insecurities all day and I feel like nail salons are sites of some bizarre torture regime from an alternative universe.
Sometimes I read a blog or an article where somebody (probably a Virgo) goes on about how gross and disgusting it is to shake hands or be touched by a person with unkempt, messy-looking hands and nails, and I look at my unkempt, messy-looking, dry hands with the cracked skin (at least in winter), dry cuticles, occasional random paint and ink smears, and super-short plain nails, and I think to myself, “I’m disgusting. I really should get regular manicures and take care of my hands.”
But I just can’t do it. I do try to moisturise regularly, as much for my own comfort as to keep the visible cracking down, and I make sure to trim my nails as short as possible as often as possible (because that keeps paint and ink from getting caught under them and looking horrible). Sometimes I oil my cuticles and use a nail buffer, when I’m bored and have some spare time. That looks nice.
I like the colourful potential of nail polish, but it just doesn’t fit with my life. I don’t have a dishwasher. I regularly do art and other staining, chipping things with my hands. So even if I do paint my nails, it only lasts a couple of days without chipping, and I HAAAAAAATE chipped polish. That looks nasty — and then I have to spend time removing it, AND the remover, even gentle kinds, will irritate my tender dry cuticles — bah.
I will admit, although not a Virgo anywhere in my chart, I have my own personal aversion to long nails, especially really long nails. I don’t find them comfortable on my own hands (I’ve worn gel nails a couple of times, never grown my own) and I can’t help thinking of the germs they probably collect. I like a short painted nail in an interesting colour, but really long painted nails make me shudder inwardly.
I do my own nails, and by “do my nails,” I usually mean I clip them off when typing becomes annoying. I do enjoy painting my nails sometimes, but it is purely for fun. I own like, one neutral color. If I’m painting my nails, I’m going big and doing something like black or green or sparkly red. Luckily no one at my job seems to mind. I’ve only had my finger nails professionally done twice, once for my quinceanera, and once for my wedding. I hated it both times- I really dislike what they do to your cuticles. Ouch!
Gelish nails – I DIY at home. Startup costs are a bit expensive (low triple digits), but it’s 1 hr, every other week, and my nails look AWESOME. No chipping ever. I have kids in diapers, do all the dishes w/o gloves, type all day, etc, am super hard on my hands and nails, and Gelish can handle it.
I do like to give myself a pedi during the summer, but I dislike the feeling of polish on my fingernails. I also worry about the chemicals involved. Has nyone tried the ‘no chemical’ water based polishes?
My friends like Sun Coat. It won’t stay on if your hands are regularly in water though – water is how you remove the polish.
I work in an office that’s all women, and all of them except me have standing appointments to have their nails professionally manicured. I don’t have the time or money to do the same but I do feel some pressure to make sure my nails look nice.
I do like to get monthly pedicures during sandal season, though really more for the foot care than the nail color. I usually do my nails myself, often a sheer neutral but sometimes a bright or dark color for fun. I will go get manicures or pedicures with girlfriends or my mom as a social event.
Maybe what is most revealing is that when I have an event that I am nervous about I often get a manicure beforehand. Good grooming makes me feel more confident and in control.
I don’t feel pressure to polish my nails (I used to feel pressure NOT to, because no one in my industry did and I felt it would have been seen as frivolous). Some women where I work paint their nails, a lot don’t. But I do it because I really like nail polish, and I’ll admit I wear it so regularly now that to go without polish feels weird to me. So if there’s any pressure, it’s self-imposed.
I do feel a little pressure to paint my toenails in summer – I have read enough “eww, feet, gross!” kinds of things online that I feel semi-obligated about the toes. But I’m not very perfectionist about them – they’re too far away to see details!
I got into nail polish because it’s a pretty cheap way to do something fun for myself (I didn’t have the money to buy shoes/jewelry/clothes as regular treats), nail polish always fits, and it’s a fun and easy way to play with color. I’m sure I should worry about the chemicals, but there are so many other kinds of chemicals in my life that I just can’t get too bothered about. (Not saying other people shouldn’t care – just explaining why I don’t.)
I make sure they are reasonably well-kept, but in my mind that only binds me to shortish and shaped. I don’t like fussy, and thinking about my fingernails makes me fidget:). But come warm weather I’ll paint my toes up like crazy.
I don’t particularly feel pressure to keep my nails done, but that might be because I work in a 99.99% male office populated with geeks. I usually try to trim my nails before they start breaking and tearing, but don’t always remember.
The first time I ever had my nails professionally done was in preparation for my wedding, as my maid of honor insisted on it. I was so proud that I managed to NOT kick the poor pedicurist in the face due to my ticklish toes.
Anyway, it totally rocked. My nails are very thin and bend easily, and I constantly have shredding cuticles and painful hangnails. The best thing about getting a manicure is that they magically trim off all that crap. I didn’t have a hangnail for close to a month! So now I occasionally (once every month or two) go back in, largely just for the cleaning up procedure. I do like the clear gelish stuff, since it stays on much better than normal polish (okay, so I pick at my nails). They’re still quite short, of course, but with the trimming and polishing they seem much less likely to crack/tear/catch on stuff/be generally annoying and painful.
However, I don’t know that I’ll ever do the pedicure thing again. Way too tickly.
I clip my fingernails when they grow so long that they “clack” on the computer keyboard. I file them when they are so rough that they catch on fabric I am sewing, or yarn I am knitting, or pantyhose I cannot avoid wearing for a special occasion. I clip my toenails but do not file them. I clean dirt and lint out from under all my nails with a nail brush. Life is too short to waste it by fussing with my nails! Most of my hobbies are very hard on nail polish, so I have simplified my routine immensely by dispensing with polish entirely.
From years of martial arts practice, the habit of keeping finger- and toenails trimmed to the quick is thoroughly ingrained (don’t want to accidentally scratch someone during those kicks & throws!). Working with water & soil every day is tough on the fingernails, so only on rare occasions do they get painted, and usually I’ll splurge for a professional mani/pedi those times. And then try to remember to wear work gloves to keep the polish looking good for as long as possible! Otherwise, I get a professional pedi about three times a year, and DIY pedi/paint during sandal-wearing months with the boldest, brightest colors I can find. Looking down at brightly painted toenails always gives me a smile.
I rarely wear polish on my fingernails, and I wear them as short as possible most of the time. I play Ultimate Frisbee (our season starts soon!) and it’s just not good to rake one’s nails down a player’s arms – ouch! I prefer my nails short for typing (I work on a computer constantly), and I like the look of the plain nails. I have nice hands and long fingers (oh, I’m so vain, ha!) and my nails look nice with polish.
When I was a teen, I had a different manicure every week and colour-coordinated my outfits for the week to my nails. My nails were also really long then (it was the 80s). Getting a job cured me of that!
I do my toenails in the spring/summer, as soon as toes peek out. I hate the look of bare toenails.
I’m a nail biter, but when I want to, I have no problem stopping and letting them grow out. The problem is that when they get to a decent length the nail starts to peel until it’s so soft that I can bend it right over. At that point they start tearing one by one. So I rarely bother.
Now we’re homesteading so there seems to be little point in having fancy nails.
Other than painting my toenails for sandal-wearing weather and fingernails for occasional formal/costumey events, I don’t bother. I work in a soil science lab so there’s really not any pressure to have nice nails!
I do my own nails on a weekly basis, but not because I feel pressure to do so, but because I enjoy using them as a way to express my love of color, etc etc. Since I work in an office with a relatively strict dress code, I can use my nails to add a splash of individuality without being too obvious. And for whatever reason, nobody cares about the color. And having my nails look awesome helps me from picking at my cuticles!
I do my toes in the summer mainly, and I’ll get a manicure every so often, but mainly it’s just me doing my fingernails.
I have such a bad nailbiting habit that people in the past have suggested I take medication or “see somebody” about it, because it’s probably a sign that I’m messed up in the head
So, needless to say, they constantly look raggedy and unkempt.
I wish I could grow my nails to the point where I could paint them fun colors, because I think I would enjoy the whimsy of painting my nails bright colors. As it is now, my nails are so short that painting them neon colors would draw attention to their stubby-ness, and the whole process would end up getting more paint on my finger than the nail.
Amber – I was/am a nailbiter too, and painting my nails really, really helps me grow them out. I think super super short nails look good with dark colors, but you could also try muted colors – maybe grey or something. I find that I don’t bit or pick at them as much if they’re ALWAYS painted. Maybe give it a try?
I too am/was a nail bitter and pick at my cuticles as well and it helps me ALOT when I keep them painted. When they get really bad (and embarrasing!) I have to keep then constantly freshly painted so I dont mess with them, soon as they chip they are fair game. I always carry Burts Bees cuticle cream to keep my cuticles mousturized and prevents them from getting ragged for me to pick at and I also carry a nail file because if I do bite my nails and they get all ragged from the biting I’ll continue to “try to even them out” and they just get worse and worse so if I can file them smooth right away it usually helps. It also takes alot of practice to not get paint all over your fingers so don’t worry, try starting out with a more low-key neutral color to start out so that if you do mess up it not so obvious. I must admit with all my practice I’ve become quite good at it
I go in spurts. Sometimes I keep my nails painted at all times, others I do nothing at all with them except file them. I always keep my toes done in the summer though.
For those who care about such things, Sally Hansen tests on animals so I would encourage you to use another brand like Revlon or OPI who do not.
Good to know about the animal testing!!
OPI polishes also seem to last through dishwashing, which I appreciate!
I think nicely groomed nails (clean, filed, cuticles cared for…) reflects overall attention to hygiene. I do use polish because I happen to love the way it looks. I would love to go for manicures, but can’t justify the cost and don’t have time during the day anyway. I do it myself when I have time enough to ensure I can do it well as, for me, bare nails are preferable to a crummy paint job. And when it starts to chip, I take it off.
I’m pretty adventurous with colour, but I’m not into the patterns, stickers and the other adornments that are so popular these days.
I don’t think I’ve had my nails without polish for more than an hour since I was about 13. I use nails as another platform for artistic fashion expression. I always keep them very short and chip-free, without going overly-bright except on vacation. I think my nails are yet another accessory to show my personality. I usually paint my ring finger nails a different color than the others (right now my other nails are gold and my ring finger nails are silver). I also love ecclectic rings for everyday and giant cocktail rings for going out.
Nope, not at all. I don’t care much about my own nails, other than I prefer them short, and I don’t notice other people’s, either. I started a discussion a few weeks ago on Angie’s blog about whether or not chipped nails are acceptable. On a rare impulse, I had painted my nails a very dark colour, and as they started to chip it occurred to me that this happens EVERY TIME I paint my nails (which is not often). The colour looks great for two days, then invariably starts to chip and I never get round to removing it until….well, never. It just gradually chips off completely. Anyway, I asked the forum members what they thought, and I was surprised to learn that many women were HORRIFIED that I’d been walking around for a week with chipped black nail polish! So apparently it’s a bigger deal to some. It seems I’ve been completely oblivious to the “expensive, competitive” world of nail care!
I make an effort to keep them tidy.
Pedicure once a month. Manicure, depends…
I do love to see my hands when they are painted in fun colors – so it is a way to instant happiness.
I don’t feel pressure to keep my nails polished and pretty; it just happens to be my one beauty obsession
. Each week, I take an hour or so to polish my nails; sometimes I try nail art or play multiple colors or glitter. It’s one of my DIY luxuries.
I have terrible nails, and I pick at them. But it does behoove me to keep them looking like I at least made an effort – it’s an area where people DO notice and DO judge, however subliminally.
Something that helps is the Sally Hansen French Manicure kit – with the felt-tip pen of the white “tip” liquid. It’s easy to just run a very thin white line across the nail tip, then cover with a coat or two of the pale semi-opaque polish. And then just touch up with the pen every day or two as it chips, and occasionally put on another coat of polish over it. The pen technique is a little unwieldy at first, but don’t worry about getting the white on your fingertips or cuticles, it brushes off fairly easily without remover. And from a distance looks just like nice, well-groomed clean nails. $9 or so and lasts months and months.
I love painting my nails! I just did a “nail polish inventory” for my blog, and I have almost 90 nail polishes . . . I don’t even know how that happened. I have all sorts of colors, lots of different glitter and flakie top coats. Right now I have a purple magnetic polish on, before this I had a water marble manicure.
I don’t feel any pressure to keep my nails painted; if anything, I think it’s more professional to have them unpainted or just a solid, muted color (and mine are never a solid, muted color). But, I paint them for ME, not for anyone else.
I prefer natural, short nails on hands and feet. I don’t feel any pressure to polish and don’t buy nail polish, but if people give me some, I use it. I mostly paint my toe nails because I don’t notice the chips as much, and by the end of the day, there will be chips. Still, my preference is for no polish, but neatly trimmed and filed.
When I do polish my finger nails and don’t have time to wait at least 5 minutes between layers, I run the hair dryer over them for a count of 100 – 200 between each coat. This sets the polish enough that I can at least get out the door and drive to work without major smudging.
I like having polished my nails, but it chips in two days and then it bugs me, and I never have time to wait for it to dry, and I can’t stand not being able to use my hands, so . . . I maybe have polish on during half the summer, and then not at all during the school year.
I keep my nails very neat and polished nearly all the time. I take a little good natured grief from co-workers sometimes, as my job often requires me to get my hands dirty, and I always wear gloves, to keep my nails in order. They are also astonished at the number of polishes I have.
I don’t feel any outside pressure, though. I do it because I like to, and because it has become habit. I used to be a terrible nail and cuticle biter, and I started painting my nails to try to overcome this. I’ve pretty much made a 180 degree turn. No more biting, and I have a twice weekly manicure routine now. I don’t particularly enjoy the actual manicuring and polishing, but I’ve gotten pretty quick at it, and I do enjoy having neat and pretty nails.
I try to keep my nails neatly polished, by myself not a manicurist. I love the finished look of a fab outfit and freshly painted nails. I just hate the drying time involved, I’ve tried those drying sprays and I am not convinced they do anything. I usually change my polish once a week sometimes more often depending on my new nail growth since my nails seem to grow really fast and it drives me nuts when I can feel them on my keyboard at work (got that going on right now and makes me want to chop my nails off!) I personally cannot stand the long acrylic nails people get, I don’t understand how they do day to day actions and they are usually so loud with all the colors and designs and little gems glued on..sorry if I offend but it looks tacky.
I’ve also have always been a nail biter, since I was a kid, same with my cuticles, people always say/said it’s a nervous habit but I don’t think it has anything to do with my “nerves” (maybe as a child but not much now), if my cuticles get dry or ragged I pick at them and continue to do so until I can heal them up. Polish helps me do that, when they are freshly painted I don’t dare touch them because they look so pretty which is another reason I try to keep them painted because once they start to chip they are fair game. I also keep Burts Bees cuticle cream on me at all times so keep them moisturized so they don’t get ragged for me to pick at.
As a preteen I got into nail polish because my mom sold avon. I got it for free and I’m fairly sure I did a mostly bad job choosing flattering colors/applying it. Once I joined some after school activities I didn’t have time for it anymore and quit.
Then…I got engaged a year ago. Someone is always grabbing my hand to look at my (cz) diamond. So now I try to keep my nails looking nice all the time. I hate to mess up my nail polish or go out with it chipped (although I often do) simply because of my engagement ring makes me feel like someone is always looking and judging if my nails aren’t polished.
I bite ‘em, and I know they look awful. I even got a peek at some notes an interviewer wrote (“bites nails” right on the top!!)– then again, I got that job anyway.
I HAVE been able to stop myself from gnawing them by using clear polish, leading up to a special event. But as soon as they are long enough to feel over the top of my finger, they drive me crazy and I rip ‘em off.
I feel pressure to present myself well, which for me means either polish in good condition or no polish, but clean and trimmed nails. I’m lucky if I can keep my polish unchipped for two days; I use my nails as tools and don’t have a lot of patience and…yeah, I’m just hard on my polish. My toenails are generally painted.
I also kind of have an aversion to the nice neutral colors that look professional (beiges, pinks, you know, the unoffensive stuff), so dressing for a business function means removing my polish.
I sculpt for a living, so I can’t wear nail polish on my hands even if I wanted to.
Since I photograph my hands almost daily (to show the scale of my work), and post those photos online as part of an enticement to purchase my work, I’m extremely aware of how my hands look, and how they should come across. As a result, I spend more time than I otherwise would keeping my nails, cuticles, everything about my hands as moisturized and polished-looking as possible. When that fails, I do resort to photoshopping a stray bit of cuticle out of the image.
It is a bit weird, but I’m basically forced to dance a line between having “real” hands, and having those hands fade into the background to keep the focus on my work. Since we’re so trained by big-budget advertising to expect perfect hands, any little flaw is distracting.
I’m not too fussed about my nails to be honest. I keep them neat, clean and trimmed, and when I can I apply nail polish to them. It’s actually a therapeutic treat for me to have the time and luxury of doing my nails myself: I watch a couple of movies, read some magazines, sip some tea, or read blogs while the polish dries and I just relax. When the polish starts to chip a lot, I’ll remove it and let my nails breathe for a couple of days, applying cuticle oil to the nailbeds whenever I can to nourish them.
I don’t feel any pressure for either painting my nails or not: I paint them when I feel like it. I keep my nails short as I type most of my workday and still paint them – I’ve heard from some women that they don’t wear nail polish if their nails are short? Obviously, I’ve never cared about that “rule.” I’ve also never had a professional manicure.
Mostly I paint my toenails in the summer but occasionally in the winter as well. I try to have a professional pedicure at least four times a year – it has more to do with my feet than my nails, but it’s a nice “side effect” when someone else paints my toenails.
I keep my fingernails shaped but do not have the dexterity to paint them myself. My husband would love it if I got regular manicures but I don’t want to spend the money and don’t really have the time.
I do keep my toenails polished; I live in Houston and wear open-toed shoes year-round, so I make sure my feet look nice. But I can manage to do those myself!
I love having my toe nails painted. I don’t really care for how my naked nails look, you can wear such vibrant colours on your toes and the polish lasts a long time. But my finger nails? I like having them maybe 1/4″ long and naked. If one breaks really short, I may trim them all and apply a dark colour so it looks more intentional and I’m not as upset about the short nails looking ugly while it grows out. It’s too much work to do it all the time and the little chips are really annoying to me on my finger nails. I guess because I can see them up close. It’s pretty on others, sometimes done a little too crazy for my taste.
I like the look of fingernail polish, but I’ve given up. It always chips off within a day. And there are nasty chemicals in most nail polish that I don’t want to deal with. I play the ukulele so I need to keep my nails short, or they get in the way. I feel some pressure to paint my toenails if I’m wearing sandals, though.
It’s impossible! Even if I could manage to get it on there perfectly, my home is plagued by cat hair that will attach to anything remotely sticky. I’ve learned to accept that neatly filed is about the best my nails will look.
I used to be hyper-sensitive about my nails, but after almost 41 years, I have resigned myself to never (okay, rarely) having nice nails. One of my genetic legacies is weak, thin, easily split, curling fingernails. I do landscaping for a living, which means that even if I can grow my nails out to a decent length, they’ll all snap right off as soon as the gardening season starts. So once in a while, during the winter, I will baby my nails to a reasonable length, paint them up (or have my hubby do it … all those model airplanes he painted in his younger days gave him some mad nail-painting skills!) and enjoy my manicure for 2 or 3 days. Then the polish remover comes out, my nails all go to pot from the chemicals, and I give up for another year or so.
I work in healthcare, so my nails are always short and bare. Not to say that there aren’t nurses who blatantly disregard that rule, especially if they work in a lenient facility, but it’s not worth a write-up to me. Before this, I would paint my nails every now and then in a funky color like yellow, mint, or navy, but even then I was never willing to put in the effort (or money) involved in keeping them long and perpetually manicured.
I feel no pressure to keep my nails nice, but I enjoy doing it. It’s a nice way to inject a little extra colour into an outfit and I think it offsets the redness in my hands from my arthritis. I use a quick drying top coat, so no smudges, and I think it helps to stop my nails from breaking. I work with my hands, in an environment that is very tough on them, and so it’s not like I’m some dilettante who can keep her manicure because she does nothing all day. It’s fun, like the other aspects of self presentation I choose to participate in.
I’m with Christina – toenails only during sandal time, otherwise none.
I just had my first manicure/nail job (tips and acrylic with clear polish) EVER two weeks ago and have just been back for a fill. This was for a formal dress up/fundraiser affair. They were too long and I was so uncomfortable because they are just not me. It affected my typing and my ability to pick things up such as paper clips and pins. When I had the fill done I had her file them shorter so now they are more like me. However, I know there are some issues with keeping these all the time and even the new gels have issues, so I will not be keeping them up. I can’t justify the expense every two weeks or the hour it takes just sitting there doing nothing. Normally my nails are soft and some tend to peel, so I keep them pretty short, filed, and clean. No polish. But I am thinking of some kind of clear strengthener or something like that.
This is a subject near and dear to my heart! I feel no pressure whatsoever to keep my nails polished – it’s something I love to do, and it’s a fun way to play with color. I hadn’t painted my nails for years until about six months ago when I was perusing my local Ulta and admired all the wonderful colors they have now. Now I paint my finger nails about 3x a week. The other thing that interested me was that a lot of the terrible chemicals that used to be in nail polish when I was in high school (formaldehyde, etc.) are no longer in a lot of the brands – if the chemicals are something that is keeping you from using polish, I would recommend looking into the brands that are “Big 3 Free”, which is quite a lot of them.
I don’t ever paint my nails, but I would just like to chime in that welding really isn’t all that filthy, if you’re wearing your appropriate personal protection equipment
In the summer I usually have polish on my toenails just because it’s easy to do and doesn’t chip, but I never do anything to my fingernails. I like a natural look, and I do a lot of things that would chip my nail polish within a day. (I clean houses for a living. Nail polish doesn’t last long in that job.)
I never noticed how often I use my hands until I had fake nails. They lasted about three days because my manual dexterity plummeted. Ever try to put contacts in your eyes with fake nails? I could not do it (but kudos to those that can and do)!
I think painted toes look prettier than unpainted, but taking care of ones skin is much more important. I can take ‘em or leave ‘em when it comes to painted fingernails. IMO the lack of attention fingernails received makes me less apt to paint them. I might notice them, but I know they’ll chip 2 days later and the upkeep and matching-to-outfits simply isn’t worth it.
I recently discovered the CND Shellac line and have them done every three weeks. It’s incredible…no chips, cracks or peeling and they always look great. I use a high SPF on my hands for the drying part but otherwise, it’s just like a regular manicure. I do my own feet in the summer. I have feet issues…as in do not like people touching them!
I do have some idea of keeping my nails “presentable”, but that doesn’t involve much! I try to keep them clean, meaning I pick out any gunk that might end up underneath them; if one breaks, I’ll try to even out the edge so it doesn’t look too ragged, but often as not that involves picking off the edge with another nail–which I think works very well! Seriously, I very seldom use scissors, clippers, or emery boards on my fingernails–and I’ve even been complimented on them. I picked and tore at hangnails well into adulthood, but I finally learned that that type of removal was too hard to control. So, I *do* use clippers to remove hangnails. I’ve had one professional manicure, before a job interview–and the polish started to peel and wrinkle less than 24 hours later. Needless to say (probably), I don’t do much to my feet–I don’t like to bare them, not even in summer. I clip the nails when they get too long, but that’s it. I have been getting more into fashion and style in the last few years–reading blogs like yours–and I like the look of painted fingernails on some women. However, I doubt I would get around to applying nail polish myself–or do it well if I tried. I don’t like the thought of having to remove and reapply the polish, and I don’t like the atmosphere of nail salons, or the expense.
I keep my toenails polished year round but cannot stand to have polish (even clear) on my fingernails. I keep them short because of being on the computer all day and stitching at night, plus my husband actually prefers short nails on women. I do get an occasional manicure if my cuticles are in bad shape and to get a good hand massage, but mostly it is getting pedicures and polish touch ups on my toenails.
I’m a bit OCD/perfectionist, so I stopped wearing nail polish when I realized how much of my time it was taking up.
I used to always spend time having nice nails, and in high school through my twenties I pretty much always polished them. But I work in a scientific field, and I’ve gradually shed most every habit that my male coworkers don’t have, feeling like I was being taken more seriously (i wear no makeup, jeans, ugly flat comfy shoes, no tight or low-cut clothes). But this past Christmas, for some reason, I bought several colors of very glittery, festive nail polish, and had fun changing it every couple of days, but gradually stopped polishing my nails because they just don’t hold polish – sometimes a full nail of polish will just pop off while I’m walking down the hall, minding my own business. But 2 weeks ago I was having a terrible day, and decided to leave work early and get my first manicure to cheer me up, for some reason. The manicurist talked me into a gel manicure, and I’m totally hooked! My nails are lovely and shiny and much stronger, plus there’s no chipping or peeling whatsoever for 2 whole weeks! I don’t do it because of pressure from anyone else, but I do feel more girly – in a good way – and it actually makes me feel more powerful and put-together, even on days when I wear Levis and a sweatshirt to work! This second time I just got a sheer, neutral slight frost, and my nails are very short, so I’m not sure most people would even notice I have them polished. But I feel so much more grown-up, and like a Woman-with-a-capital-W, even though I don’t come from people who get manicures or even wear nail polish, and I was worried it would make me feel frivolous, vain, and weak. I think it’s because every time I look at my nails, it reminds me of a special way I take care of myself, and that I’m worth it.
No pressure to have nice nails, although I always think it makes for a nice clean look. My nails are thin and brittle and always breaking. Our weather is extremely dry and I always have cracked cuticles and hangnails. A couple weeks ago I tried gel nailpolish for the first time. I actually have to maintain my nails LESS with the gel nailpolish because they are so strong and tidy-looking. I hate to admit it, but I’m one of those people that notices nails on people during first impressions.
I too am one to feel a need to keep my nails looking neat at all times, but not out of some subconscious pressure from society. After reading Moorea’s blog: http://www.moorea-seal.com/ , and her posts about her Paint Your Love project, I realized that I wasn’t painting my nails to conform to american beauty/femininity standards, I was painting my nails as a constant reminder that I am a beautiful person, inside and out.
As a 22 year old art student, it seems silly to others that I spend a couple hours each week meticulously painting my nails and creating miniature works of art on each one, or that I spend a portion of my tight budget on nail polish, or cuticle cream, or what have you, especially when they’re just going to get covered in paint or printing ink or clay. But If you think about how many times you look at your hands in one day, associating painted or maintained nails with a sense of pride in oneself can have a huge impact with that many daily reminders. Nothing else can remind you of that fact so often. I’ve often considered a tattoo on my wrist to remind me of this pride, but I still don’t think it would remind me as often, or as colorfully, as the hand-painted flowers on each of my nails.
Growing up I was a violinist, so my nails had to be very short. My mom was taught as a young woman that “nice girls” never had long or manicured nails (?!), so any nail care beyond keeping them short and clean was not on my radar. As an adult, I loathe how it feels to have a nail longer than about 1/2 mm. I feel compelled to fidget with it and can’t pay attention to anything else until I trim it. I keep a second nail trimmer at work; if a nail gets too long in the course of a workday, I trim it immediately so it won’t distract me for the rest of the day.
I’ve polished my fingernails maybe three times in my life just to see how I liked it, and it bothered me how much the polish and remover damaged them. I guess I’m lucky – if I’m eating right and generally taking good care of myself, my nails look glossy and beautiful without any attention except regular trimming and an occasional scrub with a nail brush. The thought of doing *anything* to a cuticle besides leaving it alone to do its job gives me the heebie-jeebies.
Toenails, I will occasionally paint in a neutral color if I’m going to be wearing sandals, mostly to cover up one big toenail that has never looked right since I dropped a brick on it.
Also I just want to say how much I’m enjoying the way that so many people’s relationship with their nails is intimately connected to their work. Science, art, child care, health care, business, music — even when we don’t technically do “manual” labor, I’m loving how our hands are still so often about what we *do.*
My hands say about me everything that’s true: I work outside, I dig in the dirt. My hands are strong, rough, and calloused. I consider myself presentable if I don’t have dirt beneath my fingernails, and sometimes it’s a lot of work to get presentable! I admire beautifully maintained hands… on other women. I feel no pressure to do that on my own.
Yeah — I really don’t care at all about my nails. I realize that I’m in the very minority here, but I REALLY DON’T GET why people are so insistant on keeping their nails (hands OR feet) all polished and glossy and perfect looking? You use your hands and feet all day so they are going to look like hands and feet – why do you have to spend money and time every damn weekend to make your nails look fancy? If they are not polished, etc, does it impede things?
I admit that maybe I’m biased because my own nails, both hands and feet, are SO SMALL and thin and flimsy that they break on their own. I can rip them like paper, when I let them grow out enough to rip. Manicurists and pedicurists always laugh when I go in because they can’t even FIND the nail on my pinky toes; plus I hate the uncomfortable feeling of them both talking ABOUT me and waiting ON me that the nail salon is a horribly uncomfortable place. And I just don’t care enough to maintain them on my own – I feel no consequences when there is not polish on my nails and they stay short on theor own.
I live in LA and it’s practically a law here to have flawless nails. I have had many friends over the years comment that I “need” a manicuire or a pedicure, and I’ve gone through periods of time where I keep my nails kempt – but I’ve realized that it’s solely because of peer pressure and that if left alone, I would never touch my nails since they stay short enough on their own. I never really think about them and I HATE the LA pressure to spend tons of money on coloring your nails.
It’s hypocritical since there are lots of things I DO spend tons of money on – food and clothes spring to mind – but nails just arent’ one of them. I just don’t get it.
I like to push back my cuticles with some soap and a washcloth during a warm shower. Sometimes I will slap some clear polish on but I use my hands for lots of dirty, messy jobs so they typically do best short and unpolished. Although they are not particularly attractive, I like them just the way they are. I try to embrace my funny shaped nails, big knuckles and wrinkles ‘cuz they’re mine, they serve me well, and they are exceptionally unique
I don’t feel pressure to keep my nails polished, even in my professional life where I am interacting with women who are much more corporate and powerful than I am. I feel a personal drive to keep my hands CLEAN, though. I do not like to have to dirt under my nails in a professional setting. I like my cuticles pushed back and the skin around my nails moisturized and the hangnails trimmed. That is enough to give me confidence that my hands look good.
When I worked in a job where I had my hands literally in the dirt for good portions of the day, I learned to clean the dirt from under my nails at the end of every day and to be scrupulous about moisturizing.
I have naturally long, strong, well-shaped nails, and they look excellent with polish on them. I do not have enough patience at home to do my own nails and not mess it up, but about once a year I get a manicure “just for fun” and enjoy the nice hard topcoat and glamorous red nails while they last.
I don’t think much about other people’s nails though two things do stand out to me: squared off acrylics look odd to me, and when someone who types a lot as part of their job (such as an administrative assistant) has very long nails. It seems like they would get in the way!
Here is a photo of the artist Eva Zeisel’s hands: http://www.stayingvertical.com/files/images/Zeisel%20hands%2010-07.JPG
Funny, I just posted a crazy manicure. I never used to pay much attention to manicures. My nail beds are short and round and my nails are weak. Definitely not my pride and joy. I’d get a professional manicure if I had something going on or if things were looking really, really bad. Wasn’t good at doing it myself. Have unsteady hands and a lack of eye for symmetry. But in 2010, I made a vow to keep my nails up because I realized that as a jewelry designer always modeling my own rings, I was drawing attention to my hands and they weren’t looking so good. I found a great person to go to who makes it more pleasurable than it used to be and I do Minx or gel manicures to make it last.
Yes, I do. As a language instructor I often have to point to things, and people look at my fingers and hands. I pay attention to those areas just as I pay attention to my mouth.
For years have been like you are now: clear polish only. But lately, after seeing my cousin sporting the perfect perfect cream colour nail polish, I am on a quest. I have found many new shades that didn’t exist when I was 16 and first exploring the products. So, yes, I have been making some mistakes. Nacre, for example, is not cream. But I find it kind of fun! Some shades look better on toes. Feet do look better with polished nails.
Do I feel pressure? I have to admit, yes. There was this buzz last year about Kate Middleton and Zara Phillips showing of their respective wedding ring. Zara was ridiculed for her dirty nails – and frankly, her hand did not look good, especially when you know it will be photographed and seen by thousands of people.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1341333/Zara-Phillips-Kate-Middleton-Spot-born-rule.html
Yes…I used to be a nail polish freak in middle and high school. Now, because I’m a pre-school teacher, I wash my hands a lot…so a manicure done by me will last about three days before it’s majorly chipped. I just usually do a soft pearlescent color or clear because it does seem to prevent nail breakage for me. I still have all the fun colors though, and I do wear them sometimes. I’ve found sparkle polish or a sparkle topcoat helps the manicure last longer. I always have my toes painted though, and because I do about 3 coats…it lasts around a month. I always keep an emery board with me…I hate having jagged or uneven nails.