Naked Nails

Hi Everybody,

I was having a conversation with a co-worker the other day about my inability to learn the guitar. The sole reason for this failure is the fact that the quick of my nails actually extends slightly past my finger tips, causing the strings to slice between my finger and the nail. I raised my hand to so them what I meant, when I realized I had polish on. So, in the interest of full disclosure, here are my naked nails:

Horrifying isn't it?

Actually they look much better than they used to, for which I thank my Nailtien basecoat that I use religiously.

Let's talk about nail shape for a minute. I consider myself very lucky to be born with the nails I have. They have a long, oval bed, and are prominently arched. I thank God that I born with half-moon shaped nails that are flat and crooked. Perhaps I'm a nail-bed racist, or maybe my OCD has officially taken over my life, but poorly shaped nails really bother me. I even avoid other polish blogs where the author has not been gifted with the genetic code for perfect nails. The only downside to my nail shape is that I cannot pull off the "squoval" look that is so popular among soccer moms and Vietnamese nail tech...

I'm also lucky enough to have little problems growing out my nails. Being a receptionist who types for most of the day, I consider this a skill. Of course I will occasionally have a total nail blow-out...

You would think that I would have noticed breakage of this caliber, and than much blood and cussing would have followed, but the only thing that alerted me to the tears existence was that funny, squishy feeling you get right after cutting long nails short.

As you can see in the pic, I've used the tea-bag and superglue method of mending the rip. Simply empty an unused teabag, and cut out a shape just slightly smaller than your nail. Add a drop of glue top the nail, and position the tea bag paper. Cover the entire nail in another layer of superglue, and finish with a couple coats of a thick base polish.

The mend is obvious in these high-light close-up pics, but it's actually pretty seamless in day-to-day situations. Obviously a coat of polish would make it invisible. The mend should hold the broken nail until it grows out enough to cut, although you may need to replace the glue and teabag once or twice.