Today is the birthday of one of my best pals, Amethyst.  She is my #1 nail art pal in town, so to celebrate her day I am doing my first Nailspo post here at CoonSmith.

Because nails.  Nail art.  Sparkles.  GLITTER!!!!

Like sprinkles for your fingers…I love nail decorations!  I have not always been the greatest fingernail painter.  Over the past few years I have really practiced hard and figured out some tricks that helped me get waaaaay better at this hobby (ahem, lifestyle) that is most certainly also an art.

One of my favorite ways to do my nails is to use fake ones.  The most trouble I encounter with nails is getting them neatly painted AND managing to not chip them.  With falsies I can really get tiny details perfect and I usually only wear them for a few days.  I like to keep my nails pretty short because they get in my way with some of the crafts that I do. Fake nails are a fun way to have long nails without all the upkeep.  Below are three sets of nails that I’ve embellished.

When I do paint my nails I do a lot of slow breathing.  It’s kinda corny but it’s the best tip I know of.  I always paint my non-dominant hand first (my right) and I breathe a slow count of five before I start and continue the slow breathing while I paint.  I typically do 1 coat of color if I’m going to do a glitter coat.  I always top it off with the top coat Seche Vite because, y’all it works!

The pictures above are UV reactive polish, Funky Fingers that I got at Five and Below.  If you have never checked this store out you totally have to.  It’s kinda like a dollar store but everything is under $5.  The polish is two for $5-it’s a great polish that I’ve not had any trouble with as far a chipping goes.  I usually do two coats plus a glitter coat or sechvite.  It is still UV reactive even with a top coat.  My hand looks like it’s UV reactive too, lol!

(Jamberry, Essie, Essie, can’t remember where the cookie came from!)

{I LOVE taking nailspo pics with my current reading material!}

Let’s talk about Jamberry.  I really like the idea behind nail sticker products like Jamberry but I have trouble using them.  Because, guess what?  You still have to use your non-dominant hand to apply them!  For me, getting a hot melty sticker centered on my nail is about as hard as using a fingernail polish brush.  I love the design options and I have succumbbbb-ed to the blasted Facebook Jamberry “party” pyramid schemes.  I use them occasionally, but usually as an accent (like on my middle fingers, haha).  My favorite nail stickers are actually the ones made by Essie.  They seem to have a better stick and last longer than any others I have tried.  I even did some serious gardening once about 2 days after application.  I ended up getting some free plants that I couldn’t turn down OR wait to put in the ground.  The Essie stickers stayed stuck and cleaned up like a charm.

And here are some totally bizarro nail chips that I have experienced!  Can you see the duck profile in the first pic and the weird old man profile in the second?  Chips are the worst, unless you get ones like these.

I never would have thought I would get a good manicure done at Walmart but I recently did with Amethyst.  Right before Christmas we did their $15 Monday-Thursday special for gel polish.  It was beautiful and lasted almost 2 weeks.  You don’t have to pay a fortune to have great nails.  Experiment with what you have on hand, and treat yourself every once in a while!

Happy birthday Amethyst!  Let’s have another Walmart gel mani sometime soon!