Getting your nails done

In My Humble Opinion
1

Okay, so I will admit to a few girly-girl habits. First is having my eyebrows threaded and dyed - this is a necessity for me as I don’t wear makeup often, and my natural brows are unruly white-blonde monstrosities which look ridiculous with my red hair and only serve to make me look devoid of all colouring in my face.

Secondly, I keep my toenails polished all the time, and occasionally have my fingernails polished a very pale neutral colour. I don’t use acrylics or anything, just my natural nails.

I usually go about every two weeks to have a polish change done on my toes, with a pedicure every six weeks to two months or so; manicure once a month or so. They always do such a nice job of it, it looks better than anything I could possibly do, and it’s cheap. A polish change is around $7 around here for toes, $5 for fingers. A pedicure is $18, manicure $10.

Today, however, I decided that I want the colour re-done NOW NOW NOW. As the husband had to go work, I am at home with the baby. I’m doing my own toes at the moment. It’s ridiculous. I’m 35 years old and I’ve damned near forgotten how to paint my own nails. I have sitting on my desk, currently:

Nail polish remover
cotton balls
orange stick
base coat (OPI Nail Envy)
Nail polish (One slut red for my toes, one baby pink for my fingers)
Super-dry top coat

One might expect that I’m armed for a week away. No, just five minutes and one polish change. And it looks lousy.

I think I’m gonna get a pro to do 'em later. Stupid girly girl.

My questions:

  1. Do you keep your nails painted?
    1a. What colour, usually?
  2. Do you do them yourself or have them done for you?
  3. How much does it cost you in your area?
  4. Natural or artificial/overlay nails?
    4a. If artificial, how long have you had them on?
    4b. How often do you have a fill done?

Thanks, ladies (and gentlemen, if you have manicures and pedicures).

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  1. Do you keep your nails painted? Yep.

1a. What colour, usually?
LaPaz-itively Hot by OPI. Which is the perfect hot pink and my trademark.

  1. Do you do them yourself or have them done for you? I get them done. But I do my toes myself usually. They’re a slightly different hot pink shade.

  2. How much does it cost you in your area? $30 for a full set, $14 for a fill, $12 for a regular manicure, $24 for a “spa” pedicure. That’s at my place which is average. East side it’s cheaper, in the ritzy neighborhoods, it’s more.

  3. Natural or artificial/overlay nails? I’ve got acrylics. I know it’s ghetto and tacky but I don’t freakin’ care. I luuuuv having long painted nails. Plus polish doesn’t chip on acrylic so they stay bright with no maintenance for weeks.

4a. If artificial, how long have you had them on? This go around, about two and half years.

4b. How often do you have a fill done? Between two and half and four weeks. I usually push it longer than I really should 'cause I’m cheap and lazy.

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  1. Always
    1b.Big Apple Red
  2. Tony The Great does my nails. He’s the best nail tech I’ve ever had, perfect everytime
  3. $14 a fill, I give him $20.
  4. Artificial, I have tips until my sorry excuse for nails grow out enough.
    4a. 20 years. I can’t grow nails. They are too weak to even grow to my fingertips.
    4b. 2-3 weeks, I’m lazy.

Finding a good tech is important. When mine goes away every year for a month, I am in the throws of depression until he returns. I walk around with thick, misshapen, horrid nails. Most people don’t know my nails are fake they are so thin and well done.

FWIW, Tony decides what color my nails are. I give him complete reign over my hands. He periodically decides to put on a fresh set, change the color, etc. It is wonderful.

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  1. Do you keep your nails painted?

Yes - if I don’t they break

1a. What colour, usually?

Currently, OPI “Not Really a Waitress” And some OPI blue shade on my toes. The red is unusual for me. In winter its plums or beiges, in summer beiges or pinks. Always OPI.

  1. Do you do them yourself or have them done for you?

I used to have them done, now do them myself.

  1. How much does it cost you in your area?

$15 for a manicure or more. Much more for a pedicure. I used to get the manicure done every other week.

  1. Natural or artificial/overlay nails?

Natural

4a. If artificial, how long have you had them on?

NA

4b. How often do you have a fill done?

NA

Thanks, ladies (and gentlemen, if you have manicures and pedicures).
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5

Holy dinah that’s bright pink. My tastes tend to run toward this (Italian Love Affair by OPI - that’s my summer toe colour).

With your acrylics, do you find that you get gunge stuck underneath that doesn’t come out? I understand that bacteria loves to live in them.

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  1. Do you keep your nails painted? Toenails all the time, fingernails when I think they’re long enough
    1a. What colour, usually? I like the reds and pinks.
  2. Do you do them yourself or have them done for you? I do them myself
  3. How much does it cost you in your area? I took my daughter for a pedicure for her 12th birthday. Whole hog, leg massage, everything cost $40.
  4. Natural or artificial/overlay nails? Natural, only
7

Okay, so you two snuck in while I was responding to miss tremorviolet-but-really-fuschia up there.

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  1. Yes
    1a. It varies depending on my mood and the season/trends, but most often a nice dark red.
  2. I have them done.
  3. $20 full set, $15 fill, but I give a $5 tip, so $20 for maintenance.
  4. Acrylic over natural, as my natural nails are too thin to grow and refuse to bond with polish.
    4a. About 5 months.
    4b. Every 2 weeks.

Around here the trend is square shaped nails with that glitter tip stuff, but I go more classic with the reds, and keep shorter nails with rounded tips. I get compliments on them all the time, and most people can’t tell I have acrylic “help”.

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  1. Yes, polished all the time.

1.a. Usually a french manicure, but in the winter I like to mix it up - right now I’m wearing this.

  1. I do them myself, but I’ve got, like…training, ya know? (I’m a certified beautician, for whatever that’s worth.) Also, I’m ambidexterious so I can do both hands eqully well.

  2. I’m not sure how much it costs - last time I had it done was at Evelyn Charles which I think is over priced and I think it was $55 for a manicure, $75 or $85 for a pedicure, but they give you a robe to wear so they think they can charge more. I wasn’t that impressed - I can do a better job myself.

  3. Natural nails - but I lucked out in the nail department and they’re a nice shape and grow really quickly - they actually look fake (people ask me all the time if they’re real or not.)

I guess that’s all your questions - as you know, I’m an UBER girly-girl. Well, expect for the hockey and the beer of course…

10

. Do you keep your nails painted?

I try to, right now they’re all chipped up and look like hell.

1a. What colour, usually?
Depends on my mood, usually pinks or mauves.

  1. Do you do them yourself or have them done for you?
    When I go them myself they look like total shit, so I try to get them done

  2. How much does it cost you in your area?
    About $15 for a manicure, $25 for a pedicure. Less then $10 for a polish change.

  3. Natural or artificial/overlay nails?
    Natural, but I’ve had acrylics in the past.

4a. If artificial, how long have you had them on?
I had them for a few years. I probably took them off every 9 months or so. Never any troubles.

4b. How often do you have a fill done?
I used to get them filled every week and a half to 2 weeks.

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  1. Yes. I hate my toes if they’re not painted

1a. Fingers, clear, toes red (I’ve tried variations of plum and brown, and over the summer, after a particularly luxurious pedi, I got ballsy enough to show my toes with clear polish alone - but always come back to red - OPI’s Malaga Wine, to be exact)

  1. I usually do them myself, but will sometimes get a pedi to treat myself, or because I’m not good at painting on those little flowers with the jewels in the middle, and sometimes you need flowers with jewels in the middle.

  2. Usually $12-15 for a manicure, and $18-22 for a pedicure, unless you go to a spa, where it’s upwards of 60 bucks for either one.

  3. Natural.

And the rest are not applicable.

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Bit it matches my favorite purse (and silly stirng, evidently). :slight_smile: (Btw, here’s a picture of my toes and a birthday dog.) With my coloring, it doesn’t look so bright on but it’s probably too strong for some complexions. The pale pink is very pretty but it’d wash me out.

You don’t get gunk under your nails unless the acrylic separates from the nail bed, leaving a gap to trap stuff. It’s more likely to happen if you wait to long between fills (like I’m prone to do). But then when you get them redone, they fix the lifting and you ge thte chance to scrub your nails really well before the polish is applied.

I love my fake nails. I realized when I did my own nails I was repainting them every two to three days because of chipping (even with base coats and top coats). It took tons of time (both the painting and waiting for the polish to dry) and my nails were always in the state of developing chips. Now, with the acrylic nails, my nails almost always look perfect and I only spend about an hour every three weeks or so going to the salon. Totally worth it for the time savings alone.

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  1. Do you keep your nails painted? Always
    1a. What colour, usually? Fingers - clear or pale/neutral, toes - something fun, dark reds, blues, sparkles.
  2. Do you do them yourself or have them done for you? My Mother is a nail tech part time, so she does it. Sometimes we go to the spa together.
  3. How much does it cost you in your area? Mom-free (less the guilt), when we go to the spa, she uses her discount, so a mani/pedi, full body massage and facial is about $35 (Can)
  4. Natural or artificial/overlay nails? Natural - I have seen the horrors that can happen with falsies.
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My questions:

  1. Do you keep your nails painted?
    Only when they’re grown out - they have a tendancy to break. I’ve just had a spate of good luck - I had them painted for over a month. Now I’m back to no polish since a few broke.

1a. What colour, usually?
A real light pinkish or a dark burgundy.

  1. Do you do them yourself or have them done for you?
    Myself. I’ve never ever had my nails done.

  2. How much does it cost you in your area?
    Don’t know.

  3. Natural or artificial/overlay nails?
    I’ve used the overlay kind in the past - but they tend to be a pain - so I don’t waste the money anymore. Besides, I have very narrow, long fingers and they don’t look right on me.

4a. If artificial, how long have you had them on?
See above.

4b. How often do you have a fill done?
I don’t even know what a fill is. :slight_smile:

15

I’m terrible about all things girly, but I’m intrigued by all the different kinds of applications. I may have to get my nails done sometime. Heaven forbid I do anything besides chew on 'em.

But what on earth does a threaded eyebrow look like or mean?

16

I do my own, unless I have a special occasion coming up that warrants a trip to the salon. My best friend is getting married soon and so I bought her a gift cert. so we can both go get mainicures and pedicures. I am pretty good at doing my own nails but I love the pedicures at this salon, it is a whole treatment and massage.

I keep my toenails painted red usually, and my fingernails filed short and at least clear coated. When I have time I paint them colors, usually plummy reds, right now they are OPI’s Not Really A Waitress Red (which seems to be a popular choice, I see!) because I was trying out the shade for said upcoming wedding. Once they start to chip I take the polish off and just keep them buffed or clear coated until I have time to paint them again.

I used to be so much more fixated about doing my nails, changing the polish and doing fun decorative stuff but I don’t have time for the upkeep anymore. I still like doing my nails though and they are easy to keep looking good, my nails are pretty strong and nice shaped naturally.

I don’t like acrylics, they ruin my real nails and my nails are nice enough that it’s not worth it for me. I tried it once and never did it again.

17

Forgot to add, a manicure is $25 and up and a pedicure is $55 and up but this is at a nice salon, if I went to the nail places in the mall I know it is cheaper. But since I only have them done for me once in a while, I like to get the full treatment.

18

And I forgot to add that I haven’t painted my toenails since I was a teenager - what is WITH me these days not answering the whole question? :confused:

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1. Do you keep your nails painted?
Toenails, always. Fingernails, only every now and then.

1a. What colour, usually?
On my toes I like brown colors, and for the past year or so (since I discovered it the one time I got a pedicure) it’s been OPI’s Chocolate Shake-speare. I love it, and use it all of the time now. Conversely I’m not a big fan of color on my nails, but I love the look of a French manicure so the few times a year I get my nails done that’s what I get.

2. Do you do them yourself or have them done for you?
I do my toes myself (except for that one time), but for my fingernails I always go to a salon.

3. How much does it cost you in your area?
The manicure is $12, plus $5 for the French manicure.

4. Natural or artificial/overlay nails?
Always natural. Like alice_in_wonderland, I am blessed with naturally strong, shapely nails: the last time I was in for a manicure my friend and I got to talking with two other women there, and they were both completely surprised to find out that my nails were real.

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Threading is a method of hair removal. This is Usha (and an explaination of threading) She threads my brows. She’s the best threader I have ever met.