Spirit Fingers: A Nail Post

The thing with the nail art trends that are popping up all over is that they require patience and effort. I'm ok with a little effort, but patience is not my best virtue. The whole waiting for forever for your nails to dry and then ineveitably hitting your hand against the wall (where did that wall come from?) as you walk by, ruining all that work, is too much for me to handle.
But in a moment of boredom I played around with some designs and ended up with nails like this.

These nails are the perfect return on investment. They take a little bit of effort but they last forever. I do my nails like this quite regularly now because I like to be distracted by shiny things and because the compliments from others have become addictive.

The trick for your base colour is to use a nude shade that blends in (I used one of these by Sally Hansen). This way when your nails start to grow out, it is not painfully obvious. And yes, I am that lazy... But the very best part of this nail look is the sparkle wonder that is 'Set in Stones' by Essie. It was part of the holiday collection and I can't seem to find it in stores anywhere but it's still online here and here. This stuff is the best! Its consistency is a little thick, so it is easy to gloop (good wording, eh?... this is why I don't have a nail trend blog) the sparkles at the tips and then dry brush a few sparkles down towards the bed of the nail to soften the effect. Here is the part I like. If you screw it up, just throw some more sparkles on. If you run into a wall, just throw some more sparkles on. If you chip a bit off, just throw some more sparkles on. With a good topcoat, you can easily get a good week and a half out of this look before things get too ratty. 

Despite my enthusiams for my sparkly nails, I was perfectly content to let the photos stay on my instagram feed, never intending to do post about it. But then... I left my sparkly nails on for work and this is how well they stayed put after a  full day of landscaping. My mind blasts.

If you can get over the fact that I don't often use gloves at work (the dirt and I are one in spirit), I hope you can be impressed with the little home manicure that could... I was so impressed I wrote a post about it. The last time I was so impressed with something, it was with Skinny Girl Margaritas... but I can't remember enough to write a post about that too... 

(Full disclosure- The following day I was working with damp snow fencing and that moisture did end up chipping off the sparkly tips. Chances are you aren't wrestling with snow fencing, so I think you will be OK...)