Nails of Recent Days on the Road

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you know I've been off on another trip. Mr. K and I spent a little over two weeks making a big loop from our home in Idaho, driving down to Utah, Arizona, and California before returning this past Sunday night.

I put on a set of nails from imPress the night before we left. I used a design I'd worn before called So Unexpected, which pairs matte dusty rose nails with accents in a silver and rose geometric design. I had these on when we took in the amazing scenery of Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon.

This is Bryce:



This is the Grand Canyon:



These are my nails at the Grand Canyon:



A week into the trip, I'd had only one nail come off (twice ... I think that means I abuse that finger more than the other), which I easily reattached with a thick treatment basecoat. My nails had clearly grown in that week as evidenced by the gap at my base, but given the subdued color of them, it wasn't too obvious.



Rather than file my nails down and put on another set of the same length, I went with a Kiss Glam Fantasy set in a longer length and more rounded shape for the next part of the trip. I didn't see a name on the box; the nails are shiny solid white with two accent types: iridescent white and iridescent tiny glitter.





These were the nails I was wearing while we were at Disneyland Resort; I didn't get any photos of them there even though I took lots of pictures there, including this one of the teacups at the end of one day:



I've had these on ten days now and they're still looking pretty decent, though the iridencense has mostly worn of of those acccents. I've had to reattach three of them along the way, which wasn't surprising since I've previously found the Kiss adhesive tabs don't work quite as well for me as the imPress.





This shape doesn't cover my natural nails as well as the more squared ones but it still does a good job of protecting my natural tips. I'm not sure why I don't have as big a gap at my base with these after over a week as I did with the imPress set. I suspect I was able to place them closer to the base to start with since they were longer; it could also be that the adhesive on these is more flexible so the nails can move more and somehow self-adjust.

China Glaze Shades of Paradise Pre-Glued Designer Nails

The China Glaze Shades of Paradise collection was released for summer of 2018 but I didn't let that stop me from wearing one of the fake nail sets from it in the fall; the colors went quite nicely with some of my sweaters (and it's definitely sweater weather on my mountain now). As you can see, I bought this set on clearance; they sat in my stash waiting for the right time. I don't know if this purple and green design had a name. If it did, it wasn't printed on the box.



Application for these was simple. They have the adhesive already on the nails, covered with thin plastic so you can try them on for size before you put them on. When you've found the right size, just grab the tab on the plastic sheet and peel it off and stick the fake nail on your real nail. Easy.

These were labeled as "medium almond". They felt long to me, probably because weeks of wearing shorter nails came before these. I'd call this shape ballerina or coffin rather than almond since the tip is squared off, not tapered like an almond.

Most of the set were purple/green duochrome with a white fishscale pattern printed on top that made me think of a mermaid. The accent nails were purple microglitter. I was slightly bothered that the purple of the accents was more cool-toned than the purple in the duochrome but not bothered enough to paint over them with something better coordinated.



Like most longer/pointier fake nails, these started narrowing closer to the base than my natural nails, which is not a great look but I hoped the design was flashy enough to draw attention away from that.



The shift was really visible and really pretty. I spent a fair bit of time moving my nails around and admiring the colors.





In the sun, there was some sparkle to the duochrome.





After a few days, I filed off a tiny bit of the length and rounded the square corners; that looked and felt better to me.





I wore these for a full week. There was some tipwear showing by the time I took them off; it wasn't too noticeable though (if I hadn't reshaped the tips a few days it probably would have been more pronounced).

I liked these a lot, and they coordinated nicely with much of my wardrobe. I have another set or two in my stash; I also saw them on ebay today when I checked, though for more than I wanted to pay.

Semi-Recent NOTD Looks: Short and Simple

When my natural nails are in a phase where they need to be cut down to shorties, I bust out the shorter fakes that I can't wear otherwise (unless I want what looks to me like a huge canyon at the base, which I do not). Today I've got several sets I wore in one of those stretches, all from imPRESS.

The So Unexpected set had matte finish dusty rose nails with shiny silver and rose accents.



After my nails had grown out a tiny bit, I paired the accent nails from So Unexpected with solid dusty peach nails from the One Shine Day set. They didn't quite match but were neutral enough that it didn't matter; the neutral shade also helped not draw attention to the larger gap resulting from my natural nails being a tad longer and needing to place the fakes a touch farther down to cover my tips. (The accent nails from the One Shine Day set are still waiting to be used. I have a vision of sorting all the leftover nails from these sets by size and doing Skittles looks.)



Later I put on a set called Firefly. This came with periwinkle-leaning blue matte nails, pink/blue/lilac diagonal gradient accents, and silver glitter accents.



I used only the blue and gradient nails for my look, which meant using sizes that weren't always the best fit to get the colors I wanted on the nails I wanted them on. That happens sometimes with these mixed sets.





When working with this last set, I noticed something I hadn't before ... the size numbers for the nails were on the peel off tab to uncover the adhesive. Those were so much easier to read than the raised numbers on the underside of the nail tip. I don't know if this is a new feature or something that's been there all along but didn't pop out at me until I happened to be working against a black background.



The weather here is fall now, racing ahead toward winter (there's snow in the forecast for the weekend). That should mean I'll be home and inside more now that the busy summer travel and family visiting and huckleberry picking season is done. I do have swatches and nail wheels and more nails of the day photos ready; I just need to make my butt sit at the laptop long enough to turn them into blog posts and not get distracted by looking at social media. That shouldn't be hard but somehow it often is.

Fakes That Took an Unexpected Turn

There was never any doubt I'd wear fake nails for the start of my trip to Indie Expo Canada ... all those opportunities to break a nail when packing, loading suitcases into the car, wrangling them onto and off of parking lot shuttle buses, grabbing them from the luggage carousel, etc., etc. Thus a few days before I flew out, I put on a set of Kiss Salon Color nails in an iridescent grey that I could find no shade name for on the box but which based on some Googling, I believe may be called Eclipse.



The medium length was necessary as my natural nails have grown out nicely during the summer as usual (much as I try to protect them from the dry air and harsh weather in the winter, I continually fall short, which leads to short nails). The curve at the sides left something to be desired compared to how I shaped my natural nails but I don't think it was noticeable to anyone but me (well, and now, all of you, since I've pointed it out and posted a closeup).





The above pics are in the artificial light in my dining room the night I applied them. The next morning I got the following couple shots in natural light to show the different faces of the iridescent finish (like the ones the night before, they also show the tenacious end of a splinter I wasn't able to dig out of my palm):





That iridescent coating didn't live up to the "stays perfect for entire wear" line on the box—or maybe they just didn't anticipate how long I'd wear them—because by day five, a lot of it had worn off, revealing the plain grey underneath. (My index looks less worn below because I popped off and lost that one and had to replace it a few days in. Usually I notice when they come off and just reattach but in the whirl of getting ready for my trip that didn't happen.)



To distract from the wear, I added accent nails with a glitter topper I found just across the border into Canada when I was driving to Toronto to IEC from Detroit (I flew in there because it was cheaper and made logistics easier at the end of my trip). Quo by Orly What's the Big Teal has turqoise glitter in a clear base, both small hexes and larger triangles. I actually did this in my car, completely stopped for a construction delay on the 401 somewhere in the wilds of Ontario. I was so happy to find such an interesting glitter at a drugstore; I hope to play with it more soon.



My intention was to take off the fakes and do a regular manicure for IEC, but when I swatched the polishes I intended to use over the fakes, they looked good enough I decided to just go with it. Yes, I did have to get the glitter off the accent nails I'd done, but that proved to be not too difficult, especially since I wasn't worried about ruining the finish. I ended up using three polishes for my IEC look; top to bottom, RK by Kiss Holographic Fairy Wing, Fairy Wing topped with Morgan Taylor Bedazzle Me, Fair Maiden Violet Eyes topped with Bedazzle Me, and Violet Eyes alone.







I know, going to an indie polish event, I probably should have worn more indies, but I hadn't brought very many with me (what with wanting to save weight on the way there to have more allowance to bring new bottles back) and the holo and the glitter I'd bought on my drive just went so well with the Fair Maiden (an IEC purchase from a previous year) I had to use them. The holo in particular delighted me ... only $3.99 at a wig store and has rainbows just as flame-y as much more expensive ones in my collection.



On my way out of IEC on the Sunday, loaded down with shopping bags, I popped a nail off somewhere between getting on the elevator from the event space and getting into my rental car. Excellent timing. I couldn't find it (not that I looked very hard), so right there in the car, I just put on another iridescent one from the box I'd been carrying with me all weekend. It coordinated pretty well considering I hadn't planned to do this.





I wore these one more day after IEC, at which point, I needed to get them off so I could swatch a few of the polishes that came back with me from the event.



It's a long holiday weekend, and I have family visiting for the big festival that closes out the summer season here (dubbed "Mountain Drunk Fest" by a friend of ours ... I'm glad we're walking distance from the fun), but once that wraps, I hope to get through my IEC pics and what swatches I've done so far and do a post (or two?) on that next week.

Two Sets of imPRESS Shorties

My proclivity for fake nails continues unabated as of now. They're just so darn easy. Today I've got two different sets of imPress nails that I grabbed when I saw them on clearance. Both of them were short length.

The first set was beige solid, the perfect thing for not drawing attention to my hands, which is sometimes what I'm after. I didn't see a name on these, just the number 65042.





Here are the plain nails with an anything but plain cocktail ring my mother-in-law inherited from one of her sisters (I was helping her organize her dresser):



I wore these for 10 days; the only issue was a couple of dings in the softer material near the base, which happens sometimes when I'm using my hands for manual labor like unpacking boxes (I am starting to think I will never get through all the boxes I have in my life).



The second set I did find a name on: Glitz & Glamour. These were very light transluscent peach with blue and purple glitter tips. I should have filed down my nails a bit before I put these on, as I had trouble getting good coverage with the fakes. For my middle finger, I had to choose one wider than ideal to get length, and even then, there was a gap at the base.







Length issues aside, I did appreciate how the C-curve was a pretty good fit for me.



I was happy with both of these, especially since I got them for around $3 a set. I always check the clearance sections at drugstores (when I can find them—sometimes Rite Aid moves theirs around on me).

Pretty Woman Designer Nails

On one of my trips back to the Midwest, I picked up some sets of the Pretty Woman Designer Nails at Five Below. The first set I tried were rose gold metallic. (No name shown on box for this design; code was PD1019.)



This set of fake nails includes both self-stick tabs and glue; I used the tabs. They're the same kind as came with the Ministry of Beauty fakes that were sold at Meijer for a hot minute in 2015. These tabs are super thin, which is good as it helps the fakes sit closer to the natural nail, but not super sticky, which is bad, because the nails are more likely to pop off sooner than with a thicker/stickier adhesive. The shape of these was much longer and pointier than what I've been wearing; I'd call it a skinny coffin shape or maybe a pointy ballerina. The curve of the nails fit my natural base curve pretty well, and the length meant they covered much better at the sides than most fakes I've been wearing.







These were very eye-catching and I got several compliments on them in the short time I wore them. The time was short because due to the extra length I wasn't acustomed to, I kept snagging them on things, and then due to the relatively weak adhesive, they kept popping off. It was annoying and felt awkward, so I took them off within a day. Next time I try a similar set, I think I'll use glue to avoid the popping off and maybe file them down a bit.