Did you think I'd forgotten about this series? I haven't, don't worry. I just needed time to create more school appropriate nail designs.

This style of school appropriate nail polish is heavily reliant on Konad/Fauxnad, whatever you choose to use. Stamping plates look clean and professional, aren't time consuming to do and crucially don't use a lot of nail polish. Creating a design with stripers or acrylic is far more obvious because the nature of the materials means that you have to use a lot more, thus your design/rule breaking is far more obvious. Having said that, nail decals or stickers work nicely as well, like so:

For an ultra subtle look, use a light coloured polish - pastels are even better. This is virtually undectectable, save for your own eyes, and any mistakes aren't obvious. I did a design using Nails Inc Brompton Place (a baby pink) but it was a pain to photograph because it was light.

Twisted my hand so you could see it a little better.

 If you wanted to go that way, you could easily stamp all five fingers and get away with it. When I use darker colours, I tend to only stamp one or two as if I decorate any more, I run the risk of being caught.

Darker colours work nicely, though, for a contrast and a bit of edginess.

These are all images from a Bundle Monster plate. I stamped two designs on my thumb, in different colours (a black by Miss Sporty and Nails Inc Queensgate Mews) and another two on the middle finger. Poor attempt at layering. I need to start working on that.

Whether you've gone dark, light, or used a nail decal, you can easily paint the undecorated nails with a sheer polish if you don't want to go completely naked.

There is a fourth way, which is to stamp french tips onto your tips. I did that in the main post (linked at the beginning of this post) and that also has a better picture of the light stamping polish in action.

Again, I'll keep adding nail designs to this post. The eventual idea is to have a little store of nail designs here which any visitor can quickly refer to. I'll update once this has happened (probably not for a long while yet!)

Is anyone else interested in the upcoming Bundle Monster plates? I like the fact that they've listened to feedback and added backing to the plates (anyone who's ever tried them could attest to their sharpness) and have also increased the size of their full nail designs. Finally. Even Konad's are a bit small for my thumb.

I'm publishing this in the month of my blogoversary. Fitting, no? With the name of my blog and all, lol. Anyway, this is the long overdue massive tutorial on how I get away with wearing nail polish to school, and the different means by which one can achieve that.

So after a year of trying and failing to wear polish to school, I've come up with various ways to sneak past the ever present teachers with painted nails. There are actually way more ways to do this than one may think. I've found that basic things to consider are:

Your form tutor. Male form tutors are generally way more ignorant than female ones. Stereotypical? Perhaps, but I've only ever had one male teacher call me out on my neon pink and green eyeshadow whearas I've had pretty much all the female ones comment that the vivid orange that I'm wearing is wholly inappropriate in a school setting...

Your school. Religious schools (like mine) and private schools are far more strict on their "no makeup, no nail varnish" policies than ordinary state ones. My school is quite near the top of the league tables (though it's been dropping every year ever since the old headteacher retired) and so they fancy themselves as the best in the area. They don't want us to be mistaken for the schools nearby who have somewhat looser uniform policies - I see you, school with the blue uniform, with your skirts up to your ass - so they crack down on the merest hint of makeup like a dominatrix in a porn video.

Your year. Teachers tend to crack down harder on students say, in Year Nine that are wearing makeup or nail polish compared to those in Year Eleven. That's not to say that they leave us poor Year Eleven's alone. They don't. But they might overlook the odd transgression when they wouldn't for a Year Nine.

The time of year. In September, the teachers are all gung ho about the uniform policy, and the same for when the Christmas breaks are over and it's the start of January - by April, no one cares.

With this considered, we can now proceed to actually painting the nails. There are a few main looks I go for, depending on how lucky I feel and on the factors above:


The "Four Fingers With an Accent"

This is pretty safe. I've rarely been told off for having just one nail painted and if you choose the correct sheer colour, you can still cover up any staining that may be on your nails.



The "Sheer Polish"

This is like the ultimate safe choice - a glitter, or a sheer, on all five of the nails. You have to look really closely to detect that you've got painted nails at all - or at least my teachers do anyway, they don't seem to be known for their eyesight - and even if it is detected, most will just let it slide.


The "Invisible Nail Art"


I love love love Konad/Fauxnad for this purpose. It tones down say, hot pinks or oranges into these perfect subtle tints that you can't really see unless you look closely. They just add a bit of interest to the nail and look cute - plus, they're almost effort free.


and The "One Hand"

This is my riskiest and I only do this when I'm feeling pretty lucky (on a Friday, usually). It's basically when you only paint your non-dominant hand, and leave the other polish free. Painting your non-dominant hand allows you to basically hide it when necessary and still use your other hand in writing situations, for example. It gets a tad awkward when your teacher notices you've suddenly become left handed and thus your handwriting looks like that of a six year old...



During this week (lol, the time frame has been extended a little) I'm going to explore each of the four styles in detail, with some more examples that you guys could use if you need to be in a school (or work) environment. So do keep checking back!

When I first saw this polish, I thought it'd be exactly the same as Nails Inc's "Sloane Mews" but it's really not. Four coats later and I have a gorgeous, soft, light pink of the kind that is perfect for sweet lolita kawaii nail art - which shall be showcased, but not in this post. I have been experimenting with decoden parts on nails, and I think the results are finally ready to be shown to the world. Anticipate!



One coat of this polish (pictured, above and below) makes a great "My nails are naturally this flawless" colour for school. While Sloane Mews is still very sheer even after two or three coats, to wear two coats of "Little Venice" for school would be pushing it, I feel.


The polish doesn't contain any shimmer, again unlike Sloane Mews, which does. It's also way more of a streaky pain, but I don't feel that it's as annoying as "Shoreditch" was. When I say annoying, I mean for a Nails Inc polish which are usually pretty flawless (as they should be, for the price!). Even the most irritating Nails Inc polish doesn't compare to say, the most irritating Miss Sporty polish. Damn you, Clubbing Colours Yellow. I will forever detest you and your ilk.


It leans slightly peach, but only in certain lightings.


 


I've got a few questions (off topic).

I'm currently very pissed off with Sleek MakeUp, but I somehow managed to track down their Good Girl palette. Do I post or not? On one hand, I don't want to give them any positive coverage - on the other, the colours are soooo up my alley it's not even funny. Plus, I didn't think I'd ever be able to find it after it sold out except perhaps for double the retail price on eBay.
Weirdly, at this Superdrug they even had a couple of the purple and yellow Pout Polishes and some of the Sparkle iDivines left over, so perhaps Sleek aren't that popular? It's a pretty white area (no offence) so perhaps there is less demand for a brand catering primarily to black women....

 So does anyone want to see the pictures?

Kicking off February ten days in, naturally with a series of nail care tutorials. Well, what I've managed to deduce.

I've been struggling with my nails for quite some time, actually. They were all weak and peely in the summer. Part of this was down to diet, which has since been changed - for the most part - but I realised that moisturising my hands as well as the rest of my body would work wonders. Hence I've been only painting one hand at a time and applying hand and cuticle cream frequently. My right hand now looks a lot more presentable, and rarely has any peeling issues. The index finger of the left hand still has quite a few peels, though, and the nails on that hand aren't quite as long.

Anyway. This series will just be about things I've picked up about nail care so far. Feel free to correct!



Notice the middle and index fingers are really quite rounded compared to the ring and little fingers. I'm going to try and correct that somewhat, though I'll need the sides to grow out slightly more to rectify it completely.

I'm going to use these tools.



I wouldn't really recommend the crystal nail file. It's from Poundland (so I wasn't expecting that much anyway) but after a while the glass on it wears down and it requires replacing. Still, it is only a pound...
The coloured buffer was 99p from Wilkinsons. It's got four sides and is actually pretty decent considering it's price. I can't remember where I purchased the white buffer but it was probably pretty cheap. I'll be using that at the end to seal the nail plate further and give a shine to the nail.

I always file in the same direction, towards myself. It doesn't matter which way you file, as long as you try and keep it consistent. I squared off the tops of both nails (slightly unevenly, it has to be said) before rounding the corners slightly. Alternatively, if I'd been willing to lose a lot more length, I could have just filed straight down so that the free edge was pretty much non existent. Then, when the nail grew back again, it would look just like the ring and little fingers. Try whichever method you think will work for you.

I then doublechecked my work by looking at the undersides of my nails, like this.



And this:


I find it quite helpful as it helps point out any slants or uneveness, and lets you compare them to each other.

Finally, I finished up with this. Photo is taken after sealing the nail plate, which I'll do another post on) but before the nails were buffed.



They're not perfect, but it's a start, right? /is nervous.
Naturally, for a school appropriate look, nothing gets more appropriate than natural, shiny, buffed nails! Easiest look ever.

Please give feedback, both positive (if there's any to be had...lol) and negative!