Back when I was a noob to blogging, life and everything, I did this manicure. 
Unfortunately, I had never heard of cleanup or like, shame.

I thought I'd recreate it somewhat, as it gave me an excuse to break out my acrylic paints, but in a school appropriate manner. So, by following the rules of this post, I did this.



I'm liking the paints, actually! I should do a full post on them at some point.

Posts may be a little erratic/downright scary during this time period, as the school production starts properly on Thursday (I think) so no one is going to get any sleep until Saturday. I apologise in advance for any cray cray.

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!

Naturally, when you're trying to convince the teachers that you've terrorised for five years to allow you a place in their sixth form, you try to make the best impression. Hence I went for this French manicure with a twist.

I made the dots with my recently purchased dotting tool that came in the fifteen piece nail art brush set. I like it, but it's a bit small for me.
Some of the dots are really unevenly sized compared to the others, lol. I still need to get the hang of using a dotting tool.

 It was a Tuesday when I did this look, and I felt like pushing the boundaries somewhat so I came up with this.
 It's basically a sheer, french manicure type polish from Nails Inc (Sloane Mews) and the Konading is the ASOS Paint Alexa. I told you they were pigmented, didn't I? But I didn't realise just how good they were for stamping. They've surprised me, I have to admit - I thought it was all pretty bottles and no actual substance, but hey!

Thought I'd zoom in on the little finger design just for lolz.
Anyway. School appropriate look (ish) that lasted well chip wise.

French manicure, pure and simple. My form tutor has explicately OK'D this particular brand of nail polish. It's officially legal. Woot, I guess. What a shame it's so dull.

 I hope you can see the rhinestones I stuck on the thumb to jazz it up a bit. I covered it with a thick layer of Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri (it's coming nearer and nearer to the end of the bottle so it's now quite gloopy and picks up colour from my other manicures) so that they would be less likely to fall off. Worked, for the most part.
 The ring finger looks the neatest. Apologies for the streak of green on the index finger - the topcoat picked up some colour from a previous manicure which I didn't realise until I topcoated this manicure. Fail.
I wore this for like two days before I craved colour, lol. It's half term now anyway.

What are your opinions on the classic french manicure? Like? Dislike? Don't care?

Back to school in like 10 hours. Not impressed, not impressed at all. This means an end to a summer of Korean Pop Music, parties and basically doing jack all and a return to exams, little/none nail polish and uniform.


Suckage.

So the plan for tommorow morning is:

Have nails painted in a almost there but not quite french manner. We now have a new head of year, and she's female and has already warned us to expect crackdowns on makeup, nails, dyed hair and skirt length. The first three apply to me lol :P So makeup will probably either be black eyeshadow + blue eyeliner or dark purple eyeshadow (probably the MUA one, I'm in love with it at the moment) or matte green and gold. Clear lipgloss. Nail polish will be a french with maybe a little Konad for colour. I need to see what I can get away with lol :P Anyone else out there going back to school tommorow? Let us know :P

Recently, I've been kind of neglecting school appropriate looks - the teachers have been kinda lax in the weeks leading up to SUMMER (woot) and so I've been getting away with the most outrageous eye makeup and nail polish. Orsums. But recently, I yearned for a return to simpler times. Behold, my (sort of) school appropriate design:
If you reduce the amount of pink french tip you can get away with it, I think. I used Nails Inc Sloane Mews to even out any discolouration in my nails and also buffed them with this buffer I got for £1 from Wilkinsons (the Image range). It's surprisingly good...don't know how long it'll last, but for a pound it's alright.
To create a smile line I used a cotton bud dipped - no, soaked - in nail polish remover and basically rubbed it on the excess varnish to make it pretty. Then, I simply put the Sloane Mews polish over it (it's very sheer so I was quite confident it wouldn't stain my nails any more than they were) and yeah, you're good to go.

Isn't it typical? Be draconian on nails = outrageous polish and nail art. Be lax as anyone's business = suddenly, school appropriate again. Ah well. Schools out now anyway so I can do whatever. I. like. That's right.

Until next time,

Lena
xxx

Here we have: two Maybellines, three Avons and one nail polish from Boots.
This is what looks like a glittery purple topcoat (from Avon).
Here's the topcoat again with it's buddies - Avon Minimilastic Peach (which I showed in an earlier post) and Flash. Both look like they'll be good colours for school. The formula on Minimalistic Peach is absolutley gorgeous. The ball bearings literally fly through the mixture yet on your fingers it's not runny at all. Good coverage. I haven't tried Flash or Glittering Purple yet but I'm sure they'll live up to expectations.
The Maybelline colours really caught my eye! There's an orange (Tropical Peach, hmm, a lot of peaches hanging around here!) and a turquoise (Jelly Bean). The colours are both lighter than they appear in this photo. Again, haven't tried these out yet but expect swatches soon! Both of them look like they have very interesting hints of shimmer in them.

Hello again! Well today is a Friday, so I went all out on my nails. Feeling adventurous, I did three different shades of blue on my left hand (they are a little hard to see in the photo, but they are there :L) and on my middle finger and my thumb, I did an abstract design with loads of colours. On the left, I did purple and green glitters. Pictures here:

My form tutor noticed them, but as there were only ten minutes left before we went home, he said they looked very pretty but they should be off by Monday.
They'll be off by Monday but I'll have probably replaced them by then...haha :) Thank goodness it's Friday! While I think school is alright I just felt really tired pretty much all this week. And I have a science module test on Wednesday...