Twilight Zone: Nails III - Press on Nails - Part Three

[Ed: Dear Reader, if you haven’t read Part Two then please use the Nail as link.]
 
ext morning I woke with a start as I realised there was something not quite right. It was not my long black silk negligee which I had the opportunity the whole week to wear nights but, you guessed it, my nails. I did a quick visual to see if any had gone AWOL overnight and to my relief all were wag-able, present and correct.
I had planned to spend the day at home enjoying being dressed to complement my new nails that is until I opened the fridge. With a long stare to its contents, or lack of them in this case, I reluctantly corrected my agenda for the day.
 

To quote from an old nursery rhyme ‘The cupboard was bare’. I had been working late all week and so distracted on getting home and changing, that I had forgotten to go shopping! I had, since MrsA left, systematically emptied the fridge and larder of all the basics.
Ok, pizza was still there from the previous evening but it would last only for the rest of the day. There was nothing for it, I had to go shopping and that meant as a consequence removing my new nails.
Thinking about it I was not that disappointed as I first thought, as I still had my other nails to try when I got back! So I made myself a cuppa tea with the last of the milk and cleared a space on the table for what I hoped would be only a minor surgical intervention.

At last I was to see if a non-painful removal was going to be confirmed or not. I had decided to only use my own home grown moderate length nails in assisting with prizing them lose. I didn’t really want any pointed instruments possibly drawing blood. But as I looked at my hands I realised that none of my own nails were free to help! For at least one or possibly two nails I would need a tool to get between the real me and the false me to get the ball rolling. So I went for a manicure stick.
Well I would have if I had found one.

As I dug down in the darkest depths of my cosmetic case it slowly dawned on me that I hadn’t bought any! With all the info gathering, buying and logistics in preparation of sticking on nails, I had not looked ‘one small step’ further. I had concentrated on the pain problematic and not on the actual removal procedure!

Ok I was not about to jump down the ladder onto the lunar surface, but I was for all tense and purposes just as far out of reach of the next cosmetic counter as if I was going to take a moon walk. I knew; well let’s say I had never seen MrsA wielding an orange stick, but as I was moving in the direction of panic, I still went off searching just in case she had one.
 

I found nothing in the way of wooden pointed objects. That is apart from when I was rummaging around in our board game cupboard (you never know what you may find). I had paused and seriously thought of going for a Mikado stick. As a last resort I turned to MrsA’s nail manicure set which I had totally forgotten about. I was a little reluctant using metal but I didn’t want to wait any longer as I was in immediate needed of another cup of tea with fresh milk.
 
I selected the cuticle pusher as being appropriate for this and was about to go to work with it when I remembered reading about someone using one of the used false nails from the pack as a wedge.
Well I didn't have any used ones just yet so I selected the biggest unused nail from the bottle. I thought if it doesn’t work then I still had a metal based backup plan. I went for one of my pink pinkies and gently tried to ease my new tool from the side under the false nail. It reluctantly gave access and after about a quarter of the way in I started to lever upwards. I felt more resistance and was about to pause to give the glue a chance to slowly let go when to my surprise the nail gave up and flipped off flying across the table.
Hey! That was not so bad at all I thought! One down nine to go!
 
I carried on by moving from the small nails on up to my thumbs. My strategy was to get some experience in removal and how the glue behaved before tackling the big ones. The larger the nail and surface area the more time it took to convince the nail to let go. I was finished in less than ten minutes much quicker than I thought it would take. I found it was better to try and wedge the nail about a third of the way in before trying to lever the nail up and off. The timing of the levering was also important, the slower the better staying just under the discomfort level.
 
It’s similar to when one removes labels from plastic articles. If one rips it off too fast the label invariably tears. If done slowly then there is more chance it will stay intact as different adhesives have different times when releasing from the surface. It’s all to do with adhesion/cohesion forces.
In my case the forces were with me.
[Ed: Does that mean you’ll be using a mini laser sword next time?]
Hey! That’s an idea, build me one!
[Ed: !?]

I checked my nails and there was hardly any glue residue on them. I dabbed them with a little acetone, washed and creamed them. One of the reasons for going for a dry removal ‘solution’ was to see how sticky the nails would be after one application. It was a shame to only enjoy them for less than 18 hours and a third of that time I was a sleep!
They were still quite tacky and so I put them in a separate small plastic bag for a possible second sticking.
[Ed: More to that in part four].
So at last I was de-nailed and could go off to the shops.

In the afternoon I decided to try one of the French nail sets. I had two sets to choose from. I went for the ones on the right as they had a little more to look at with the circle of white points and silver stripe.
I emptied the bottle and sorted by size, again no overall problem with the sizes. I cleaned my nails and stuck-in to stick. I didn’t actually time it, but I had the feeling it was about 10-12 minutes. Again I took a few pictures. I must say I liked them better than the pink ones.

Also these nails were not as distracting as the others. Ok they were but not with the colour. Length about the same, the square ends again gave a slightly different feeling when in contact with objects.
Over the day I didn’t do anything over the top, just relaxed and enjoyed the experience. Typing on the computer/Ipad and play the piano I struck from my ‘to do list’. I tried but quickly gave up in frustration; also I didn’t want any accidents with nails ricocheting around the room while hitting the keys. It didn’t matter that much as I had the very rare opportunity to occupy myself with going systematically through my stash airing my clothes and trying out all possible combinations. I never realised how much hard work it is to dress! Of course it didn’t help that I was also trying on my ‘non summer’ clothes, inappropriate for the time of year and the hot weather!
Again it was the early hours before I fell into bed.

The next morning I was not surprised to see my nails and all intact after a quick check. Sometime in the afternoon I decided to remove them as I wanted to get down to do some writing and answering emails without hindrance. I sat there and took a last look at my fingers and went for the nail wedge that had worked so well with the pink nails.

As I was about to begin I thought it would be nice to experience painting nails of this length as I had only tried painting my own up until then. They are kept short due to not wanting to get ‘that look’ from you know who.
I selected red.
Unfortunately the varnish was not that good and had no real covering power. Still I decided to only do one coat as it was only to get an impression of long red nails and the feeling of painting them. If you look closely the French tips can be seen under the red. As my right hand is my ‘bad’ hand I had difficulty doing my ‘good’ hand as one can see by my index finger. My cuticles where not clean and tidy either, something to remember to do next time. The painting experience was a little different as one has a longer distance to travel with the brush and trying to maintain a constant flow. Still it was fun and something I could get use too, that is if I had the chance.
I left them on for a few hours but then I was ready time to remove them.
 

As I was concentrating on prising them off my mind wandered and I remembered the black and white glitter varnish. I stopped and went and found the bottle. I was intrigued on how it would look on the red nails. As most of the nails were removed by this time I painted what was left. On applying I realised to my surprise that it was a clear vanish with geometric inclusions in the shape of black and white hexagons!
 

I was glad I had tried it. I only gave them one coat, adding more coats would probably intensify the effect but I suspect the shapes wouldn’t be clearly visible. With reluctance I removed the rest after taking a few pictures. It was fun and I now know how it feels to wear nails of this length.

I have always envied long and colourful ‘nail wielders’. The enhancement of the hands is of course a matter of taste. The length in the picture holding the mobile phone is about as far as I would go. Anything longer is in my opinion overdone and spoils the nail/finger length ratio (N/FLR) aesthetic for me.
[Ed: I won't ask what you mean by N/FLR. I'll let someone else do that. ]
Are you sure?
[Ed: Yes! Ok, and what next?]
Good question, not sure. I still have one set of nails to try but timing is a problem.
 

While writing up this post I got to thinking about maybe try sometime my hand at Celtic nail art, combining my making Celtic jewellery and my love for nails. In the picture left is a part of a necklace I made for myself and maybe I can transfer the knot work in some way to a nail. There are lots of examples of nail art of this type in the net, here an example I found.
Will see what I can do.
I don’t see any more nail sessions in the near future. I usually only have a maximum of a one and half to two hour window with MrsA out of the house and on rare occasions maybe up to three hours. But all this with possible unexpected early returns, unless I’m roped into playing taxi that is, but still it’s a tight window. It’s just about enough time to throw on a dress and heels (stockings are on all the time), but all too short for a nail session, just too much stress.
In part four I'll get up todate and relate a few things from this year.

[Ed: Here the link to Part Four.]