But hey it feels good to be painting again! If you look closely, you can see how white my nails are. Oh thank you, OPI Original Nail Envy. The base coat I'm using right now (Revlon's Base+Top coat) isn't half bad either. It smells pretty awful, but I like how thin it comes out. Nail Envy has a thicker formula, so once you're done with your manicure, your whole nail looks pretty thick. It all depends on where your priorities lie I guess, and mine still lies in maintaining healthy nails, and for that, my money's on Nail Envy.


For once, I actually had the thought of pushing back my cuticles. Usually, I hate pushing my cuticles back because I feel like it should be untouched. I've read a few horror stories and doctor testimonies against removing and pushing cuticles, because they're what keeps the bacteria (and all that polish) away from your body. It could affect nail growth, and result in infections if not taken care of properly. I've got two cats at home, so I already have to keep everything clean, so I didn't want to make my nails even more vulnerable than they already are.

I get the reason why girls push or remove their cuticles though, it makes your nails look so much neater, and the border of the polish looks more defined. But I don't think I can ever overlook the health of my nails, which are already attacked weekly with polish and polish removers. If you're like me, and you prefer keeping your cuticles the way they are, you just have to learn to work with them. If your cuticles are in an irregular shape, buffing the surface of your nail lightly with a buffing sponge will remove the bits that's in the way, but don't file your cuticles directly. That way, I keep my cuticles in a neat line as untouched as possible. Perfect.

Next time you're at a nail salon, ask to push your cuticles, don't cut them away. Don't push too much either - just enough to make sure you have a nice, neatly curved outline. In this design, I got a bit of black nail polish on my cuticles, which resulted in a choppy line at the top. The next time I do outlines, I'm going to be more careful to stay away from the cuticles, heh.


Overall, it was a quick (but satisfying) design to do. You can do the same thing with toothpicks and black nail polish - all you really need is a steady hand.

Now to get round to making those tutorials I promised...

But in the meantime, what do you think of this design? Or any other design for that matter. Give me advice, design requests - just talk to me or leave me a comment!