On nails

Back in the day, at least five months ago or maybe more, I was quite good at nail polish. I could whip up things like this: 

 

or this:

 

with no trouble at all. 

Nowadays, I can't seem to paint a basic bang on trend coral without smearing it all over the couch, my fingertips and the dog. Is this what happens when you move in with your boyfriend? Does Hastings have bad nail polish ch'i? I don't know. But I did want to fix it, so I paid someone else to do it for me.

A little while ago, I invested in the Veronica Mars kickstarter and promptly got addicted to kickstarter. Particularly looking up nail polish ideas. Then I found the Go Scratch It kickstarter and not only were they marketing nail wraps that actually work (I've previously tried getting them on eBay with little joy) but they had the Dainty Squid designing for them. So I jumped in, ordered two packs, and this week they arrived.

 

(stylishly modelled on a black jacket sleeve)

They come looking like a colourful rack of ribs, and you can fit them to your nails before taking the protective front and back off. They're a bit small for my nails widthwise, but I do have gigantor nails so I don't blame them for that. They send you 16 in a pack so you can find ones that fit, then you can use the leftovers for accent nails if you fancy it.

 (they don't really go with this frock)

I followed this how to guide that the packaging links to - Shop Koshka - she makes it look easy as a pie. They weren't that easy for me, mainly because for things like this it's really helpful to have two hands and one of them is out of action. Also I didn't realise that one side is stickier than the other, I thought they were going to be the same. Half mine are on the wrong way up - you can see in the photo below that my middle finger has a reversed pattern, the thumb is the same.

 

Once I got past those problems, I got a bit better at it. I was cross when I tore one trying to make it fit my nail, especially as they're quite an expensive way of doing your nails. But I figured if I can learn to do my bra strap up, or tie apron strings, behind my back I can learn this too. From an arm's distance at least, I'm pretty happy with them.

 (ladys and gentlemen, my thumb)

The thumb one was a bit too curved for the flat base of my thumb nail but rather than being a sensible person and trimming it first, I went ahead and stuck in on. Then when it looked gappy, I filled in bits with matching nail polish that I already had. Obviously this was a bit of a disaster (I've learnt from it though, I promise!) but even in this close up above, you can't *really* see too much of the foul up.

This is where the wrap doesn't cover very much of the sides of my nail. This bothered me at first but actually after a day or so wearing them, these ones are bothering me the least.

I finished off the left hand, had a minor tantrum about how awful they were then painted my nails like this on my right hand and decided I did like the Go Scratch It nails better after all. 

Overall, I think they're great. Better than any other wraps (or stamping, grrrr stamping) that I've tried and I will use them again. I wish they could send a few practice ones out so you don't feel so bad about wasting them but now I've got more of the hang of it I think I'll be ok

Visit http://www.goscratchit.com/ if you fancy a crack at them. (They didn't pay me/sponsor me to write this btw, even if I do sound like a shill).