Chipped nail polish: cover it up or play it up?
If we are to believe some beauty writers, chipped nail polish is actually kind of fashionable. But the best looks give observers at least the idea that they were intentionally done. So what to do with an unmaintained manicure?
If you’re at the office or somewhere else with office supplies, you could try to cover up the evidence by filling in spaces with a marker in a matching color (red sharpies rule for this). Or if there’s only a little bit of polish left, you could try to scratch it off with a nail file or use tape to lift off the remnants.
But I’m all about experimenting with beauty, and when I was much younger, I discovered a fun way to play with chipped polish. I would use a dark color initially, and when it was good and chipped, I’d layer a lighter color over the chipped base layer. I really like semi-translucent yellows, greens, and pinks for this purpose, though metallics like gold and glittery polishes also work well. Try topping black with yellow for an edgy look, or red with lavender for a girlier approach. Like crackled pottery glaze, this look has dimension and random visual interest, plus it’s pretty punk rock. Give it a try!
[...] Like many girls, I love playing with nail polish. When I was little, I had this peel-off polish for kids that was so much fun to play with, and I never understood why adult nail polish had to be so hard to take off. The noncommittal peel-off way seemed so much easier to deal with. Then I went through my middle- and high-school phase where I liked to do my nails with unconventional materials, i.e. white-out, markers and masking tape. This usually stemmed from extreme boredom and not having any money. Around the same time, glitter polish, crackle polish and crazy colors were all the rage (this was in the late 90s), and I had a lot of fun layering colors as well (something I wrote about in a previous post). [...]
» Fun stuff for your nails defiant fashion said this on April 20, 2010 at 12:16 pm