La Vie Classique

gothypants:

After 15 years of being involved with the gothic subculture, I finally learned how to apply nail polish the correct way. I know — how did I miss this discussion during “multi-gender chit-chat hour in the women’s bathroom at the Batcave” during the 1990s?

Anyway, my friend Bianca (who is also an amazing photographer) gave me the lowdown on the proper way to do your nails, and the difference is amazing! 

This will probably seem obvious to many of you, so apologies if I’m covering familiar territory. (I’ve never worn makeup outside of a gothic context, so I had no idea. ;) 

Anyway, without further ado:

How To Apply Nail Polish: Pro Tips from Bianca!

1. You need a base coat and a top coat. I had no idea about the base coat at all. But yeah… apparently you can’t just dump polish on top of your nail and then (optionally) put some sort of clear nailpolish on top of it. The base coat is what stops it from chipping off, even more than the top coat, too, which is something I didn’t know.

2. Base coat and top coat are actually different things. This I had no idea about. They’re different formulations! don’t just buy “clear nailpolish” and try to use it for both things. 

3. All nailpolish brands are not created equal. This was a shock to me — apparently Chanel polish totally sucks. It’s got great colors but NO staying power — that shit flakes off like immediately after you put it on. AH! Totally not worth paying millions of dollars for or whatever. In fact, a lot of brands available on the retail market suck. The best nailpolish brands are essie and OPI. These brands are used by professional nail salons and within the last 5 years have started to be sold to consumers directly in retail stores. They’re more expensive than drug store nailpolish, but since it lasts longer (1 week compared to 2 days), it might be worth it for people like me who don’t want to spend extra time re-doing nails all the time. I got Opi black nail polish and base coat, and the top coat by a cheap brand (according to Bianca, it’s less important).

4. One base coat, two very thin nailpolish coats, one top coat. Painting the polish on thickly doesn’t work as well as doing two very thin coats of color. It stays better.

That’s basically it! Then let that shit dry for like at least a half hour before doing ANYTHING including checking your iPhone… you will smear that shit.

My nails totally look like black jellybeans and I love them. It feels like they will last for weeks too. It also cost next to nothing compared to a salon trip. Thanks Bianca!

Thought this might be useful to everyone!