A few weeks ago I posted a room full of midlife British men with their first-ever painted nails, and this sub was ridiculously kind to them. I promised I’d pay you back with my own.

So here they are. Flames. Hot Wheels flames, specifically, because I’m 50-something and apparently this is who I am now, after falling into nail painting after taking my daughter to see Harry Styles

And after I had my nails painted for the first time two and a half years ago and haven’t gone back.

The research behind the experiment we're running is really telling, we're aiming at mid-life men, who've never done it before, and measuring he impact on identity, mental health, confidence, fear of judgement, and even behaviours like willingness to step in, speak up and show up for others and the impact is really positive and holding up under academic-level research.

I've loved finding this community and hearing about your memories, reflections, and advice for first-timers, so just wanted fo say hello properly, share some of my favourites and say a big thanks from a growing community of first-timers in the UK, Sam

If you're interested, the research so far is at https://hard-as-nails.com/research/

Speechless with BKL Godstouched. Now I understand the hype.

I used BKL top coat and Bead Glass Spinner 2.0 for the effect.

Halloween mani has been my first successful foray into nail art! Pretty pleased with my lil dudes. Even my sad, broken, smudged pinky 🫠 it just adds to the season's spooky scary vibe, or so I tell myself lol

Products are:
1x Nailtiques formula 2
1x Essie Strong Start base coat
2x I'm Rover It by Holo Taco
1x Scorchy by Cracked (magnetized velvet)
1x Sally Hansen red bottle top coat

One Coat Black by Holo Taco for the Jack-o-lantern faces (followed by another layer of top coat)

Do y'all think I should push the pumpkin theme farther, maybe add the classic green leaf + curly vine or contour stripes, or is it cute enough as is?

I’d seen people using lab stirrers to automatically rotate their glass bead spinners, but I’d also read that the stirrer alone wasn’t strong enough to create the glass bead effect.

Naturally, I had to try it anyway, just for fun. And honestly? This is the tightest cat eye I’ve ever managed to achieve! 😭

Apologies for the overworking of the polish. I got a little distracted watching the magnetic particles ripple around on the brush. It’s ridiculously satisfying to watch!

PS: My boyfriend would like to apologise for his dry cuticles 😂

For anyone curious, the magnetic stirrer is the OniLab Eco Stir, which I got from Amazon UK.

Polish: Low Tide by Emily de Molly

Edit: Just noticed I wrote cat eye in my excitement 🙈🙈🙈 Forgive me lacquer gods!

The answer is yes. I finished painting these over 6 hours before I went to bed. I planned on doing a top coat and/or stamping today. I’ll go over it with Magic Effect when I get home from work to smooth it out but ugh!

Builder gel (a must when my nails have any length or else my other job will break them)
Seche Clear base coat
ORLY Liquid Vinyl x2 (I wish they didn’t partner with the transphobe, cause I really love their polishes and brushes and bottles😭)

Today my bureau had our annual retreat and, as part of the team-building activity, we painted pumpkins.

Long story short, my coworker’s paint marker exploded all over the linoleum floor of the Parks building we rented and instantly dried. She was scrubbing for a hot minute before I suggested we try using the oil in my cuticle pen to remove it since it appeared to be oil based. Worked like a charm. We can sleep peacefully knowing our city’s parks dept won’t be banning us from future venue rentals 😅.

Moral of the story: Never leave the house without your cuticle oil. You never know when you might need to clean up a paint spill. 🤣

Man. This polish sparkles like nothing else. I love the deep royal blue to bright neon purple/pink shift.

Basecoat: kbshimmer stay put hydrating base coat

Polish: tyche lacquer the moon prince from the apothecary collection

Magnetized with 5d spinner, 20lb horseshoe, and labstirrer for one minute

Basecoat again: kbshimmer stay put hydrating base coat magnetized for one minute. This really perfected the glass bead. I saw my dispersed magnetic particles literally reform after every nail.

I let it dry overnight and plan to add topcoat later today. Don't judge my nails, I have yet to do cleanup as well.

Video taken indoors with the flash on.

My PPU arrived last night and I immediately had to paint with this. This is Haunted's The Dying Violet. It's absolutely perfect for the fall weather we're getting here in the PNW!

Products used:

1) Dashing Diva Hint (on top of BIAB).

2) Haunted Polish - The Dying Violet, two coats.

3) Cracked's QDTC. This is my first time using it, and holy heck I love it so much!

4) O.P.I. Drip Dry Dry Drops

5) Haunted Rituoil in Love Me, Love Me.

I dropped $100 on the anniversary sale. I went all out because I heard such amazing things.

However, several of the polishes I received are malfunctioning — the black part of the lids slide right off the white screw part of the lids, making it really challenging to open and close the lid (especially between coats when my nails could still get nicked).

Additionally, the formula for Cracked Chaos is really disappointing. It’s all chunky and goes on so messy, and I have a steady hand. Applied it looks like a cheap, thick, expired drugstore polish. Is this normal? Did I get a bad batch?

The other colors are mostly nice. I love Thin Ice. I’m still working on how I want to layer them to create interesting looks. Would love recommendations.

But generally, I’m not impressed and kinda regret going so big for my first purchase with them.

Did anyone else have this experience? Maybe it was just low quality control because of the demand to fill orders for the sale?

I’m bummed and liked to know if I’m an outlier or if others had the same experience with their orders.

Hot Honey
Chokeberry
Cracked Chaos
No Shrubs
Scorchy
Thin Ice
Don’t Teal My Thunder
Matte Top Coat x2
Quick Dry Top Coat
Sticky Base Coat

EDIT to add:

I definitely don’t want this to be a condemnation of the brand.

I think my experience is one of a few outliers. Not every formula will be great for every person. I just wanted to hear if I was totally alone in my experience — and it seems I’m not. I’m going to reach out to them so they are aware of the lid issue and for advice on the Cracked Chaos. I haven’t tried all the colors I bought yet, but just want to say that Thin Ice is the most beautiful formula I’ve ever used, and though a touch streaky, after two coats, No Shrubs is absolutely stunning.

Thanks for everyone that validated my experience and for those that let me know it works well for them and tips on how to handle different challenges. Love how engaged this community is.

*SAXAPHONES GET LOUDER IN THE BACKGROUND*

Been binging her content this week, it's both interesting and also relaxing!! My shaping isn't perfect by any means 😅

Pronail base coat

Sally Hansen crystal clear made into a jelly with red, coffee, and black alcohol inks from Limino

Seche Vite top coat

1x Londontown Kur Fortifying Ridge Filler in Apricot Beige (2 coats on my badly ridged nail)

2x Holo Taco Teal No Lies

1x Holo Taco Glossy Taco

I'm fairly new to doing my nails, having only stopped nail biting in August. I'm wondering how to get the crisp clean line along the base of the nail. Is it something that will get better with practice? Are there tools or techniques? Right now, it's pretty messy and this was with painting with my dominant hand. Thanks in advance for any advice!

I haven’t really bought a lot of Mooncat as they were kinda my gateway into the vast world of other, nicher indies that have won my heart thanks to this sub. But I bought this one early on in my current polish fixation and just now got around to trying it. Sooooo good! Going to a psych rock show tomorrow and it is chefs kiss for the occasion. Also I’ve been doubling up on ridge filler and going thick on everything lately for that extra juicy gel look and I loooove.

2x Cracked ridge filling BC
2x Mooncat black widow (loose glass bead)
1x Sally red bottle TC

What is your pet peeve when shopping for nail polish online?

I’ll go first. If I am browsing a website and leave that site, deciding not to purchase, and then get a “We saw you looking 👀” email - I will more than likely not come back. I think I get these because they’re all linked from Shopify - but come on! Turn that crap off in your shop settings. If I wanted to buy something I would have. It’s not cute or cheeky - it makes me feel like I’m being watched.

I’ll get off my soapbox now and let you step up. What’s your pet peeve?

Products used:
Anchor & Heart Mermaid Tears
Cupcake Polish Pink-o-ween
Apipila smudge free TC
Glisten & Glow QDTC
Stamping plate: Maniscript Deadicated
Stamping Polish: Messy Mansion Carbon

I followed a nail art tutorial by @aequoreus_nails for this. It’s a little messy but I like how it turned out for a first try.

💚 2 coats of glow in the dark taco by holo taco
💛 1 coat of Witch Hazel by Mooncat
❤️ Topped with Bordeaux by Essie

Worn with EDM immortal top coat.

Base Coat: Essie “Here to Stay”
X 1 coat Essie “Gossamer Garments”
X 1 coat Great Lakes Lacquer “Just Like a White Winged Dove”
Ghost painted with Emily De Molly “Ghostly Apparition” thermal polish!
Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri red bottle

Other nails are:
Same base and top coats
X1 coat OPI “Krona-logical Order”
X2 coats ILNP “Amped” magnetized velvet style

• Emily de Molly Ghostly Apparition (thermal)

• Maniology Stamping Polish Straight Up Black

• Maniology Stamping Plates M071 and M516

• Maniology Smudge Free TC

• Golden Rose QDTC

what are thoooooooooose -Lucy, probably

Base- OPI Natural Nail Strengthener
Color- Cracked Ghouls Garden (glass bead magnetized)
Top- Mooncat QDTC

trying not to hyperfixate on the bubbles from the topcoat, it was wayy to thick:/ but loving this color, first time using Cracked polish

It’s been a few years of trial and error, but I landed on a routine! I love reading other people’s routines here and seeing how different tips work for different people so I thought I’d share mine. I’m hard on my hands and my nails just don’t seem to love hanging on to polish for some reason. Two days was my limit until a few months ago.

The base coat hack sadly didn’t work for me, but here’s where I’ve landed with a lot of trial and error! The idea is basically that thicker layers on the edges for me=lifting, so my routine works to thin the edges of my polish so I can achieve smoothness from thicker layers in the center without lifting at the edges.

1) oil nails with jojoba. Don’t wash it off with soap or water, but really thoroughly wipe off excess, especially around sidewalls and under free edge.

2) ridge-filling basecoat (KBshimmer), keeping it toward the center of the nail, leaving maybe a toothpick’s width distance from cuticles and sidewalls.

3) first coat of polish, barely overlapping the ridge filler. 2nd coat (and 3rd if the polish requires it) going all the way to the edge

If you’ve seen how people do placement for layers of dip powder nails, the above is basically a lacquer version of that

4) QDTC (thinned! I add a little thinner basically every time I use it) - also kb shimmer

5) pure acetone clean up around the cuticle of every nail, it’s less to clean up and more to kind of melt the edges of the polish and QDTC together and thin it a bit more. I haven’t had this cause a single problem with the look of the polish but ymmv. If your QDTC is too thick it’ll catch on your brush, if you don’t use pure acetone it may not be strong enough to dissolve the partially dried QDTC.

6) Essie gel setter to seal it all in

Am I doing all this every time I do my nails? Absolutely not. BUT I was able to get a crème mani to last an entire week-long beach vacation with this. If I do it with a jelly I can almost get to two weeks because those tend to stick better for me. I got the QDTC+gel setter tip from another post here that I can’t find, but thank you whoever you are!! The shine and plumpness from the two TC’s is something I’ll never give up now that I’ve experienced it.

My hands got cold enough for my nails to match my laptop, had to share my excitement 🤩

First time trying thermal polish, just copped from a recent destash and now I’m hooked! Next time I might skip using a shimmer on top so I can enjoy the contrast more (like in last pic). Either way I’m converted and need more thermals - what are your favorites?

Product List:
Essie smoothie base coat
Cirque Colors Amour Propre x1-2 coats
Lurid Lacquer The Refuge of Your Presence x1
Amazon gold nail stickers
Sally Hansen QDTC red bottle x2-3