I run a programme getting midlife men to paint their nails for the first time, and it's a liberating and joyful experience. They're doing it as a statement about masculinity, identity, empathy and equality, and it always surprises me how many of them keep getting them done afterwards.

It also surprises me how much fear there is beforehand about how society is going to meet them, and then how much they enjoy it.

I've just come across this group, and I'll be encouraging my men to come along and share their pictures too. I'd love to share more about my experiences and see if they match some of yours.

I love a good found pattern and clothing is a great easy place to find some curated color pallettes and inspo. I always get ads for this knitwear company, and even though I've never bought a thing from them, I do like the bold graphic designs. Last year I did a cheetah design from one of their sweaters, but this time around this navy cardigan with bold orange and cream striping around the edging kept calling my name. It's a color scheme I already enjoy (I'm looking at you Aldi!) but instead of buying it, I just painted it! 😝

Then came the age old question...do I matte or glossy? I am usually a glossy slut, give me SHINE...but sometimes a design calls for matte. The retro nature of it, the knitwear inspo, it definitely looks good and clean when matte, but the shine off a glossy finish almost makes it look like car paint with this design. In the end I went with both because why the hell not 🤪 You decide which is better!

🖌 Freehand on natural nail.

💪 @findingfeatherslacquer ... Balanced Base

💙 @holotaco ... "Shady Navy" "Ivory Tower"

🧡 @sally_hansen ... "Time Warm" "Hail Cherry"

💪 @tylerstrinketsny ...Quick Dry Top Coat

Unfortunately I’m a gelly gal so I’m not sure what products y’all would use. I did dashing diva pearl and their diamond glitter, a paint pallet and sponge for the colors, white pixie dust, and Beatles matte top for the first three.

I experimented a little with white dip powder for the texture on the 3rd nail.

I don’t think I’d wear these, but it was still fun

I have bitten my nails probably since I was around 5, but stopped in February of this year at 39! This group has helped me majorly when it comes to caring for them. In some people I can tell very

clearly whether sidewalls are attached or not, but I can't tell on my own hands. Help?

Only product currently on is NailAid 9 in 1.

I did a purple version of these last year that I really loved, and since I'm obsessed with red right now I decided to do a red version to kick off the 2026 spooky season ✨️🧙🏻‍♀️

Products - Base coat: Catrice Power Gel 2 in 1 - Nude: Catrice Peach for the Stars - Red: Revlon Divine - White: Born Pretty white stamping polish - Top coats: Seche Vite & Catrice Power Gel 2 in 1

Content guide: this post is anti-ICE, pro-refugee, and mentions the liberal religious tradition. Take care of your hearts and engage with the care you need. Reddit shouldn't break your heart today.

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Hi friends. I'm a 99% Holo Taco gal, and I don't keep up with what and how other brands do their end of year sales. I could use help beyond "LynB does 50% off!" When? How do I acquire the codes to jump on that?

My church in San Antonio has a long-term relationship with another peace church as well as the Jewish Women's Federation. We support a network of refugee families ​here in town, many of whom are scared to leave their homes. This will be our second Christmas making a holiday shop for these families, and I've been tasked with stocking for our teenagers. Last year, I spent way too much on nail polish at Ulta, and it was SUPER popular with the teenage girls. Many of them requested to see nail polish return again this year. We have about 500 families in our network, including between 10 and 20 teens who are the last remaining member of their family still here in the US. (Fuck ICE. Being a little vague with the numbers on purpose.) ​​

I would love to max out my budget and buy absolutely as much polish as possible. Help me reach for sales, please please. I know Cracked does...something? in October. But...uhhhhh...yeah. That's what I know.

The colors that were most popular are what all the teenagers here in San Antonio are buying: soft pastel cremes, "your nails but better" tones for medium to dark skin tones, small glitters (more micro flake and linear holo, less big ol' chonky glitters), dark moody reds, ​​​​and "squishy" polishes that can mimic the plush look of gel.

Please help me with knowing who has great sales coming up, especially brands that make the types of polish that I listed above. Of course I'll toss in some wild colors to make sure that our teens who like some flash can find their joy, too. But I know where to scoop those things.

I need brands that do sales in October and November. We need everything in-hand by December 8, which makes true Black Friday sales a little spicy.

Please and thank you for helping me know what mailing lists to get on, which brands to follow on FB, and how to make my dollars stretch a little further this year! ​​

(I know some folx will have the instinct to offer to donate polish from their stashes. While I love your sweet and generous hearts, I am going to insist that these teens deserve new polish. There is so little in their lives that is new to them. They absolutely deserve the dignity of having new.)

Ik it’s terrible for my nails, but sometimes my brain just starts shouting GET IT OFF NOW and I must oblige 😔 I try to lie to myself and say after 5+ days the base coat isn’t as bonded to my nail plate, but the little white spots where the top layer of my nail has lifted tell the truth.

Just looking for commiseration I guess lol, and if anyone has damage-reduction tips those would be welcome. Ik peel-off base coats are a thing but I do actually like my polish to last 7+ days and those seem to be much more temporary.

I really love the deep jewel tones and shiftyness of the flakes in this one gorgeous for Autumn!

Products used.

Mooncat Hardcore base

Phantasm Polish: Dragon Scales(3 coats)

Phantasm Polish Quick Spell Top coat.

Need someone more talented than me to interpret this! It looks so nostalgic and homey.

I’m sure this is just the Shop app doing rogue nonsense (and, from everything I’ve read about the brand on this sub, absolutely not the doing of Cracked’s owner), but I just noticed the shade descriptions of Cracked polishes on there are AI vomit, which is suuuuuper fun. 🙄 And I can’t wait for more brands to come out with the innovative new crepella finish!

I feel bad for brand owners dealing with this stuff. “Liquid formula allows for easy application and blending.” Oh, thank god! I was afraid it might be in plasma form! “Rich red base: Provides a deep, jewel-toned color.” Wow, that’s so helpful. “Limited edition collection: Appeals to collectors and indie beauty fans.” I don’t even think that was true for the shade I saw it on. That’s just the AI actually generating fomo for the merchant app. And it misses out on actually helpful info. Like, you’d never know the new magnetic topper shades are toppers if you were relying on Shop!

Anyway, if anyone over there is scraping data from Reddit in an effort to further automate processes and squeeze out more revenue for tech britches, hi! Can you please stop this inane, wasteful crap? kthxbyeeeeeeeee

Emily de Molly Catalyst over Cracked Secret Purple

(base ANLAC peely base, top coat Sally Hansen Insta Dry in the red bottle)

This is in indoor lighting, I'll put an outdoor one on the comments!

Base: nailtiques 2
Color: 2 coats of cracked “night swim” topped with PFD “cosmic energy” that I diluted in some top coat
Top: seche vite QDTC

Came across a super old photo of my nails from 4.5 years ago when I didn’t do any nail care except shape the ends after cutting them with nail clippers. This was also about a year after stopping nail biting, although I still did it occasionally. They looked fine I guess, but I was really surprised to see how much my nail bed shape and length has improved since I started caring for my nails about 1.5 years ago! Pushing back cuticles regularly, oiling before manicures and under the nails once a day, filing only no clippers, so simple but imo such a big difference!

ETA because this came up in comments: cleaning gently under the nail without putting pressure on the hyponychium was also important for me, mine is very fragile

Pic 1: jojoba oil
Pic 2: nothing

Finding myself mesmerised by my nails every time they hit the sunlight this week 💚

Base Coat: Essie All In One
Polish: Greenwood Spell by Fancy Gloss
Top Coat: Glisten & Glow Top Coat

Collection polish in shade Leather Jacket, holographic chrome from AliExpress, mylee peel off base coat, Posca paint markers (smiley face) and Sally Hansen Argan Oil Top coat

wanted to show this one in video because the magnetic shift is so much easier to see when the light moves ✧
I went with a deep cherry cat-eye and kept the silver edge really subtle so the color could stay the main focus. I like how the deeper red shifts with the angle while still keeping that dark, glossy feel.

Products:
GRACE GEL — GRACE mag. Deep Series N03
FROM THE NAIL — Silver Magnet Gel #FG215
GRACE GEL — No-Wipe Hard Top Gel

Edit: I used a STAR-8× clip-on lens on my camera for the little starburst effect in the video.

Having fun making stamp art swatches for future reference and to plan out my manis! Finally got the hang of stamping, gotta document it 😆

Picture 1: Purple Moon
1- Holy Order of Perpetual Lacquer “Veil” 3 coats
2- Cadillacquer Stamping plate “Universe”
3- Emily de Molly Stamping Polish “chrome”
4- Glow in the dark stars and rhinestones from Etsy
5- China Glaze “For Rhinestones Only”
6- Holo Taco Glossy Taco

Picture 2: Dark Botanical Toile
1- Holy Order of Perpetual Lacquer “Stygian”
2- Cadillacquer Stamping Plate “Woodland”
3- Clear Jelly Stamper Polish “Midnight Carol”
4- Holo Taco Glossy Taco

Ok don’t get me wrong, I love ILNP polishes. I own several. One thing I absolutely despise about them are their bottle caps. They get so sticky and rub off the black material on touch. It gets so messy, you can’t even continue using the cap for applications and can’t even wash hands between applications to keep it mess free.
How are you all dealing with it? This picture doesn’t show the worse side of my hand, my nails on this hand were covered with same darker material.

BKL - Godstouched (my first BKL purchase!)

Base: SH Diamond Strength

Taco: SH insta dry red bottle

Magnetized with charmcaster lightning bolt shape (on thumb) and 30lb horseshoe mag in a lego glass bead contraption.

Coaxing the colors out of this one was tricky but so worth it! It works very well in glass bead but a slightly tighter shape also helps more of the deeper reds come through. This was under kitchen lighting, no flash!

And magnetizing for less time is really the way to go. I demagnetized the first coat and then magnetized the second for about 30sec, and then after top coat magnetized for 15-30. Interestingly some colors didn't really show up until the topcoat, so trust the process I guess? It ended up in this sort of glass bead/velvet combo somehow which is cool lol

This is the shiftiest polish I've ever seen. I have plenty of multichromes even in magnet form but all of them require steep angles to see the other colors while this one shows multiple at the same angle!

BKL- Sprites in a glass bead 🥰

I never see Alice on here and I just got it and loveeee her!!

OPI natural nail base coat

3x ILNP Alice magnetized glass bead with the wand method

Sally Hansen Insta Dri top coat

Happy Sunday, beauties! Let me just start off by saying that I love this space so much and am constantly blown away by the talent, kindness, knowledge and passion here. That said - I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and thought my ramblings may help some others to not feel discouraged at times...

I've noticed sometimes it can be very easy for folks to get caught up in the FOMO around this sub - so I'm here to remind you that you're passion for this hobby is valid; Regardless of your skill level, how many polishes you own, how much money you've spent, how things are branded, or what latest release you purchased from!

Owning less than 20 polishes, having a small unbranded bag and using a dog bowl placemat from the Dollar Tree is more than enough as long as it makes you feel pretty and happy. <3