Men & Nail Polish: Yay or Nay?

This topic was posted today on Michèle's blog. I wished to share my long response which turned out to be too long for the comments section so I published it here, happy reading ...

I admit I am impressed with the number of Yay responses to Michèle's topic, Wow that’s amazing.

I am a man in my early forties with liking for nail polish since my childhood. I use to play secretly with my mom’s polishes when I was a teen. In my twenties I was buying my own polishes and always had my toes polished. I went through the dilemma of the social acceptance of my passion; being straight to the bones I never viewed it as a furtive gay behavior but rather an innate love for polished nails, however I always feared social rejection being labeled as gay!

I shared my passion with my better half during our dating time, she was initially reluctant. It took her 10 years after our happy marriage to accept it, finding no harm in it, since it made me happy. Still, my painted toes were never exposed socially. In the late nineties, the Internet changed things completely, I found out I was not alone, neither gay, nor outside the norm; with Yahoo groups I discovered other males with a similar passion. There is no reason why society accepts males with long hair, earrings, tattoos, and not painted nails. However I do agree that it may be matching more particular males’ style than all males.

In the past few years I gained more confidence, I was able to meet in person female coworkers and on the internet female fellow polish addicts, and Jake, all equally passionate by nail polish and totally open to the idea of males with painted nails, that was awesome. I posted pictures on flickr and finally started my blog last May. My social comfort has risen to exhibiting my painted toes in sheer colors, and French pedicures, occasionally wearing bold colors at the beach. I do follow many blogs almost on regular basis, buy the latest collection of OPI, MISA, Essie, etc, my nail polish collection is way past 1000.

At present I share colors with my wife and greatly enjoy this passion. After self analysis I concluded it is in my DNA like the hundred of ladies blogging about it and unsurprisingly many have no passionate interest in other makeup as much as nail polish. I am perfectionist by nature and reflect it as well through the grooming and painting of my nails. Unfortunately I cannot keep up with the pace of fantastic daily nail bloggers. Whenever I have time I write my small piece of blog with pictures.

I am thrilled to be part of this unique community and hope time will make more people open minded about it. Thank you for reading being the only male commenting so far I thought worthwhile sharing my experience. Please scroll through other entries in my blog if you are interested to read more about my experience. I would be happy to read and reply to your comments.

Big thanks to Michèle for creating this topic J

First attempt at French

I tried a few times a free hand French Pedicure and it usually turns out nice, only because I am using my dominant hand to paint the smiley line. When it comes to my hands, I have never been able to draw uneventfully the smiley line on my dominant hand. While visiting Asami's blog I liked her simple and yet beautiful French Manicure, using guideline stickers; I wanted to give it a try.

First try: I used guideline stickers from Seche which I got from 8ty8beauty a while ago. I applied the base coat waited untill fully dried then placed neatly the guideline stickers. Painted the tips with Essie Blanc and waited half an hour before removing the stickers. The white smileys were perfect but but but some stickers removed the base coat, other left the glue on the nail :( . I removed all and started again.

Second try: I found in my stash guideline stickers from Orly. I applied them on bare nails and skipped the base coat. Used again Essie Blanc for the tips and 20 minutes later removed the stickers resulting in perfect smiley line :) . Started to apply the nude color Essie Happily Ever After on the right pinkie nail Ooops got a little of white streaking, had to wait for another 20 minutes until the white polish has fully dried up on all nails. Applied 2 coats of the Essie nude, waited for another half hour before applying Seche Vite to reduce the shrinking effect, etVoila. It looks very nice and elegant, and for both hands.

After two hours, and two attempts I thought enjoying the look of my first not so bad French Manicure so I did not venture into rhinestones or nail art but I will surely give it a try.

When a bet goes Orange

All around Europe the craze for the FIFA cup is getting wilder. Now that the finalists are European, one from the south and one from the north the bets are most unusual.

My favorite team did not make it anywhere, not even to the quarter finals, but I would have never thought that the Dutch team would reach the finale. My Dutch coworker was consistently supporting her team from the beginning. I was teasing her half way through the FIFA cup thinking the Dutch team would never make it to the finale that I made a bet I will paint my fingernails the color of her team if they make it.

Here I am with Orange tips, ready to support my Dutch coworker's team for tomorrow's final game. Fortunately my bet ends after the game as I am not yet comfortable walking around with painted orange fingernails!

I picked OPI A Good Mandarin is Hard To Find . I had to apply three coats to get the right coverage. This bright orange cream is more of a summer color though it is part of OPI Hong Kong spring collection. The color looks great on darker skin tone. But hey summer time is here and sun tanning is a must every week end.

Join me in supporting the Dutch soccer team, wishing them a smashing win ...

As for the toes, the left big toe had an ugly break, I had to shorten all :( . I had the same pedicure for the past week, OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui. Nice cool blue color. It does not scream but surely does not go unnoticed. I guess I will go orange tomorrow on the toes and will post new pictures. Surely not the same color as hands, I prefer a mismatch. All suggestions are welcome.

OPI Suede We'll Always Have Paris

Outdoor



Indoor with a flash
OPI Suede collection is quite exceptional. Indeed matte polishes are by definition flat, but the Suede collection gives an exceptional look to matte polishes. The colors are expressed in an understated glamor.

The application is a breeze. Though one coat is sufficient, I preferred two coats to give the pedicure a longer life. Indeed the down side of these polishes is the short life of the color on the nails, they chip quickly, and applying a top coat defies the purpose of their matte look.

"We'll Always Have Paris" is the coolest color and goes well with most skin tones. The iridescence of the purplish color looks fabulous outdoor. Very pretty for a pedicure, and looks as pretty on the hands.

Essie Fifth Avenue

No matter how many nail polishes one has, there is always this color you see on someone else's hands or feet and you say "Ooops how come I don't have it".

A month ago I saw a coworker wearing Essie Fifth Avenue on her hands. This lovely cream red with solid orange tint looked superb on her hands. I couldn't resist complementing her, surely for the color but also for her manicure, it was very well done on short nails.

One conversation led to another, I shared with her my addiction to nail polish colors. Fabulous surprise; I discovered a soul sister, here in the office next door a nail polish addict. Can't ask for a better encounter.

There started my first swap experience. Few days later she got me a box with many polishes including Essie Fifth Avenue. Tried all of them the same day :) and settled for the Essie for my weekly pedicure.

Beware if you try this color you will have hard time taking your eyes off your nails; It is beautiful and a must have!

My first pictures

I do a pedicure once a week with a color change. I have learned over the years the perfect the nails painting techniques. I may qualify by now for a nail tech job - dream job for me - alas the pay is not enough to pay for my endless craving for new colors. I settle for my "more serious" job, and keep sometime during the weekend for the nails polishing fun. It cool, relaxing, top notch stress removing activity. I am wondering why doctors don't prescribe it!! (just joking)

This week I gave green colors a try. I picked "Jade is the new black" from the OPI Hong Kong collection. Application was a breeze, two coats were sufficient to give nice full green color coverage and the result was amazing.

The cream color is consistent indoor and outdoor, and stood out exceptionally on my fair toned feet. I was tempted to add some nail art but was running out of ideas.

Oh My Toes!!

Never thought I would get into blogging about my painted toes. 2 years after lurking around a hundred of blogs of nail polished blogs (and the number is increasing by the day), I finally fell into the temptation of starting mine.

I am a straight guy passionate about the beauty of hands and feet. Nothing looks nicer than well groomed and nicely manicured hands and pedicured feet. No, I am neither gay nor into cross-dressing, I am just born with a hopeless passion for beautifully colored nails, including mine.

I started polishing my nails since my late teens, and seriously collecting nail polishes for the past few years. My nail polish collection keeps growing reaching more than a 1000 now. Yet, every time new seasonal colors are out, I get the urge of buying them all. I never get the feeling I have enough colors, "Is it a sickness fellow nail polish addicts?".

My toes are painted to perfection 24/7 but keep my manly hands very well groomed. Though I swatch colors on my hands every now and then for the fun of it. My toenails my look long for the liking of a few, but hey the larger the canvas the more exquisite the colors.

I'm blessed with a lovely wife who accepts my passion and shares it with me. Sometimes we enjoy matching pedicures and other times we compete on contrasting choices of colors.

Pretty nails are the naturals ones; acrylics, gels, extension, etc. do not match my taste.

Life is too short to be too serious, colors bring joy and fun, so enjoy my blog and keep the fun going.