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.