I keep telling myself that I’m finally going to make a schedule and stick to it, but as all things with good intentions, my brain decides that no, that isn’t something I can do.

However it does let me keep making nails every day, and I try to do at least 1 nail a day just to always be trying new things. And this month I made quite a few nails.

I primarily make nails for four of my friends, and so generally the nails I make are tailored to either them, or myself if I’m being totally honest, and all of us are real Kpop fans so the nails I make tend to have a…. particular bend to them.

Because of that a lot of them do have decals of Kpop artists on them, and while I’d love to tell you where to buy those for your own nails, I actually make them myself doing a very not mysterious system of me finding the images on the internet, painstakingly masking them out from the backgrounds in photoshop, lining them all up and scaling them to the size I want, before printing them on waterslide decal paper.

After that, you’ve got to spray them with clear spray sealant, and then after they’re dry use an xacto knife to very slowly and carefully cut them out. It’s tedious and I have cut myself more than I care to admit, but they do make cute nails. I made the above shown Chanyeol Nails for my one friend Katy (who is a huge EXO-L like myself) over some green magnetic polish, and then very slowly painted on all of the squiggles over a matte topcoat before doing isolated chrome on them. It took… way longer than I care to admit, but they turned out so cute. When I shared them with the ol nail groupchat, my other friend Nicole loved them, but not the colours, so I did end up recreating them in purple and teal, featuring Felix from Stray Kids.

I also found myself lighter in the wallet but rich in glitter polishes with the JinB Summer Crush collection.

I didn’t have a huge amount of glitter polishes (I’d taken to just mixing glitter into some base gel if i wanted a little splash of sparkle), but I really wanted to get a nice versatile and bright collection of glitter, as my magpie like tendencies are out of control. I had a few collections I was looking at, but my nail friends all picked this one when I showed them the options I was considering, so it sort of sealed the deal for me.

They go on a bit jelly like, but two coats definitely makes them totally opaque, and the glitter is INSANE. Shine a light directly on them and they are a bit blinding.

Am I using glitter polish purchases to combat the horrors of existence? Who’s to say. Regardless, these in my humble opinion were worth my purchase.

I made a few sets using them so far (I got them less than a week ago so I haven’t gotten too crazy with them yet) including one set where I once again attempted to get fancy with my airbrush machine, a tool I desperately wish to be good at, but have yet to master.

Hopefully Practice will make perfect!

I also got a new 3d silicone mold of very ridiculous bows, so I did combine the bows with glitter in a bit of an over the top square set for Nicole, but I didn’t really plan it out first I just sort of dove in and did whatever, and I don’t LOVE the result, but they’re silly and cute enough that I don’t think she’ll mind wearing them.

I love my nail friends, because they’re willing to wear my nail experiments, which frankly is super cool. I of course don’t charge them for any experimental nails, because a) i’m bad at charging for what i make, and b) unless it’s a specific request I don’t think that they should pay me, I’m using them as a canvas for my learning process.

They do sometimes send me incredible goodies, like their own artwork or Kpop Boypaper (collectable photocards), and art supplies, so the circle of friendship bartering is well and alive in our little corner of international friends united by a groupchat and shared interests.

Try explaining that to a “Why are you so poor?” mother – It’s not easy.

I try to make at least one nail a day, so I often have random orphan nails just hanging out in a box on my desk.

As a fun little aside, the Balatro nails are actually magnetic, part of a possible completely unwearable set of nails that I’m looking to make as more of an art project (still figuring out how to make a few ideas for them I have work, but soon!)

And while this isn’t all the nails I made, I think this is a nice collection of the silliness I get up to at my nail desk.

I think all of us need to do something that takes us out of the current reality of existing in the current era, and for me it’s making nails for my friends. The thought of them feeling joy when they look down at their hands is such a motivator for me. My only goal in life has always been making people feel happiness, and I think I definitely fall in the “gift giving” collection of people, so knowing that I’m sending little bundles of joy in the mail makes it worth it for me to get up in the morning, even amidst the horrors.

I hope that everyone can find a source of some horror combatting activity to motivate them to keep going even when everything seems hard and hopeless.

Remember to go out and enjoy the sunshine, smile at people you pass, wave at babies, pet some dogs, whatever will bring joy to you and the people around you 🙂

Cheers!