Love and Nail Polish During Wartime
My blog friend, Jonah, writes the beautiful Love During Wartime. He writes with sparse elegance, writes the world in simple colors that reflect all those hidden bits of love we forget to carry. Every time I read his site I feel so damn human, feel him sneak his life force into my pockets until they overflow. Jonah simply rocks.
Jonah sampled the Avon Instant Manicure and sent in this review. But please! Once you read about his experience with Avon, click over to his site and get lost.
Review: Avon Instant Manicure
The Challenge:
I’m a guy, OK? I don’t worry much about how my nails look, except that they be acceptably clean for social occasions.
I’m also a guitarist, which means nails on my right hand get a pretty good work-out. I normally strum with my thumb and forefinger; I finger-pick with my thumb, and first three fingers (the pinky seems to just lag behind). I very rarely use finger picks or a single pick. I’m no Chet Atkins, but I do alright.
This is what those nails are up against:
Six-string guitar:
Twelve-string guitar:
I use medium strings on the 6-string; they range in size from 1.42 mm to 0.33 mm. I use light strings on the 12; they range from 1.19 mm to 0.25 mm. The largest string, of either set, is smaller than 5/100ths of an inch in diameter.
I recently realized that those strings act like multiple emery boards, ranging from a very fine grain to heavy grain. My nails are rough, chip easily, and break at odd angles. They can get worn down past my fingertips during times of heavy use, to the point that I don’t have nails to pluck strings with.
Then, on Birdie’s blog, I noticed a discussion of Avon’s Instant Manicure kit. This kit is a thin film that sticks on your nail, and makes your nails look professionally polished. The reviewer claimed that her nails seemed to get stronger while wearing the kit, so that her nails did not chip as easily after removing the film.
This seemed a worthy experiment. Birdie was kind enough to send some samples – three pairs. In my mind, the experiment had two steps: 1) how well the application withstood the guitar strings; 2) whether my nails were stronger once I removed the application.
I put strips on the nails of my index finger and third finger. To make the experiment somewhat fair, I applied Tough as Nails polish on my thumbnail and the remaining fingernails (I’ve been using this product, and a similar Avon product for about 3 years).
Interestingly, no one has commented on how much better those two nails look compared to the other nails. They are definitely shinier than the nails which merely received clear nail polish.
As of last Friday, the two strips had been on my nails a little over two weeks. For most of that time, the fingernails with the strips held up better than the other nails. Sadly, the nail on my index finger chipped last Friday during some relatively intense playing. Which suggests that the kit did not actually strengthen the nail.
However, I am still pleased with how well the kit protected my nails up to this point.
I have a gig this Thursday, and made a point to replace the application on my index and third fingers this past weekend.
Final rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars. I deduct a point because the kit did not fully live up to the folk promise.
