Birds of a Feather

I am very excited about this post. It's feather nails! I've been wanting to try these for months. I picked up the feathers a day or two before my last nail break though so doing these nails was put on hold. My nail has since grown back nicely so I figured it was past time to try feather nails for the first time. 

Before attempting these nails I scoured the internet for blogger tutorials and youtube videos. What I learned is that while everyone has their own quirks, it's all basically done the same way. With this in mind, I set out to complete my own nails keeping the feather tutorials in mind.

I started with two coats of Revlon's Bare Bones. I thought of buying brightly colored feathers or using a bright polish but I wanted these nails to be slightly more classic. I wanted them to look more realistic for my first try. So I went for the realistic feathers and a neutral base color.

What I quickly realized is that the nails were very easy to do. Time consuming, yes but hard, not so much! I would recommend buying the bagged loose feathers. The only realistic feathers my craft store had though was a feather pad . I have no idea what this is used for originally but whatever it's meant for ... I don't think the feathers are meant to be just plucked and pulled off like I was doing. Some of them wouldn't come off at all and those that did left pieces behind. Still, I got more than enough of the feather to work with, so I guess the feather pad worked well enough.

Putting the feathers on was also a fairly simple task. I used the glue-like polish that comes in gem packages. I figured if it can hold on my gems for days it should be no problem to hold on a feather.

The first thing to remember when putting feathers on your nails is that you don't want to trim them too much before you have them practically glued to your nails. They will fall apart! Get them laid on your nails over a layer of clear polish, nothing quick drying because you need time to work, and then trim them around your nail. You'll want a small pair of scissors to do the trimming. I found it easier to trim because mine were both small and sharp tipped. After you get them trimmed around your nail you'll likely find you have some small, sharp pieces hanging over your nail. I recommend turning your scissors at an angle to lay over your nail and trimming the tips this way. Get the bottom blade under the pieces of feather hanging over your nail and use the top blade (still at an angle) to skim the very tip of your nail. Be very careful you don't cut your finger or your nail, just the feather! Anything you can't get with a pair of scissors can be lightly filed with a soft file.

I used three or four coats of a thick, quick dry top coat over the feathers. It took about that many before the polish stopped settling around the feather and the nail got smooth.

Here is the last picture I have to share. It's a natural part of the feather I used on this finger. I didn't even realized one of the spots formed into a heart, but I was ecstatic to see this!! It was like a little bit of love from the feathers themselves.

These feathers stayed on my nails for 5 days, and they only came off because I removed them! This is a very lasting manicure. This might have something to do with the feathers adding some protection to the tips of your nails or simply because you use so much top coat to seal them. Whatever it is, this mani lasts and looks amazing! The reactions you get when you say they're real feathers is also pretty darn cool.