Lessons From the Looney Bin- Lesson Three.

Lesson Three: Visible Nail Line No More! 

A lot of us polish people really hate Visible nail line or VNL.  I'm guessing we all hate it for different reasons. My reason is that I have super short nail beds. Like TINY nail beds, because I am a reformed biter. I think most of us just totally avoid polishes that we know will show VNL altogether. This totally sucks because ya'll are missing out on some killer polishes!  I'm not missing out though because I'm a rebel and I just wear sheers anyway and tell the world to eff off.  But recently this plan was thwarted by horrific stains that now keep me from wearing ANYTHING sheer, ever.

That is, my stains kept me from wearing anything sheer until I tried this.  This is the simple trick I use to hide my stains and VNL so that I can wear whatever I want, playa.  For this you're going to need to find yourself a nude polish that matches your nail beds as CLOSE as possible.  This polish also needs to be mostly opaque in ONE COAT.  It's gonna take some trial and a lot of errors but it's worth it.  Since I cannot even follow my own freakin rules I am using Orly Country club khaki with a thin coat of Misa high waist Hue over it.  I'm SUPER fair skinned so it's really hard to find a matching shade. Another good nude for fair skin is China Glaze great barrier beige.

Paint your nails in your opaque nude shade and let it completely dry.  Normally I would not let my polish dry before adding a second coat but this is different.  Once this is dry we are going to treat this just like we would our bare nail.  Yeah, there isn't a whole lot to this trick people.

Now, we apply our sheer polish or any other polish that normally would have shown VNL.  Because we chose a nude shade that matches our nail bed, the color of the polish we apply should not be altered in any way.  This trick also allows for more coverage in less coats, bonus! There are basically 3 types of polishes that give the worst VNL.  Jellies, glitters, and sheers.  Here are some before and after photos of these 3 types of polish with and without our opaque nude base coat.

Here is 4 coats of a sheer polish. Nail glossies 221 on my bare nails. Notice how you can clearly see my nail beds.  

This is only 3 coats of the same polish over our nude shade!  No VNL, no stains.  Awesome!  You can clearly see why we needed a nude polish that is opaque in one coat.  If we have to apply 2 or 3 to get the nude to be opaque then our final result is going to be chunky, way too thick and totally unnatural looking.

GAH!  Here is 3 coats of a glitter on my bare nails.  China Glaze Atlantis.  Would you look at the GROSSNESS.  Stains showing through, and really bad VNL.

Here we have Atlantis with only 2 coats over our nude polish. Much better! This needed a topcoat, but most glitters do.

Now for a Jelly.  EEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!! I cannot believe I'm posting this!  This is 4 whopping coats of Lippmann Rehab.  HOLY STAINS BATMAN.  I am taking one for the team to help you out here people!

Ok, *whew* this is only 3 coats of Rehab over our opaque nude.  Do I even need to comment on how much better this is?  I can't see a visible nail line, can you?