Gels!
My life has become easier since last December. I have discovered gels! Gel nail polish that is. Despite all the work I do all day with my hands, my nails keep looking fresh and strong for at least three weeks. No chipping, no breaking, no touch ups! A beautiful, professional manicure at all times. Let me tell you the journey of my nails.
In the late 70s, Dr. Stuart Nordstrom, a dentist, had invented the professional liquid and powder system used in acrylics. One of the first people to use acrylic nails was Florence “Flo Jo” Griffith Joyner in the 1980s.
In the 1980s, living in Pasadena, California, we had a friend who was working for a dentist. He was manufacturing the products that had become popular in the seventies, a powder and a liquid: acrylic. One day, our friend asked me if I would like to start a business and market his product for him.
At the time, I was doing print jobs, commercials and an occasional play in the greater Los Angeles area. But having my own business? That sounded exciting. I knew virtually nothing about acrylic nails, so I went to a nail salon to educate myself. And if any of my current readers were in California at that time, you will remember that I practiced on you, offering a free set of acrylics! You may not have wonderful memories of those freebies, you may even have taken them right off behind my back, but then I was practicing, and thankful to my subjects. Of course I was also doing all the other fun jobs plus taking care of my family and the dog. My mother called me a centipede. These days, my daughter would call me a multitasker.
The next step was creating a name for my business. Her Nails was created and powder and liquid samples came in neat little white boxes and bottles printed with that name in red. Just wonderful. I visited many salons, selling Her Nails, and since that time I used them myself, first home applications then at a salon. Great looking nails, at any length I wanted but they needed a “fill” every two weeks. After three years, when it did not bring the profit I had expected, I closed the business. And we left for Hawai’i.
To make a long story short: I used acrylics in Hawai’i and when we left Hawai’i in 2001, my nail tech gave me a nice size bottle of OPI liquid and powder, and that lasted me a while. We moved again, to Cary, North Carolina, and with the arrival of Covid I gave up artificial nails and did my own, using nail strengthener only.
Now, in Apex, my nail tech gave me a gel manicure for my birthday in December. With all the work I did my nails kept looking fresh and beautiful for four weeks! I realize that many ladies have already used gel nail polish for years. But to me it is new! A great discovery. I’ll use only gel from now on.
A Foot Massage
Well, I am getting used to all kinds of luxuries. I had an hour’s foot massage with reflexology and aromatherapy last Monday. It was wonderful, and partially not just a luxury, because I had suffered from metatarsal pain in my right foot for a while. Today, I have been walking with less pain, and if foot massages are therapeutic and help me get to my 4 miles a day again, then I will have some more. The salon is just 4 miles away, small, family owned, and there was only one English speaking person in the place, not my therapist. They are from Thailand. It’s a good way to learn some sign language! But I enjoyed an hour of reading in the wonderful book: The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese.
That must be it for tonight. I’m going back to my book on the sofa!
Stay well,
Until next time,
Ronny
Thanks for the book recommendation, Ronny. I’m going for the library audio version.
I wonder what you will think about the audio version. The story plays in India and has many Indian words and expressions, like mundu and Molay and many more. Kind of like my book, which has Dutch, Indonesian, Japanese and Hawaiian words. Perhaps I will try a chapter of the audio version after I finish the book.
I adore audio especially for the language.
Wonderful. Let me know what you think. Hoping you are well, dear friend.