Nails.
I feel like in order to be well-groomed, smart nails are essential. Yes, clean and tidy is the minimum, but having a colour (or a french polish), to me, is really elegant. (And yes, I know some people don't like French polish).
(1) I've tried press-on nails. The smell of the glue is awful. Taking them off was awful & leaves nails damaged. It looks terrible when one falls off. I hate that 'thick' feeling.
(2) The same goes for acrylics.
(3) I've tried doing an ordinary polish on myself. It always looks shit. And that's even if I don't knock against something. I try to do it like when I am sitting to watch a movie, so it has an hour to dry, but I will accidentally press it into my jumper or something. I've tried doing it just before bed so there's less chance of creating a dent/smudge. But I can't keep still that long. Inevitably smudged on my pillow or something.
(4) If I pay someone to do it, by the time I get home I've knocked a dent into it.
(5) Doing gel on myself looks shit. I just don't have a steady enough hand or patience.
(6) For me gel polish at a salon has worked the best. But for fingers and toes you're looking at at least £50. Where I am they charge around £30 for hands. After two weeks the hands need to be redone. I can't afford £700 per year on that. I know there are some people who do an infill thing but it seems to cost only about £5 less than gel nails, though they say it causes less damage.
Solution:
semi-cured gel nail strips
I wish I had discovered them decades ago. (Though, to be fair, they probably weren't invented).
There are some with all designs and patterns, but I just got the plain colour ones (boring red, but I like it). I've seen them online for as cheap as a pound, but the ones I got were £8 for 20 stickers.
It took me 5 minutes to put them on. I used scissors and nail clippers to adjust the size a couple. I keep my nails short, so with the excess I cut off I could do my toes. So, fingers and toes £4. And I've got spares in case of damage.
I cured them under a lamp for 90 seconds. (I wear the UV protection gloves).
They look so, so good 😭
They didn't take an hour driving into town & getting them done. No faff of booking an appointment or waiting around as a walk in.
They don't feel thick like press-ons. No mess. No dents. No smell. No polish painted accidentally on my skin. no making small talk £4!
I've only had them on since morning. I don't know how they will hold up. I'll report back. But they've lasted long enough for an interview/event/night out, which is when I usually would have got them done.
Sorry not sorry for the spiel, but I feel excited that I've figured out a beauty thing. Like when I discovered magnetic eyeliner & eyelashes. Probably in 20 years they will tell us it's as bad as cigarettes but I'll enjoy it for now.