Color Street – The Hermits' Rest

Broken Nail? Tea Bags to the Rescue

I wrote up instructions for my group of Color Street nail strip enthusiasts that I thought might be useful for some of my other friends who enjoy medium to long nails. Feel free to share by attribution and link.

I like my nails long, because I have short fingers. I wish I had another set of these strips.

No matter how strong fingernails are, accidents do happen. Sometimes nothing can be done, but more often a nail just breaks a little. Many times, unexpected pressure can cause a little break below the quick that you’d like to have grow out to keep your healthy nail bed covered.

Warning: If you break a fingernail and it bleeds or shows signs of infection, please get it looked at and treat it as a wound, not an inconvenience. Keep it clean and protected so it can heal. Don’t polish an infected nail or cover it with a press-on.

So your nail is healthy but broken and you want to grow it out a bit. That happened to me a couple of months ago (February kidding from the photo below). I looked down, and a straight cut on my left middle finger looked back at me, metaphorically. Of course, all my other nails were looking good. The break was about halfway between the quick and the cuticle, so removing the rest of the nail would have hurt and perhaps damaged my nail.

So, next time I changed my nail color, I protected the break with regular tea bags. You’ll find different kinds of paper holding tea, but they are all little meshes, and those meshes make them strong. They also allow nail polish to soak through them. And one bag lasts months, so you don’t waste tea.

Example

This nail was broken WAY below the quick, as shown above, too) but I’ve managed to grow it out to where it could be clipped. But, once it grew, the tea bags have held like iron. And it’s not very noticeable. The trick has been TWO layers of tea bag.

The poorly drawn arrow shows how far down the break originally was. It has grown out from there.

One layer works fine in many cases, especially on pinkies or if you don’t type and ride horses a lot (me). That’s why I do the following.

Method

2. Tear (do not cut) two pieces of tea bag that will more than cover the break. You don’t want it huge, but large enough to strengthen the broken area. If the break has grown out a bit, one piece should be able to wrap around. The edges will be a little jagged, which seems to help disguise the patch.

2. Put a layer of clear base coat on the nail.

3. Immediately place one of the tea bag pieces centered over the break. Be sure it covers the broken edge, where the patch gets the most pressure.

4. While it’s still wet, press the patch down to make the break area smooth. Yes you’re messing up the base coat, but it gets covered again.

5. Let dry.

6. Add another coat of base coat and place the other layer on it (this should not exactly match the first one, to make it smoother). Press it down. Make sure the tea bag is on smoothly.

You can see the tea bags, but the base coat gives a smooth (ish) surface for your pretty manicure.

7. If the break has grown above the quick, add a bit of base coat under the nail and fold the overlap under and smooth. I press it down with a nail stick. You don’t need much polish, and try to keep it off your finger—not easy.

8. Let it dry.

9. Add one more base layer to smooth the nail.

10. Let it dry.

11. Finally, you can put your strips on or paint your nails.

12. Then add topcoat.

Finished. It helps that it’s black, but honestly I can’t see the repair. This one worked!

Whew. This sounds more complex than it is. And it does take a while to do the drying. But by gosh, that repair sticks. I often find it hard to remove the tea bags when I reapply!

This is last week’s. You can see a little irregularity but only if you look hard.

Hints

I find that when the break is growing out, the repair can loosen, especially for the first few weeks. The break may even get a little bigger. Don’t give up! The layers of mesh and polish usually hold well.

Once past the quick, repairs hold really well. I type for a living, pull weeds, and mess with horses, and I have few problems.

If you have the option, dark or patterned nail colors disguise repairs best.

If a break covers more than half the nail, it’s less likely to successfully repair. Try to buff the area smooth before even trying.

Usually I just grow a break out long enough to trim smoothly, then shorten the rest of my nails, but it’s been fun to grow this one out.

The thumb in this picture is a break I grew out long enough to trim smoothly and cut the other nails down to match.

Additional ideas are welcome; this is just what works for me with fairly strong nails. Repairs are harder on weak nails or ones damaged by gels, dips, lacquers, etc. This I know from experience!

Branded? Not Me

What brands do you associate with?

I’m not a millennial or whatever age group feels the need to associate with a brand or become a brand. It’s just not something I think about. Ever.

I guess, tongue in cheek, I could say I associate myself to Color Street (see, I linked to it). It’s the stuff I use for my silly little fingernails that make me happy. Since I’m constantly being asked how I do the looks, I do tend to evangelize. And I’m probably helping Rebecca the consultant actually make money in an MLM scheme (or as proponents call it, a home business, ha ha).

Yeah, there are less expensive options that feel a bit rubbery, but I enjoy the fun of buying these and sharing ideas and manicures with others. It’s fairly harmless and supports a US business. I represent Color Street (unofficially) because it’s fun.

That’s what they look like in the package.

The only other “brand” I associate with is the Texas Master Naturalist program. I’m proud to have a TMN license plate and wear my shirts around. It’s a privilege to share what I’ve learned with others, too. This organization does so much for our state parks and research.

I’m just not fond of branding myself and am not inclined to become an influencer and promote things. That seems so fake and vain. Besides, I’m old, which Facebook must not know with all their labeling me as a rising creator. I think creator means person who shares a lot of stuff.

In other news, I was working with Apache and walked him way over by the woods. While he was noshing away on some healthy grass, I spotted a raccoon in the stream!

Yeah, today I wouldn’t have blogged. But I committed to answering the prompt for all of September. Only three more days!

It was nice enough outside to do a Zoom meeting by the pool.

Pride and Practicality

I have to say my horses make me proud. Today was another lesson day for both of them, and you could really see progress, even since last week. Drew. Damn. He just loves to learn new things, so it’s easy to sneak new knowledge.

The goal today was to work on turning right without crowding. He thought it was working on stopping and starting, then going in and out of cones without me following. I walked in a straight line and he had to weave. He didn’t get it at first with Tarrin but got great at it with me. Proud!

He also is now jumping higher jumps, which is really going to help his muscles. And today he did it calmly, so he didn’t have to re-do anything. He was cool as a cucumber. In fact he drifted off a couple of times when we were talking. Maybe he will learn to turn more straight and I’ll learn to turn correctly, too. We’re getting instructions!

I’m also proud of these ribbons from the virtual show we did in May. It’s the first time he ever had competition. And I was very proud of both Drew and Sully. They were very close in their scores. This was a great show for Sully’s first one! Sara has done such a great job training her. I’m proud of her, too!

As for Apache, he was moody at first, but he got really excited and seemed genuinely happy when he managed to jump over the high jump twice, in each direction. I think he surprised himself!

And that boy worked his butt off today. His goal was getting under his haunches and stopping properly. He has really been reluctant to stop when he’s anxious. Well he practiced stopping a LOT. He did many of the things Drew was doing, but including lots of stopping. To his credit, he got the idea!

By the time we were doing the “approach the scary trailer” ordeal, he was paying attention and stopping on a dime. Screech! That’s real progress. The whole trailer approach is improving. It’s not there yet, but Tarrin says he’s starting to trust that I’ll keep him safe.

I’m also doing better with my ability to be calm and deal with his stuff. I’m proud of our progress, but feel bad for how wound up he gets. I did give him a nice bath, and I can assure you he had a nice roll later.

Practicality

I thought you might get a chuckle out of how I decided to organize all those Color Street nail polishes I have. I found that one of my shoe boxes fit them perfectly.

I felt like decorating it, so I found my 2020 calendar of donkeys and used it to cover the shoe box. It’s certainly cheerful.

The donkeys make me smile, and now it’s wY easier to see what polish sets I have. I also sealed the used ones in hopes that I can use them later by warming them up.

And there ya go. Something random and not depressing! And because I want to reward those of you who read to the end, let’s enjoy the dogs on a pleasant evening.