Nail Art Accounts you should Follow
Book.Polish
For my first "Instagram Accounts you should Follow" I'm so excited to share with you a super fun instagram account, Book.Polish. I knew when I stumbled across this account it would be good - I mean how cool a premise is that!? Books and Nail Polish!
To celebrate sharing this account, Lou (From Book.Polish) and I decided to do a Twinning Mani!
We both chose the book "Little Woman" and painted our nails to match the respective cover. What do you think?
So pretty!
Now lets meet Book.Polish
What’s your
name? Or what Name do you go by?
I'm happy to go by Lou or
Lu! Those are nicknames.
What are your
pronouns?
She/Her
Where do you live?
I live in Vienna, Austria, a city of around 2 Million people.
What’s
your IG handle and how did you choose it?
My name on Instagram is
book.polish, and it literally was the first thing that came to mind after I had
the idea of doing manicures based on book covers. I wanted something that
simply captured that concept. My first true love has always been literature, and
it felt perfect to combine it with my new hobby. There was already
a bookpolish before, but that account seems to be inactive since 2017, so
choosing that name seemed fine to me.
What famous
person throughout history do you most admire?
This is a tough question,
because every historical figure has problematic aspects in their lives/views,
and there is a tendency to romanticize or glamourize people after the fact. But
someone I have found very important and interesting is French philosopher
and writer Simone de Beauvoir.
Her work on how gender is socially constructed,
while more or less mainstream now, was groundbreaking back in the 1940s. She
also lived a very interesting life, being in a long-term partnership with
Jean-Paul Sartre, but having many other relationships (with men and women),
while being one of the few women in the white male intellectual scene of
the time.
How long
have you been nail painting? And how did you first get into it?
I've been loving nail
polish since I was a kid, my mum and I always used to paint our nails and
toenails during the summer, and it was such a nice activity (glittery toe
polish in the summer is just the best). During my teenage years, I was a heavy
nail biter, using pretty nail polish to limit that bad habit (with
low success). While I wore nail polish all through my early twenties, I
had never done more than paint my nails one solid colour until last year, when
I developed an interest in experimenting more.
Part of that is
definitely due to Simply Nailogical, whose videos I've been watching and
enjoying for a while. At some point I saw Cristine do a design where I just
thought "Hey, I want to be able to do that!" and it just went on from
there. Another factor was the Covid-induced lockdown where I live – suddenly I
had all this time and nowhere to go, and that is when I started the Instagram
account, in late November 2020.
Do you
prefer swatching or nail art?
Personally I prefer doing
nail art, since the Instagram account is my artistic/creative project. I think
I also follow more nail art accounts, because that gives me inspiration and
makes me feel connected, but there are some great accounts who do mainly
swatching that I enjoy as well, for example your girl vee or mylacqueredlife or
nonbinarynails.
What is
your favourite nail polish and why?
One of the few good
things in 2020 was that I discovered multi-chrome nail polish (and the option
to order nail polish online - a whole neeeew wooooorld!). My current favourites
thus are multi-chrome polishes in general, with Prism Polish's "Walking on
the Sky" and Color Club's "Don't Kale my Vibe" being standouts.
There is something so magical about the shifting colours, I feel like a
butterfly being drawn to a flower, the many shades capturing my attention. They
make me feel happy, and it's also a simple way to have a something going on on
my nails (whithout actual nail art).
"Walking on the
Sky" shifts from bright turquoise to periwinkle to purple (I don’t know
what this pose is though, sorry)
“Don’t kale my vibe“
shifts from bright green to gold-brown with a hint of red/purple
Another one I'm really enjoying right now is the opaque-in-one-coat "French Tip" white polish by Color Club. I'll be using that one a lot for book-cover based designs.
Favourite
nail polish brand?
Although I only have five
of their polishes, I'm currently very much in love with polishes by Prism
Polish, a UK indie brand that is 10 toxin free, vegan-friendly and cruelty
free. Their blue creme "Nimbostratus" is probably my most used polish
right now, sparkly warm yellow "Spiced Apple Cider" is such a happy
colour, "My Solos are my Trademark" is the most magical thing, and
I already mentioned the wonderful "Walking on the Sky". I like their
branding, their bottle and brush design, the packaging it came in was super
cute... The only bad thing I can say is that Brexit-related taxes
are messing with my future orders, which is making me so sad.
On the cheaper drugstore front, I'm quite happy
with CATRICE polishes, most of their cremes are very opaque and have a nice
consistency.
Favourite
nail polish colour?
I have two favourite
polish colours, the one is a light-turquoise the other one lilac. I keep buying
these over and over again, in slightly varying shades. I generally prefer to
wear lighter nail polish, maybe because they brighten my mood, maybe because my
nails aren't that long and rather broad and I think it suits them better.
Are you
a natural or false nail (press on) fan?
For myself, I like
natural nails, although I'm still struggling with nail biting, and my
nails are rather thin and bendy, although that has improved a lot! I never
thought that there would be a point where I'd be comfortable with sharing my
natural nails online, and I'm proud of that. My goal is to get them to a more
sturdy state. I did try glue-on nails as a teen, but I kept picking them
off, and it left my natural nails even thinner and more damaged than before.
I also don't want to have to spend more money on
artificial nails of any kind, and I'm a bit wary of beauty standards that
require recurring costs (such as filling gel-nails each month). But the
beautiful thing is that there are so many options and everyone can experiment
and choose what suits them best. My younger sister is doing her own acrylic
stiletto nails, which are so different to mine, and it's exactly the look for
her!
What was
the most difficult manicure you painted?
Honestly, the braided
mani look I did for "How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division" I
struggled with the patience required, having to apply so many layers and
letting them all dry, and I just didn't manage to place the stripes
neatly. I had to start over so many times, which is a pain when you mess
up one of the last layers, and the end result is rather mediocre
(coincidentally, this is also the inspiring nail design I saw Simply
Nailogical do, that sparked it all for me). I still really like the look though.
What
manicure is your favourite?
I really love the
continuous gradient I did for „Die Stadt der Wilden Götter“ and as a birthday
mani for nailsbyaccident. It’s one of my favourite book covers ever and I’m
happy with how the nails turned out. All those colours together!
If you
could paint one person’s nails in the world who would you pick?
Hmm, so the very first
person that popped into my mind is Michelle Obama, because she's such an
inspirational woman, intelligent and tender and tough, and she has great
style, but I think I'd faint if I actually had to paint her nails, haha. I'd
also like to paint Patti Smith's nails, as she's one of my favourite musicians
and I'd really like to get to hang out with her. Generally I don't really enjoy
painting someone else's nails though, it's much more difficult!
What
other nail art accounts do you think I should follow?
Oooh, naming just a few is
tough Here's a selection of awesome nail artists who all have their distinct
style and who inspire me a lot:
@press_reset_nails –
super creative, elegant and inspired by the world
@nailybycanishiea –
has such a distinct style
@nailsbyaccident –
an account full of neon, layers, gradients, colours and experimentation
@nailsbynovia –
wonderfully aesthetic and unusual designs
@mani.tees –
versatile, geeky, always brightening my mood
@deylie_nails –
here for the holo and lots of different designs
@nailsuponatime –
lovely minimalist designs and perfect poses
@basecoatstories –
glam, minimalism, elegant creativity
@catfishlovespolish – super cute and there’s always
something new
@coyarose -
wonderfully artistic designs inspired by nature
Thanks for Reading!
Don't forget to check out all the awesome accounts I've featured so far here.
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and comment below with your favourite mani and who you want to see next!!
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