Nail Accounts you should Follow - Book.Polish

 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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