Nail shape and balance

What's the best nail shape for your finger?  Believe it or not there are rules.  No one says you have to
follow them, but they are a good guideline for what is visually appealing.

 How awesome do these look?

Unless you're from Jersey, visually these probably seem a bit off.

This is my post talking about different nail shapes and how to best balance your finger past the free edge
based on your nail bed shape.

There are 3 main nail bed shapes.  Look at your nail bed from cuticle to tip.  Forget anything past the free
edge because you can manipulate that shape with a file.  Your nail plate is probably either rounded,
square or triangular.  Below is a graphic I made of proper nail shapes past the free edge based on your
nail bed shape.

As a warning, this graphic is very text book and I have listed other options that, in my opinion, will work
very well.  Unfortunately, the triangle nail shape is the most limited.  If anyone has any suggestions
please comment.
make the best of your nail shape: a lesson in proportions

I’v
e gotten quite a few requests for a tutorial on my nail care. But, honestly, I really don’t do anything
special; my polish-changing routine goes like this: take off old polish – file nails if they’re too long –
base coat – new polish, that’s it, nothing revolutionary.
For nice hands/nails, I think proportions are much more important than nail care: Hands with slender
and feminine fingers are prettier than those with short and stumpy fingers, no matter how flaky their
cuticles or how brittle their nails are. Now, while we are all pretty much stuck with the actual shape
of our hands and fingers, we can manipulate the “extensions” of our fingers, our nails, and create
more flattering proportions. Believe me, your hands can look totally different depending on how how
you shape your nails and how you apply nail polish. Like dressing for your body shape, it’s all about
proportions.
Fortunately, nail and finger shapes don’t vary as much as body shapes, there are only really two
variables involved: length and width. These two measures are proportional because changing one
affects the appearance of the other (longer fingers look slimmer and vice versa).
I created some before/after comparisons (sacrificing a few nails in the process :)) to show you four
simple ways to use the power of proportions in your (hand’s) favour:

# 1: Nails should always be longer than they are wide

In order to make your fingers appear longer/slimmer you have to stretch them visually. Square or
round nails (as or less long than wide), do the opposite and will make pretty much everyone’s fingers
look a lot shorter. Short nails are fine, but your nails should be at least slightly longer than their
widest point. Depending on the shape of your nail beds, this might be a given for you even with as-
short-as-possible-nails (in my case only my thumbs’s nails can be square). But if your nail beds are
wide/short, consider growing your nails at least until they have a slight rectangular shape.

# 2: The shorter or thicker your fingers, the longer your nails should be
This is essentially an extension of # 1: the longer your nails are, the thinner your fingers will
look. Relatively slim fingers look fine as long as nails are a tiny bit longer than wide, but if you
really want to elongate your fingers, try experimenting with longer nails. Obviously, there is an upper
limit and super long nails are neither pretty, nor practical, but even a few additional millimeters make
a big difference.

# 3: Avoid the inverted triangle shape

Some nails, mine included, naturally grow into the shape of a triangle past a certain length, where the
tip of the nail becomes wider than the rest of the nail. This means that the flattering rectangular shape
is lost, fingers appear wider and it’s just kind of a strange look in general. If your nails are like this,
simply file down the edges, so each nail has the same width all-over.
# 4: Leave a gap on each side of the nail polish-free
Don’t apply nail polish all the way up to the sidewalls of your nails, especially if your nail beds are
relatively wide/short (see # 1), as this will make your nails seem wide in relation to the width of your
finger. It’s kind of hard to explain why but a thinner nail in relation to the width of your finger is a lot
more flattering. My own nails are relatively narrow, so it doesn’t make much of a difference on them,
but look at the little pink model on the pics: Although both “fingers” are the same width and length,
the right one with the thinner nail looks slimmer. To get thinner-looking nails, simply leave out a tiny
strip on each side when applying your polish, no one will be able to tell. Also, if your nailbeds are
not naturally rectangular, (e.g. get wider towards the end) you can correct their shape by regulating
the gap.
Hi everyone! How are you all doing? For today I decided to write a short little post about how I shape my nails, since
some of you have been asking me about this. I'm sure there are many ways to do this, but this is mine :-).
 shape up!
Ok, first thing to decide, is your desired shape. There are about 5 basic shapes to
choose from: pointed, square, squoval, round and stiletto. In the past women always
went with a rounded or oval shape. Nowadays the square and squoval (stands for
squared oval) looks are really popular. A new trend however is the pointed and
stiletto look.

The stiletto thing is not really my cup of tea, I've seen them once in real life and I
wasn't that thrilled about it, they just don't seem practical to me. I might stab myself
while I'm sleeping.
I do think they look very vixenlike when they're covered in ManGlaze hotness ;-).
And they're great canvases for nail art. 
Most of the times they're artificial, I think I'd have to grow very long nails to achieve
this look.

On the catwalk we're seeing a lot of oval shaped nails, so I'm guessing that's going
to be a trend as well.

Pictures are property of CND My nails are always hovering between squoval and square. They say nails are less
weak if you file them like this, I'm not sure how true this is, but I've had way less
breaks since stopped filing them round!
wear a dark color
I always try to shape my nails when I'm wearing a dark color. This way it's easier to
see the actual shape of the nail. When I'm filing my nails without nail polish I always
end up with crooked nails since my nailbeds aren't symmetrical at all.. And, they're
not the same length either, so to end up with similar lengths, I'm ignoring my naked
nails entirely ;-).

I got this great tip from Kirsten from The Dutch Nail Blog, and I'm doing it like this
ever since!

Pssht this is Emerald Sparkle by China Glaze, don't you just love it?

step away from the clippers

Alright, tt's time to dig up your file! I'm not a fan of clippers, every time I use them,
my nails split. So, after messing up a 1000 times and ending up with really short
nails, I'm sticking with just filing, *foolproof*. If your nails are more on the softer side,
clipping might not be a problem.

I can't stress this enough, but please invest in a glass file, they may be more
expensive, but they last you a very long time. You'll have less risk of tears and splits,
when you're using a glass file.

I use a fine buffing file too. I use this when I'm done shaping, to soften up any hard
edges you might have.

let's start!
When you're filing your nails, please don't move your file back and forth, it can
cause damage. I often hear you're not allowed to file the walls of your nails, but the
rebel in me decides to do so anyway. If I don't, I won't achieve the shape I want.

As you can see in the picture, I always file in one direction, and that's the center of
the nail. This way the edges remain the smoothest.

Tada, you're done! Now, I'm really curious to see what everyone's shape preference is! Please fill out my poll if you'd
like to. I hope this was helpful to some of you, please take care and till next time!