Nail-gasm!

Sure - at times, I have no power, no water, no selection of new clothes, no access to Middle Eastern food and yettttttttttttt every so often, a bright light shines through in the form, for me at least, in beauty services in China.

First, it was the hair washing - the place I love is lost now. Closed in the time that I went to America, I returned to Yunxian to a For Rent sign in the window. NOW, it's mah nails, girl.

Nora and I went to visit Laura for the weekend in Fengqing, the closest county to Yunxian that is a better organized version of the county that I frequent multiple times a week. It was here that Laura casually mentioned how we should get our nails done. At first, I didn't immediately love the idea. Chinese nail polish scares me and I knew that it would be one woman doing it, and none of the massages that come with a manicure at home but still, we trudged forward.

When we first arrived, the woman was tattooing eyebrows on another woman with a fat baby screaming songs about how awesome his mother is. If the noise itself wasn't so awful, the gesture would have been sweet. Her high pitched voice beckoned us to return in an hour. She had steady hands and she looked cool. I was returning in an hour.

I went first. She removed the stuff already on my nails, buffed them, trimmed them slightly, and put a layered of base coat on. I frantically flipped through nail books looking for a design.  I picked a relatively simple design that I found to be beautiful and would go with everything. Here is the product:

 YAY. She swept on the gold divider first, then covered half my nail in that creamy nude. The other half, she applied with a very fine paintbrush and white paint. Two layers of top coat later and VOILA! I'm very happy with them and I fully embrace the fact that they may only be appropriate to wear in Asia. In America, I don't see getting my nails ever done like this without it being strange and costing way too much money. The elation that I feel right now is waaay too high but it feels great!

Nora went next and it was awesome.

!!!!!! I love them. You can't tell in this picture, but the silver is a total glitter base, so at any moment, it may look like her nail is bright silver. I love it. Nora's nails are so on trend and I loves it. I've taken a billion pictures of my nails but pictures of my fingers seem weird to me so I'll withhold any of the 25 of the other photos I've taken. I'm currently plotting how I can get my nails done again in such style. How much did these beautifully painted nails cost? 15 RMB. A quick Google currency conversion says that 15 RMB = $2.38. China. WIN.