Mending A Break!

Hello!

Not my usual type of post today, but a quick update! The other day at work, I noticed that the nail on my middle finger, left hand (luckily not the one I use in my pics!) had cracked reaaally low down. When I used to break a nail, I used to just get over it and have one shorter than the others, maybe file the others down a little to make them all similar. But my nails are currently the longest they've ever been and in the nicest shape, and all the same length! So I was gutted to have snapped a nail - and soooo low down - I would have lost at nearly half the length. Here's a pic - it doesn't look too bad, but I've highlighted where the crack is: 

(sorry about the state of my nails in the pics in this post. They're gross without polish!)

So yeah, I didn't want one short nail, so I started looking into how to temporarily fix it. At first I just tried painting over it, which kind of worked but I was still aware of the crack. I then tried nail glue which was a bit messy, and didn't actually really help much for more than a day. Both Laura (Naileymabob) and AJ (Nail Lacquer) both suggested the tea-bag method for mending. I was reluctant to try this TBH cos it sounded a bit gross to me, having a bit of bag stuck to your nail! But tonight I have told myself to man up and I've had a go. 

Basically, what you apparently do (I've never tried this before, had to google) is get a tea bag, empty out the tea, then cut a section of the bag to fit your nail. You stick it down using nail glue or basecoat, then seal in with another layer. You then file any left over bits so it fits, and can gently file the surface too to smooth out any bubbles or imperfections. This whole method protects your nail and seals over the crack or break.

Firstly I tried this using nail glue, thinking it'd be stronger, but I just ended up with a gross gooey mess! I had to soak it off using acetone and start again. I'd just come across this tutorial which stated that using basecoat was fine to secure the bag, glue wasn't particularly stronger or better. I felt happier not having it 'permanently' stuck with glue, so went for this method instead. Here's some pics of my work in progress:

All my tools:

The bag stuck down into wet basecoat:

 

The excess at the top trimmed+filed off:

With a second layer of basecoat to seal it in:

This is DEFINITELY an amateur job, and I will be practicing doing it neater. Any tips anyone has would be great too! Next time I won't take it so far down the nail, it's all mushed into my cuticle, grossss. I did read in the above tutorial that you don't need to cover the whole nail, but I thought if I only did over the crack then you'd be able to see the un-even-ness through polish. 

I've not polished over it yet, as I'm hoping my Models Own hypergels will come tomorrow and I want to try those out. Really hoping that with a few layers of polish, you won't be able to see the repair, but I think you will :-S

Finally, here's me enjoying a cup of tea (like in the tutorial I linked to!) after playing with empty tea bags all night! (Yes at ten to midnight shhh)