To Paint or Not to Paint that is the ??

     Something I rarely do anymore is paint my finger nails. I always love to have my toes painted even if I can't always afford a pedicure, but fingers? I went through the whole acrylic stage and will still on occasion get them for fun, but what I find is that the constant abuse on my nails isn't worth the time or the money. Not only for is it not worth it, but don't you find yourself not doing certain things because your afraid they will break? If you have a nail person that is great every time, than good for you. However, I found that the longer you went to someone the cheaper the job you got was. It's like they know they have you hooked so when you first go in and you get exactly what you want and than each time the quality goes down to where instead of my nails bumped and squared and nice and thick they are barely square and thin and brittle.
     Here is a good example. Last February I went in to the local nail shop, one of the most popular ones and I already had a set on from the holidays. I said that I wanted something really cool before I left on my vacation. I had thought that some color tips would be different. She talked me into the colored acrylic. This really nice pink sparkly acrylic. She spent a good hour and a half on my nails taking the old set off and putting the new on. Within 48 hours a had two nails not just break they literally snapped off! I barely touched them to something and I didn't even feel it. So I thought let me see what this is all about so I grabbed a finger and just bent the nail and it snapped right off. There was no pulling, tugging or pain. The rest of the 8 nails popped off in a matter of 30 seconds. $30 or more down the drain for 48 hours of wear and 30 seconds of destruction!
     I say no more to acrylic nails! Besides when your on a budget, I can see a lot more things I can buy with that $30 that will give me endless hours of enjoyment or entertainment! So back to the picture above. Before I left on my summer vacation I was at Sally's and behold the new craze in nails is staring at me from the check out counter. CRACKLE!!! Now wait a minute, I remember crackle paint from the late to early 90's where that was the fashionable thing to do with your refurbished country furniture. Now it's paint for nails? Had to try it on my toes, so I bought basic black and white. I tried the black with some nice bright pink polish I had and WOW, cool, a little Goth looking, but not bad. I recommend not trying the white. It just looks like a paint job gone bad. Of course the Sally's crackle was $6.99 a bottle. However, now that it's the new fade more and more companies are putting out crackle paints with a large variety of colors.
     In fact I was at Walgreens the other day and picked up the turquoise pictured above and a silver for only $3.99. I also got a really cool orange color that I can put on underneath the silver and the black for Halloween. That was the Sinful brand for .99 cents. So last night I actually decided to try the crackle on my fingers. Thought it would be fun and something different. I always hate polish on regular nails, it never lasts very long. That's about the only thing I can say acrylics have going for them. Two weeks and still going strong as far as the color. Still not sure about the crackle on the finger nails. Almost looks like a two year old did the job, but at least it's something colorful to look at for the time being.
     I would love to hear what my readers do for nail care. Do you like pedicures, manicures, acrylics, or do you do your own nail care at home. If  you only have a little to spend what do you spend it on?