Evolution

[Pills]

According to what many of us have written previously, our fixation on beautiful female nails often dates back to a tender age.

How does your current ideal in nails compare to what you considered to be the perfect nails in the infancy (pun) of your fetish?

Do you like the same nails that you did in yesteryear? How about other factors: length, shape, real, artificial, painted or unpainted.

Back in my day, I was less particular. Long nails on any attractive woman caught my attention. Slowly, I went through various phases. In my early teens, metallic colors like silver and gold were my preference. I still didn't mind if the nails were artificial or real. Upainted natural nails, however, seemed just too plain in my opinion. Then, as I entered my mid teens, the love of natural nails took over. Whenever I spied long nails, it was my mission to check if they were real or artificial. I was not particular with respect to the color they were painted. At around 17 or so, I started to find natural nails that were unpainted to be my favorite. And as they say, the rest is history....

Have your favorite nails changed over time? If so, how?

Pills

[Stanton]

Very interesting topic. Thanx for posting this Pills.

My taste in nails I think has evolved and mature with age.
Initially, I was only ever interested in EXTREME nails (Tigressa, Ms E, Lena Wilson, Lee Redmond, etc). I think because here in South Africa extreme nails,and any nails beyond 3cm past the fingertip, are extremely rare. I have only ever seen nails beyond 3cm on one occasion here in South Africa.
Threrefore I have started appreciating shorter lengths much more in the last three to five years, and have actually found that there is much more to see and can expect to find out there.

Another personal evolution is that initially I never liked the french manicure, but as I started seeing more of it here, I started appreciating it more and more. Another factor I think is that I realised that it is a very elegant and professional look, one that would allow the more conservative woman to have this kind of nail design, and have a bit of length on her nails without it looking too extreme for their lifestyles. I have seem some serious beautiful french manicured nails which barely extended past the fingertips! The problem I sometimes have with the french manicure is that it can look very "fake" sometimes.

Another thing that has changed is that I am appreciating nails that have a slight curve to then, that look slightly "claw-like".

My favourite colours has also evolved. Initially, I only ever loved the bright reds and pinks, and metalic/chrome colours. But I am now very fond of pastel pinks, blues, greens, browns and even BLACK (though it must be on long nails, not very short nails).

What has also changed, is that I am am complimenting more women than I use to. I think Leni mentioned sometime ago that it is good to compliment ANY kind nails that you think is worth complimenting.

What has not changed is that I don't mind nails being real or fake. I also prefer manicured, painted nails above nude, unpolished nails, though I don't mind a clear shiny coat of polish. I also still prefer square-tipped nails over oval shaped nails, and I still prefer polished nails above nails with lots of nail art.

[LeniCano]

Hi y'all

Pills, another interesting thread and I think I've mentioned my feelings on this one before, but I'm sorry to say I'm gonna talk about it again.

I think I may be one of the more mature members of this group (read 'old') having been googling long nails for about 60 years (I started at the age of 6 so you can do the math)

As a youngster, back in the 40s it was anything I could lay my eyes on, real women with nails were rare, they did exist but as my dear mother once said, they were cheap women. Most of the nails I sought were in women's magazines like Vogue, and there were no fakes to be seen anywhere.

A manicure was when the woman went to the hairdresser and they cut the nails back to zero and applied creme to the fingers, a sort of finger massage then a coat of pink paint.

There were two wonderful women in my parent's community who did grow their nails long, about 5mm, but that, added to their long Internails, provided me with much pleasure...... I couldn't wait for the evenings when my parents would invite these friends over.

These two ladies used very bright red lacquer and would always leave a white space unpainted at the cuticle emphasising the half moon.... to this day I can remember every nail on the 4 hands........ I'm wandering off subject....

As I got older, 20s, 30s, fakes were still not present but there were the odd long nails around, one of my first sets of photographs was a Phillipine lady who had 3" nails, yes, 3 inches I can't begin to tell you how excited I was to see her in a South London market place and she was also happy to pose for me, I remember actually shaking and finding difficulty in holding the camera. Unfortunately I only had 3 or 4 frames left in my camera... that's when I learned one of my first lessons. Always carry a spare film (today a memory card) In those days, length was the ultimate nail factor.

I had a big problem, where do I get the film processed? Nobody knew about my obsession with nails.... I didn't want to take it to my local photo store or pharmacy, so I went to an area about 25 miles away and found a chemist shop, casually gave the film in for D&P and 4 days later went back.
There was a young girl there, she gave me the envelope and said "what wonderful pictures of long nails"....... I wanted the floor to open up and take me away. but instead I managed to blurt out something like... the film belongs to my boss, he asked me to collect it for him... Again, I'm diverting, sorry.

I've looked at these pictures hundreds of times over the last 20 years or so and it took a long time 'till I realised why I could never build up any enthusiasm for them. They were natural, of course, long, twisty but very short Internails together with chubby fingers...there was no interest there.
I was starting to change direction.

My preferences have straightened out, I went through many years attaching long pieces of Woolworth's plastic artificial nails to plasticine shaped fingers, I made long curved pieces of anything and attached them to a set of hands I acquired from a dress-shop window model. The longer the better.

But as time has gone on, I have come down to the fact that a nail turn on for me is not based around length, but around the beauty of the fingers and the shape, curvature, and conformity of the nails.

I think if I had to choose one aspect today as a Mature Nail Student, it is the natural downward curve of the nail combined with a slight upward curve and thinning of the underneath of the finger that wins... sounds complicated, so picture attached.

Well some of you may have seen the models I photograph and know what I'm talking about.

About 12 years ago I posted some pictures on the famous NTC board, I always remember Frank commenting....... "Here's a guy who is way off center with his taste in nails"

I think that my preferences today will now stay with me for however long I continue to enjoy nails.

[cleo1903]

I think those nails are absolutely beautiful. Such a long beautiful, elegant nailbed! They don't even have to be long to be so beautiful.

[texmw]

Although not as 'mature' as Leni, I have had the same track. Early on, for me the '60's, length was everything. One of my first dates was a neighbor with 1 1/2" (past tip) natural nails, but perfectly straight. I kept looking for longer...

In college, I dated a girl with long (1" past tip), curved nails...I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Actually ended up marrying her, but that's another story.

Then, I started to appreciate the curvature and strength of a "Leni-type" nail. I started dating girls with the long nail bed (innernail). I guess the thing I appreciated about them was that they were generally quite strong, and not as 'fragile' as some of the longer length ladies I had met. As such, they were 'always there', which I liked.

Even now, having married another woman who appreciates long nails, and always has them (sometimes natural, most times acyrlic), I miss the days on the women with the long innernails, tipped by curved tips, and yes the upward attachment of the skin of the finger.

[Pills]

Hi y'all

Pills, another interesting thread and I think I've mentioned my feelings on this one before, but I'm sorry to say I'm gonna talk about it again.

I think I may be one of the more mature members of this group (read 'old') having been googling long nails for about 60 years (I started at the age of 6 so you can do the math)

As a youngster, back in the 40s it was anything I could lay my eyes on, real women with nails were rare, they did exist but as my dear mother once said, they were cheap women. Most of the nails I sought were in women's magazines like Vogue, and there were no fakes to be seen anywhere.

A manicure was when the woman went to the hairdresser and they cut the nails back to zero and applied creme to the fingers, a sort of finger massage then a coat of pink paint.

There were two wonderful women in my parent's community who did grow their nails long, about 5mm, but that, added to their long Internails, provided me with much pleasure...... I couldn't wait for the evenings when my parents would invite these friends over.

These two ladies used very bright red lacquer and would always leave a white space unpainted at the cuticle emphasising the half moon.... to this day I can remember every nail on the 4 hands........ I'm wandering off subject....

As I got older, 20s, 30s, fakes were still not present but there were the odd long nails around, one of my first sets of photographs was a Phillipine lady who had 3" nails, yes, 3 inches I can't begin to tell you how excited I was to see her in a South London market place and she was also happy to pose for me, I remember actually shaking and finding difficulty in holding the camera. Unfortunately I only had 3 or 4 frames left in my camera... that's when I learned one of my first lessons. Always carry a spare film (today a memory card) In those days, length was the ultimate nail factor.

I had a big problem, where do I get the film processed? Nobody knew about my obsession with nails.... I didn't want to take it to my local photo store or pharmacy, so I went to an area about 25 miles away and found a chemist shop, casually gave the film in for D&P and 4 days later went back.
There was a young girl there, she gave me the envelope and said "what wonderful pictures of long nails"....... I wanted the floor to open up and take me away. but instead I managed to blurt out something like... the film belongs to my boss, he asked me to collect it for him... Again, I'm diverting, sorry.

I've looked at these pictures hundreds of times over the last 20 years or so and it took a long time 'till I realised why I could never build up any enthusiasm for them. They were natural, of course, long, twisty but very short Internails together with chubby fingers...there was no interest there.
I was starting to change direction.

My preferences have straightened out, I went through many years attaching long pieces of Woolworth's plastic artificial nails to plasticine shaped fingers, I made long curved pieces of anything and attached them to a set of hands I acquired from a dress-shop window model. The longer the better.

But as time has gone on, I have come down to the fact that a nail turn on for me is not based around length, but around the beauty of the fingers and the shape, curvature, and conformity of the nails.

I think if I had to choose one aspect today as a Mature Nail Student, it is the natural downward curve of the nail combined with a slight upward curve and thinning of the underneath of the finger that wins... sounds complicated, so picture attached.

Well some of you may have seen the models I photograph and know what I'm talking about.

About 12 years ago I posted some pictures on the famous NTC board, I always remember Frank commenting....... "Here's a guy who is way off center with his taste in nails"

I think that my preferences today will now stay with me for however long I continue to enjoy nails.

Leni,
The photo you provide shows a canvas of the highest quality. It wouldn't matter what color these nails were painted, whether or not the polish is chipped, or that the length isn't measurable in inches. No matter what, they are nails with potential rare seen. Special nails, indeed, my friend.

Reminds me of that old saying, "You can't polish a turd." If we start with ugly hands sporting short stubby nail beds, the manicure, polish, and length are all moot. Maybe I can custom tailor this generic quote to nails. Hmmm...okay...."You can't polish man hands." ;)

Best,
Pills