When I started school, I was exposed to the prejudices of wider society and other adults. It was clear when I started obsessing over girls’ hairbands and long hair as a toddler that I wasn’t interested in the things that boys are “supposed” to be into. Rural Ireland in the early 2000s was not accommodating to a boy who wanted to do anything other than play GAA. My nail art has finally allowed me to respect, recognise and indulge my inner child. Or, when his brain is exhausted from writing chart-topping music, he’s happy to let the nail artists at Dublin salon Tropical Popical use creative licence. “For June, I had my nails painted in rainbow colours and the trans flag to celebrate pride month and to show support to my trans siblings.”įor Conor O’Donohoe, of the band Wild Youth, inspiration comes from “combining colour, pastel colours”. “I draw inspiration from what’s happening in my life,” he says. He takes inspiration for his nails from his present rather than his past.
#Islide usa tv#
In June, sparkly blues with accents of white and a couple of appliqué pearls and shells brought me back to the days when I wished I could jump into the cold Atlantic from a Kerry beach to join Disney’s Ariel and her pals as a fellow merman.įellow nail-art fan Dean O’Sullivan works in TV production and as a photographer. I reminisced on early Saturday-morning cartoons by dedicating each nail to a Powerpuff Girl and their arch nemeses. My favourite choices to date are those that echo my childhood. I have more things to talk about, I have more facets to my personality - all of which is easily forgotten when one is in the middle of treatment and recovery.Ĭhoosing the nail design that I want for the coming month is a process. It makes me realise I’m more than this diagnosis that has consumed my life for years. Micheál Costello gets his nails painted by Izzy Bellamy. My eating disorder - about which I have written previously in Life - never comes up, unless I want it to. She recounts memories from her boarding-school days. We chat about our family I tell her about the latest antics my little godson Rían is getting up to. With the years that have just gone by, we all need someone to talk to. If I had the patience to sit for longer than two hours, who knows what she could recreate? The Mona Lisa or Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus perhaps? A place where Izzy’s creativity, executed under an exacting eye and amazingly steady hands, is limited only by the size of my nails. As I slide the door closed behind me and enter the plush pastel-pink and rose-gold interior of her London salon, the confusion that is our world today is shut out and we’re in an impenetrable sanctuary. Sitting for two hours while I chat with Izzy is therapeutic. The benefits of showing off my new nail designs extends beyond flurries of likes and comments on Instagram. I look forward to my monthly trip to my nail artist, Izzy Bellamy. And it’s not just women men are also using their nails as a canvas to garner some cheer through colours, shapes, spirals and, indeed, the odd sticky-backed diamanté.
#Islide usa portable#
But with people being limited in their pursuit of joy over the past two years or so, I like to believe that we looked at our nails and decided they were the perfect size for portable vessels of creativity. Like most trends, this one is difficult to pin down to one moment. Intricate nail artistry is enjoying a moment in the spotlight, propagated by Instagram and TikTok.