T R I C K S S I

March 2021 Writeup: Manaka Iwai Nail Set, aka: Watch Out, I'm Attempting Nail Art!

Hi, all! In some of my $3+ updates for the past couple months, I've mentioned that an unfortunate closure at the salon where I used to get my nails done led to my needing to figure out how to do it myself. This isn't sponsored by Big Nails, of course. It's just a method and product (dip powder) that works for me.

I used to do my nails before conventions by simply painting them. Base strengthener coat, color, and quick seal. But typically, I'd wait until the night or two before, and I'd be rushing to finish packing to the point where they almost always got messed up or chipped. Not to mention, some cosplays had associated nail colors that I'd attempt to change during the con. It got to be stressful and my nails weren't getting any less brittle.

Another route I tried for the color-switching nails in cosplay was making fake nails out of plastic extenders, which I filed and painted and stuck onto my strengthener-only nails with lacefront tape. That was okay, but having to hold a bag or pull a rolling bag tended to pop them off with ease.

Finally, before I attended my first official con as a "guest," I did some research on getting my nails done properly in a salon. But I knew plain gel wouldn't work, and I wasn't willing to commit to longer acrylic nails. I asked about their dip powder service and learned that it formed a hard shell over your nails. Welp, bingo. I didn't turn back! I went regularly and themed my nail sets based on beloved or upcoming cosplays. Until, that is, the pandemic began. The salon eventually closed and I had no choice but to gather supplies to start doing dip nails myself. (Or, y'know, risk finding another salon during said pandemic.)

Let's just say the first couple tries were... difficult. I've got sensitive cuticles and an aversion to files/buffers, but it's something I had to get used to doing if I wanted to have a canvas that would make the product last. I was also inexperienced with doing nails with my nondominant hand, and let me tell you, that leads to some interesting shapes! But I've learned a few things and I'd love to share the process with you.

Here's the way I generally set up my nails: take off the previous set (always difficult) with files and coincidentally, acetone (A-Set, you bet!); do the manicure part with cuticle remover and pushing and minimal trimming; buff until there's no shine on the natural nail; wash with water only; use step 1 of the dip lacquer to dehydrate and prep the nail; use step 2 of the dip lacquer to put on up to three layers of dip (first using only "natural" and only coating 3/4 of the nail, then the whole nail), sometimes using "clear" on top to seal in the color; use step 3 to seal protect, then when that's dry, file and finish shaping the nails, and then buff again; wash with water only; either finish with dip top coat or add gel (up to three layers), then gel top coat OR design (sometimes with structured gel), then gel top coat.

For my first "cosplay" nail set, I chose Manaka Iwai from AI: The Somnium Files as inspiration. The set includes all nails base-covered in dip with gel and/or designs on top. Design elements include rhinestones, stamps, encapsulated holographic leaves, and glitter.

Here's a full description:

• Left pinky: Yellow gel with clear, pink, clear rhinestones on the inner right diagonal
• Left ring: Light blue dip with encapsulated light pink maple leaf, pink stamp of small butterflies
• Left middle: Light blue dip with encapsulated light pink and dark pink maple leaves
• Left fore: Yellow gel with green rhinestone in lower left, teal green stamp of two wispy dandelions
• Left thumb: Green sparkly gel
• Right thumb: Light blue dip with pink rhinestone in lower left, pink stamp of two butterflies and a ribbon
• Right fore: Green sparkly gel
• Right middle: Light blue dip with white stamp of one wispy dandelion
• Right ring: Green sparkly gel
• Right pinky: Yellow gel with green, pink, light pink rhinestones on outside right diagonal

A challenge I've run into with this brand of dip lacquer is that the top coat reeeeeally dislikes anything other than one coat and tends to ruin the finish if not left alone. So my solution has been to do gel over everything for the moment, but at some point I'd like to have the confidence to try other brands so that I can use sparkly dips in the same way I used the sparkly gel for this set.

Character Insight

Spoilers ahead—proceed with caution!

Manaka Iwai's profile says that her skill is ballroom dancing. When you're into DanceSport around the age she would have been, you're likely to be interested in competing at some level; and when you're competing, you're likely to be introduced to flashy shoes, costumes, jewelry, and nail styles. The costumes were a large part of what attracted me to those competitions. What's on those costumes? Glitter. Rhinestones. What do I have in my small collection? Glitter and rhinestones. But I had to think about how Manaka would have wanted them to be displayed. She doesn't strike me as the flashy type. But she does strike me as having been a serious dancer. Y'know how I know that? She popped out Iris and got back on her feet right away. We know that because the fundus was still visible at the time of her death (Side note: if you search for details on fundus visibility, the FIRST website that pops up is called Wild Iris Medical Education), and that should not be visible by about the two-week postpartum mark. Every dance teacher I've had who's been pregnant during their time teaching has usually only skipped the first week after childbirth (despite what they probably SHOULD have been doing, especially for the ones who had complications) and went back to work "as usual" afterward.

So with that in mind, I began a story, from left to right. Manaka, by herself in a world of glamour. Butterflies in her stomach as she meets So (I imagine, personally, that they would have met at a venue where social partner dancing occurs). A new leaf grows (that's Iris). I wanted connected flowers to represent mother-child and dandelions were the best looking in this set; they also bloom in autumn (as well as spring), and leaves fall in autumn, and I'd already used leaves. The rhinestone on the dandelions nail is out of reach. The butterflies on the right thumb represent something like a birthing experience; there's a bigger one and a smaller one connected by a ribbon. Moving to the middle right nail, we have a single dandelion drained of color set against a blue backdrop. Whether that's meant to be that Manaka's on her own without Iris growing inside her or that Iris will be on her own shortly is up to the viewer. I end the set with the nail on the right in Manaka's "signature" yellow, with three different colored rhinestones at the very end. The rhinestones are like a morbid stoplight with the green on the bottom. But could the green be her eternal tie to Hitomi, who made the yellow and green bracelet? Could the position of the pink rhinestone, previously representing Manaka, in the middle mean that her soul is in limbo because of the way that Renju and Hitomi dug up her body? The possibilities are endless.

As for color intention: yellow is a color I associate with the sun and summer, and with Manaka's name translating to something like "summer love," I wanted to use it. It's also a color in the friendship bracelet she wears, which we have to assume was given by Hitomi. The other color in that bracelet is green. Green pops up as hopeful acceptance, as hope for an ongoing spring season of love. Pink represents Manaka and Iris's hair. Blue reflects the color of the dress Manaka wears when she goes to find So and tell him about the birth of their baby and it may also foreshadow her icy fate.

For those of you who read all of that: can you tell I have a degree in studio art? And for all the teachers who insisted that I wasn't making "real" art back in the day: do you understand that my media of crafting doesn't have to be elite? Jussayin'.

I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading my character-study-that-nobody-asked-for! As my nails usually start lifting around 3-4 weeks, I will likely have at least one if not two sets to share with you in lieu of coswork updates.

Thanks for your continued support and let me know what else you'd like to see me do with my nails!







Photos by me.

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