By Timothy Cox
tcox@dailystandard.com NEW BREMEN —æWhat do you get when you bring together 20 Girl Scouts and two dozen bottles of nail polish?
Lots of giggles, smiles and a rainbow of colored fingernails.
Thursday night several area Girl Scout troops headed to the New Bremen Coffee Co. and Books Inc. store where a week-long celebration was held in honor of Girl Scout Week. The evening’s topic: nail care.
“Before you paint your nails you need to soften your hands,” said Bev Holthaus of Fort Loramie, a Mary Kay consultant, and instructor for the event.
Holthaus took the girls through a series of “Satin Hands” steps, which included the application of extra emollient night cream, buffing cream, cleansing gel and hand cream.
“Do we get to wash this off?” asked one girl as she rubbed her hands together vigorously.
“This feels like my cousins’ cow medicine,” said Caitlin Pence of New Bremen, who also was celebrating her ninth birthday.
Soon it was obvious that many of the girls who hailed from Scout troops in New Bremen, Maria Stein and Houston were “farm girls.”
“My hands are so soft, the lambs will probably want to suck my fingers when I get home,” chimed Megan Hardesty, 11, of Maria Stein.
After the girls finished moisturizing their “smooth-as-a-baby’s-butt” hands and fingers, Holthaus gave the girls “vital” tips to follow when applying nail polish.
“First, roll the bottle of polish between your hands,” Holthaus instructed. “This warms it up so it flows better.”
Some of Holthaus’ other tips included applying polish in thin coats for less clumping, using quick dry polish when you can and using a cotton ball with polish remover to get excess paint off your fingers.
“How many of you end up with polish on your fingers when you’re done?” she asked as nearly every girl’s hand went up.
Holthaus told the girls it’s a good idea to team up with a friend to paint each other’s nails — particularly for that awkward job of painting the hand you use to hold the brush.
“And did you know that blowing on your nails when they’re drying makes the color dull?” Holthaus asked the eager females.
The girls looked shocked at the news. “I always blow on mine,” Katie Thieman, 8, of Minster muttered to herself.
When the time finally arrived to paint the 200 pampered fingernails, there was only one problem. Well, maybe two. The girls nearly all wanted the color blue and no one could open the bottles because of their newly moisturized hands.
After their nails were dry, the girls walked around with hands outstretched, careful not to smudge their manicured masterpieces. Then, like transforming from women to little girls again, they ate cookies and downed their favorite drinks while discussing homework, boys and the latest American Girl book. |
