That's a scary title, isn't it? Well, this is not as profound and preachy a post as the title suggests. This is a post about why I have spent $250 this week. On nail art supplies that have been around for years now. Because I thought I was too cool for them.

Then one of my Facebook friends and long-time Beautytech colleagues, Becky Fangmann, started posting photos of these amazing nails that she's been doing.

And all I can do is drool over them. I don't just want to do nails like this, I want nails like this.

And you know what she's using? Foil and Konad stamps.

I still haven't wrapped my brain around her technique, and I don't know if I'll ever manage to duplicate her results, but nevertheless, it was a humbling experience.

I haven't used foil in my nail art designs since the early ’90s. It just died a natural death and then the glitter craze hit hard and heavy and foil has been the last thing on my mind.

And those Konad stamps? Heck! I never even bothered to look into them and how they work. When they were introduced, all I saw was "stamps" and shrugged them off as a great alternative for people who weren't all that great at painting. But I didn't see any point in investing in stamps when I'm perfectly capable of painting little flowers and bunnies.

Ahhhhhh. Now I have seen the folly of my arrogance! Did you know that those Konad things aren't just stamps? They're more like etched metal printing plates. Very cool. And what's more, the designs are not merely cutesy little flowers and bunnies — there are very intricate, full-nail designs.

Who knew?

And now I am embarrassingly behind in my nail art arsenal.

This is why we all need to make those efforts to pay attention, keep learning, and not convince ourselves there's nothing left to learn because nothing is new.

Now, if you pardon me, I have to go spend April's rent on stamping plates.