It's hard to say how to express that, since I have absolutely no idea what it means :) If I got that message I would be pretty confused. Is the other option literal nail-painting or is it just sarcasm?
The nail-painting one can be used to be a bit ‘sassy’, so it’s like saying “don’t worry, I know other ways to find myself a bed for the night ;-)” but in a more nuanced way that I at least find funnier.
It’s probably not a universal meaning but my point is that emojis can be used to express more than just basic emoticon ‘UNIVERSAL EXPRESSION OF HUMAN HAPPINESS’ style things.
I wouldn't even know how to express it in words.
This may or may not be an example of it -- for all I know it's a commonly used one with a well-established metaphoric meaning --, but I think emoji usage is strangely idiosyncratic.
"hahah, no worries, if you don't come maybe I'll just paint my nails or something"
You missed the joke.
I did too. Perhaps if emoji are such an ambiguous method of communication, they aren't so good after all?
That isn't an isolated instance of emoji confusion for me, either. Apart from the basic facial expression emoji, for me they're a great way of making a sentence more confusing.
How do you express that in ASCII emoticons?