Interview nails

I generally don’t talk too much about my job, but this time it relates to my nails so I’m going to go for it. I really like my job, that isn’t something I thought I would be able to say a year ago. I’ve been filling in at work as an administrative assistant and I found that being an admin is something I truly enjoy, and not just because we have a whole day dedicated to us. There is something about the controlled chaos of being an admin that makes me happy to go to work, believe it or not, Monday is my favorite day of the work week, how freakin ridiculous is that?

I mention my job because in the last couple of weeks I was able to apply and interview to make my job a permanent position, of course, as soon as the job posted I started thinking about interview nails. This blog has two different designs because I had two different interviews. For the first manicure I used Orly White Tips. They are perhaps the most boring (read professional) nails I’ve ever done.

Interview nails

I was really nervous about my first interview and wanted to make sure my nails were really professional and not too flashy. These turned out just how I wanted, in person the line was a nice dark gray and I wore a dark gray skirt so they coordinated well. For my second set of interview nails I used Orly Liquid Vinyl and White Tips and China Glaze Rich & Famous. These nails are a bit bolder J

These nails say ‘hire me’

After the first interview I realized my nails didn’t really show at all, so I decided to have super fun nails that matched my outfit and made me feel fancy. This is only the second time I’ve tried a half moon manicure and I love how they turned out. To cover up the rough edge between the two base colors I put in the dots and I must say I really like how that turned out.

I guess they could have been more professional

I really liked both of my interview manicures; they gave me that little extra confidence that I needed going into the interviews. The best part about the manicures is that they were part of successful interviews; there really isn’t anything more I could have asked from them J

China Glaze Light as a Feather nails

Today is Thad’s birthday! Our birthdays are only 8 days apart and since I’m so into my birthday his day sometimes gets a bit lost so I really try to do everything to make his birthday awesome. I’m not a very good cook so we are going out to dinner with friends tonight to celebrate and I’ve showered him with gifts for the last two days. I’ve also been on dog duty for the whole weekend; we generally take turns getting up at night to let Millie out. I don’t know if I would ever be able to do enough for Thad to show him just how much he means to me but I certainly like to try. I’m super lucky to have a husband who is so much fun to be with. Happy birthday Thad, I love you so much.

Now to my nails, these nails were super annoying to have on, I’m probably going to say that a lot in this blog, but that is only because these nails were super annoying to have on. For this manicure I used China Glaze Fast Track and Light as a Feather. I don’t know why I keep buying textured nail polish; I have a dysfunctional relationship with them.

Light as a Feather nails

These nails got better the longer I had them on but right away they were so freakin annoying. The Light as a Feather was really sharp, like super crazy sharp, if I wore contacts I wouldn’t have been able to put them in with these razor sharp talons I had created. If you love having really sharp, dangerous nails that get caught on everything and are a pain to wash your hair with, you would love this polish.

I hate how much I like them

All the annoying aspects aside, I actually liked how these nails looked, especially after a couple of days when they toned down a little (the pieces that were sticking up at odd angles fell off after a couple days). If I were going to do them again I would use a light orange as the base to play up the orange in the confetti polish. It’s going to take a long time for me to forget how annoying these nails were before I attempt to use this polish again, at least they are cute J

Sponged Disaster nails

I’m pretty sure I watch seasons of TV shows like every other rational person does, I compulsively watch the entire season as fast as physically possible and allow the show to affect most aspects of my life, normal right? I just consumed the seventh season of Dexter, and although I didn’t even really like the season I still felt the need to get through the season in a manner of days, it would have gone even faster if we didn’t have jobs. Between watching Dexter and hanging out with friends in Vegas, it has been very hard for me to keep my language clean at work, stupid peer pressure J

You know how when I do a sponged manicure I always say how much I love it and how I should sponge more often? Well these nails are sponged and they didn’t need to happen. For this manicure I used Orly Prelude to a Kiss, Sally Hansen CSM Gilty Pleasure, and China Glaze Fast Track and Rich & Famous.

Sponged disaster nails

These nails were so blah that I forgot to take pictures of them until after I started taking the polish off, which is why you get rare right handed pictures. The application of the polish had so many issues that it would have been impossible to have nails that I liked in the end. Somehow (I’m going to guess because I never dust) my sponges (and everything else) got covered in dog hair so I ended up sponging the dog hair right into the design. It was really fun to find the hairs days later and have to pull them out, it made me feel really pretty.

Yes, these pictures suck

So, yeah, these nails aren’t very good. They were a poor design that was poorly executed. I guess these nails are proof that sponging isn’t nail magic. On a completely unrelated topic, while I was at work Thad DVRed The Man with a 132 Pound Scrotum, he must love me J

Vegas nails

I have such a good excuse for not blogging recently, I was in Vegas!! (and I was lazy after I got back) I got to go to Vegas with my sister-in-law for my best friend’s wedding. It was such a beautiful wedding, Jackie looked amazing and the whole trip was a blast. I’m so happy my sister was able to come with me too, we have never been on a trip together so it could have turned out very poorly but we ended up being really compatible travel partners. At least I think we did, maybe she is telling everyone how annoying I am. I burned my back so bad in Vegas, I have never burned myself that bad before, it was horrible. My back still looks like a lizard L

I’m going to skip one manicure because I really want to post my Vegas nails; I had these all planned out for weeks before we left and they turned out almost exactly how I wanted. For this manicure I used Color Club Status Update, essie Matte About You, China Glaze Prism and Luxe and Lush, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Strobe Light, and Butter Fairy Cake and The Black Knight. So much glitter! These nails were crazy sparkly under the bar lights in Vegas and I loved them.

 

Vegas nails

I took these pictures after I got back from my trip, which means that they were on their 6^th day when I took them. I’m really impressed with how well they held up, I did do a little touch ups on the tips while in Vegas but really not that much. By the end of our trip I was so tired of these nails I couldn’t wait to take them off. I can’t remember the last time I had my nails painted one way for this long!

So sparkly!

To get the glitter bomb effect I did thin layers of a bunch of different glitters. I started with the Butter glitters because they had the finest and densest glitter and ended with the polish that had the largest glitter pieces. I’m really happy with the overall look of the glitter but I think if I were going to do it again I would have made it come down a little bit further on my nails.

 

I’m pleased with how these photographed

I think these nails were perfect for Vegas; they were just the glitter bombs I needed to have while paying too much for booze. J

Pink Argyle Stripe nails

I’m not usually one to complain about my phone unless it really pisses me off, perhaps this comes from the fact that I work for a cell phone company. I have an iPhone, it’s not the fanciest phone available but it works for what I need it to, that is except for the horrible maps. As you could probably guess, I had to use the GPS recently and it didn’t go so well. I had a baby shower to go to in the cities last weekend, I don’t like diving in the cities to begin with and I like it even less when I’m alone and totally reliant on my phone for guidance. Stupid Apple maps took me to the wrong place and I drove around for 45 minutes before I finally found the place I needed to be at. That, coupled with the inevitable Minnesota road constructed, resulted in me needing to take a few minutes in my car to calm down so that I didn’t show up to a baby shower as a rage monster (rage monsters are not welcome at baby showers).

I had two baby showers to go to in August, one for a boy and one for a girl. My original plan was that I was going to do the same design for both showers and just change the colors (pinks for the baby girl shower and blues for the baby boy shower). I am so underwhelmed by these nails though that there is nothing about them that I want to revisit for the baby boy shower at the end of the month. For this manicure I used OPI Aphrodite’s Pink Nightie and Alpine Snow and a pink striper polish.

Pink Argyle Stripe nails

I wanted the accent nail to look like argyle and I think they fell just short. It’s not that they are bad; they just aren’t quite what they could have been. At first I just had solid pink nails with the one accent but I thought they looked so boring I wanted to add something to the other nails. I think in the end the dots are my favorite part of this manicure.

Nails that say ‘meh’

I can’t believe these nails are my 100^th post nails! I started blogging a year ago this month, crazy I know. I hope everyone enjoys reading my blog as much as I enjoy it. I love having an excuse to paint my nails far too often J

Nail Striper Overload nails

One side effect of having a nail blog is that people love to send me pictures of nails they find online that they want me to try. Quite often the nails they show me are so far beyond anything I could ever hope to do, but sometimes I’m able to try the design. I never like to do nails just like in the picture; it just doesn’t seem as much fun to do them exactly the same. I got the idea for these nails from a picture my sister in law found on Pinterest. I have a Pinterest account but I don’t allow myself to use it, I feel like as soon as I started it would suck hours of my life and I already have enough activities that keep me lazy and on the couch.

I love these nails, I kept them on for far longer than I normally do, I just didn’t want to take them off! For this manicure I used OPI You’re Such a Budapest, essie Matte About You, and a crap ton of stripers. At first I was just going to do my ring finger as an accent nail but I ended up loving the design so much I wanted it on all my nails.

Nail Striper Overload nails

I had no idea what to call these nails; I almost think they look like feathers. These were so easy to do, it’s the type of nail art that you just can’t mess up. I used about 10 different stripers and just randomly put lines in, to make the design look fuller, I used all the stripers twice each so the end result was very layered.

Love the matte on You’re Such a Budapest

My planed Vegas nails are similar to these and after I saw how much I loved these, it makes me even more excited to Vegas my nails up. I can’t get over how much I love matte finish manicures combined with glossy elements, it’s like nail heaven.

Of course you get three pictures of these!

I hope you like these nails as much as I do. I don’t have the source picture anymore to post it, but it is from nailsaurus (who is amazing by the way). My trip to Vegas is coming so quickly, I hope my nails live up to all the hype J

Lace nails

My month of social weekends has begun. Last weekend I went to a co-worker’s bridal shower at the arboretum. My mom has always wanted to go to there and the bride-to-be was nice enough to let her come along, so on a very unseasonably cold Saturday, my mom and I made our way to the arboretum. It was probably them most fun I have ever had at a bridal shower (not including mine of course). As part of the shower we got to go on a tram ride, it was so much fun to learn all about all the flowers and trees and everything was so pretty. Without a doubt it was the most educational shower I’ve ever been to J I do also feel it necessary to point out that I kicked ass at one of the shower games and won a cute butterfly coffee mug, I don’t think anyone knew how competitive I was until that game started.

I wanted to have nails for the wedding shower that fit with the bride’s wedding theme. She told me one of her colors was wine and her theme is burlap and lace, since burlap didn’t really intrigue me, I decided to try the lace. For this manicure I used Sally Hansen CSM Wine Not and Orly White Tips. I love how shiny these nails turned out, they are some of the classier nails that I’ve done recently.

Lace nails

My pictures for these nails didn’t turn out very well. They were kind of old by the time I took pictures of them and the tip wear is very evident, I think I also had trouble because the nails were so shiny that they reflected a lot of light and it makes them almost look spotty. These are definitely nails that I preferred in person. I didn’t wait long enough to do my top coat and smeared the white on the lace a little bit, but aside for that the lace turned out how I wanted it to.

Not my best photography

I want to try lace nails that actually have real lace on them next. Maybe I can do that for her wedding, although by then I should really figure out how to do something that looks like burlap. These nails were nice for the shower because they weren’t too flashy; I didn’t end up keeping them for very long though. I guess I just like gaudy nails more J