Hello & Welcome

Well, I guess the short version is: I decided to start a blog.

The longer version is that about a month ago, I made the lovely discovery that there are people just as obsessed with their manicure as I am - in many cases MORE obsessed. Since then I have been lurking & reading & working up the courage to put in my 2 cents. I've gleaned so much useful info in just a few weeks that I feel the urge to contribute what meager knowledge I have to share.

I know pretty much zero about blogs past reading them. I'd never seriously considered writing one myself before I realized there was a comminty for a subject I was actually interested in. But I like to think I'm a quick learner, so hopefully it won't be too long before this page starts to look like more than a grade-school experiment.

That said - on to the good stuff! The manicure. My current NOTD, although they're really more like NOTW because to this point I've only been doing them once a week. But that was before I purchased my first bottle of Seche Vite 2 weeks ago. Quickly followed by the purchase of a glass nail file - both on the recommendation of so many other bloggers. Hopefully if I continue to follow all the good advice I can get my nails looking as good as all of you other ladies. Right now I have problems with peeling & breaking on several specific nails (which you'll see below) but because I really cannot stand having short nails I instead have to deal with uneven nails. Before we get to the real manicure, I took some "naked" shots of my nails on Sunday, here's what I'm working with underneath it all:

I believe this was taken just under the ceiling light in my room + the camera's flash. My nails that grow properly I'm pretty happy with - my thumb & index finger not so much. The right hand is in similar shape but worse ... there's a pic of it painted below, you'll see. The next piece of advice I think I'll be taking is Biotin.

So then I did 2 coats of China Glaze Romantique Harmony - which was the first color of the collection I tried because purple is always my favorite - and then Konaded (is that a verb? If not I declare it to be one from now on) it with white special polish & plate m4 twice. You can see why one of my New Year's Resolutions is to learn & practice a cleaner paint job. Taken directly under the lamp.

I've mainly been lazy & resistant to learning to be neater because with a little peeling & scrubbing, most of the extra polish comes off. Well, at least that's what I thought before I started taking close-up gigantic shots of my manicure. Good enough to the naked eye, but at this range I notice quite a bit of excess polish still clinging on. This is under my full-spectrum lamp at work:

And hours later, a little cleaner but still little stubborn specks. This next one is taken outside; it was snowing, so bright-white but no direct sun. LOL I really need to pick one good spot to take the pics, I know, but I'm still kind of in the experimental phase as far as that goes.

Anyway, those are my nails, and they make me happy. Probably my #1 simple little pleasure. If you're still with me after this ridiculously long first post, thanks for reading.

~Colette