Nail Polish Collection

I used to chew on my nails for the majority of my life. It was really bad sometimes because I would chew them down so low that my nail beds would actually bleed. That isn't to mention the horrible, countless hang nails that I would get. After dealing with them for so many years, my new years resolution last year was to simply stop biting on my nails.

I went and got acrylic nails done, thinking it would help me. It kind of did. I did not bite on my nails, but having to pay $20 to get them done every couple of weeks was not going to do it for me. Besides, I wanted real nails. I vowed to let the acrylics grow out, and then work on strengthening my real nails.

Once I removed the fake nails, my real nails were incredibly weak. They were not even breaking because they were so weak, they were bending instead. They had the feel of a drinking straw. It was discouraging. I tried many different strengthening products, spent a lot of money on them. But what worked for me was moisturizing my cuticles with Burt's Bees Cuticle Balm, and the NailTek system. They slowly became stronger.

The biting itself was rather easy to stop, once I really set my mind to it. My theory was that if I kept my nails painted, I could pick off the polish, but not stick my fingers in my mouth. I figured, as long as I was picking polish off, I wasn't destroying my nails. It worked. Eventually, I stopped picking at my polish, and had no interest in biting my nails.

However, once I started buying nail polish, I had trouble stopping. There was always a color that I didn't have, a new collection I didn't have, or a creative glitter that I felt I needed. This lead to a huge explosion of nail polish that I accumulated.

Recently, I found that I had nail polish scattered through the house, and decided to take some time yesterday and reorganize them all back into my shelves. I was shocked at how much it grew since the last time I did this.

So now, I will give you all a peek into the most intimate part of my life... my nail polish collection. It has gotten so overwhelming in the past year and a half that I am almost embarrassed of it. But Anyway, here we go!

This is what a large portion of the nail polish community call a Melmer. It is basically a drawer storage system that they sell at Michael's and craft stores. I believe it is mainly supposed to be for scrapbooking storage, but it is fantastic size for nail polish bottles. I store all of mine in one of these.

It holds a lot! I really wanted a Helmer from Ikea, which is twice the size, but it would have cost a fortune to get it to me. I would have had it shipped to me.

Now, for a closer look into each drawer!

This is the first drawer, which I affectionately call "the fire drawer." Meaning, if the building catches on fire, or some other catastrophe happens, this is the drawer I would pull out and take with me to safety. It holds my more expensive polishes, my indies and other ones that are more difficult to get. Ones that I have ordered from Etsy (such as Different Dimension) and others which I had to jump through hoops to get delivered to the United States (like my A England's and Emily de Molly). A lot of these would be difficult to replace.

The second drawer is more common ones, ones I picked up on a whim, clearance or sales. There is a lot of China Glaze in here, because the Sally's Beauty Supply near me used to have good sales and I found them on clearance sometimes. I would pick up several at a time.

The last drawer simply is Julep and Essie polishes (and a couple other randoms that won't fit in the second drawer). I used to subscribe to the Julep Maven box, but found that the price of the polish was expensive compared to the size of the product you got. I much rather preferred their beauty products. Anyway, this drawer has the most room left because I strictly only buy Essie nail polish now. After all the brands I have tried and owned, I found that my nails will only allow Essie polish to stay on longer than a day. Everything else, does not last longer than 24 hours. I am told that my nails are too oily and won't keep nail polish on. So, the majority of nail polish I apply will just peel off in sheets.

Up on top of my drawers, are my accessories. I have a modpodge of everything up here. Cuticle pushers, nail files, a stamping kit that I never used, and even swatches. Also here are all my top coats, strengtheners, glossers, bonders and base coats.

So there you have it! While I was organizing everything and had all the polishes sitting on the table, both my husband and I was in disbelief. It is one thing to see them all tucked neatly under the bathroom sink in a set of drawers, but when they take up a huge portion of your dining room table, looking at you in the face, you view them a little differently. Hah!

Wedding Rings

The rings for the wedding came on Saturday, and I've finally got a photo of them. Rings with me are tricky, because I'm allergic to some metals, and others.. my skin will eat right through them. So, finding jewelry is hard for me.

I'm also very nervous about losing things, so I did not want to spend a fortune on something that I fear I will lose. My engagement ring is titanium, which was allergy-free, and rather inexpensive. Added bonus was that it was simple, and not too fancy for this simple girl.

So, I decided to go a step beyond titanium and get a matching set of cobalt rings. From my research, cobalt is supposed to be strong, less prone to breakage, is more like a lighter color (as opposed to titanium, being grey-ish), and is relatively lightweight. They came, and I don't think I could be happier.

 

Please excuse my pride in that photo, I'm trying to learn how to use the Nikon D3200 that I got for Christmas, and this is probably the most awesome photo I have taken with it. Anyway, the rings are beautiful, I think. I purchased them on Etsy, and they were under the label of "Homemade" but... I'm not entirely sure they were.

Not sure that I care at this point, because I think they look nice. I guess a part of me wanted something "special" to us a couple. I tried to go the made to order route, but oh well. The prices of cobalt rings were expensive, so I was happy to get the pair at a cost that I would have paid for only one.

As you have probably guessed already, I love working at JCPenney for the awesome clearance things that I see come through. Once I got off work last night, I went shopping for a little bit before I came home, and found some cute little underwear for only $1.97. Plus the promotion that was going on - an extra 25% off clearance. Awesome!

I picked up 7 pairs of cute little underwear. After the extra 25% for clearance, these were such a good deal to pass up. I have honestly never owned underwear from JCPenney before, so I'm wondering if they are going to fit as well as my Lane Bryant panties - but am willing to try.

Can't beat that price, at all! So happy to have been able to get the panties I wanted when I got off. Usually clearance items are rather picked over by the time I get to them, so these made me happy.

Tomorrow, my wedding dress comes! So excited!

New Ring

The fiance got me a ring, a long time ago. Since then, it has snapped on the band at the most delicate part of it. It's been superglued, and taped, the cost of repairing - it would be cheaper just to buy a new one. I've been without a ring for...over a year? Well, several weeks ago, the fiance bought me a new one. He set me loose and told me to pick a ring I want. My choice was to shop on Etsy. Handcrafted rings? Yes, please!

I'm not a huge jewelry wearer, but over the course of the past few years, I've discovered that I am allergic to certain metals, and tarnish others like crazy. Something with having very acidic skin makes metals tarnish faster? I can't really even use nickel plated knitting needles, they are almost completely tarnished by the end of a project. Anyway! Because of this, choosing jewelry is a bit difficult. So, I settled on a titanium metal. From what I understand, it is tarnish proof, and harder than traditional metals.

Simplicity was my next requirement. I'm not a person who likes a bunch of diamonds, or a really expensive ring. I'm known to lose jewelry, and I am really rough on my fingers. I've always been a fan of the simplicity of men's rings, but I wanted one to still look feminine.



This was my choice. It's a simple 3mm titanium band, purchased from an Etsy seller. It wasn't too expensive, I believe it was about $30? I like to call it my custom engagement ring, because after all, it was made custom for my size and width I wanted, right?



It's a good size on my finger too, thin enough to look feminine, yet large enough to know it's there. The seller, RenaissanceJewelry, did a fantastic job on the ring though. It is polished, as requested, comfortable to wear, and I honestly couldn't ask for a better ring.