Thoughts on Jamberry

Recently I did a little post on my nails and how I feel about them. They have been through so much with me, as I vowed to never chew my nails again, and the constant battle to make them stronger. Well, one negative thing about my nails is that... I have the hardest time keeping nail polish to stay on for longer than 24 hours. I have a TON of polishes, and I have found I have the best of luck with essie polishes. Well, provided that I reapply top coat every day, and even then I only get three days maximum out of it. That being said, I am constantly on the look out for a polish that can last longer than just a few days. I've been told that my nails are oily, and that is why polish peels off in sheets. It makes sense, but it is still very frustrating.

I got my hands on some Jamberry. The idea that they were essentially a sticker that could last for up to three weeks was awesome. I was really excited to try them! I thought they might be the answer to my problem with nail polish - if polish would not stay on, Jamberry might. However, the cost... was way to expensive for me just for daily use. It had to be used for something special.

A few weeks ago, my husband won a "date night" from his work. Where we would have a limo ride, dinner, and a movie. What a perfect opportunity to use the Jamberry that I had been hoarding! All day, I watched videos, read articles and researched the proper way to apply these expensive little stickers, and finally got the courage to put them on. I spent two hours working with them, trying to apply them properly, and was so excited to finally have them on.

They were gorgeous! I loved them, took pictures of them, showed them off to my husband, and I genuinely thought they were the most beautiful things I have ever put on my nails. Until two hours later when I took a shower. I got out of the shower, was running my fingers through my hair, and noticed that my hair got snagged on my nails. Which is never a good thing.

Upon inspection, the whole sticker just peeled right off with hardly any effort on my part. Not just the one either. ALL of them lifted off. I was so heartbroken, I would have been so happy if they had just lasted at least the 24 hours until the date night was over, as that was the whole point of why I put them on. It was completely disappointing. I had to stay up late that night, painting my nails with one of my favorite Different Dimension polishes.

They did not touch my cuticles, or any oils on my skin. I am positive I did nothing wrong, which made the whole experience more irritating. I think I just need to resign myself to the fact that my nails just prefer to be naked.

My Nails Today

Once upon a time, I was a serious nail chewer. I had been doing it for as long as I could remember. I never had nails, I'd chew my nails and the skin around them until they bled. On a daily basis. My nails were a serious embarrassment, and every time I went out, or anything, I felt like I needed to hide my fingers. They were horrible looking. Stumpy nails, bleeding hangnails, ugh. The latest photo that I took of my fingers in this state, was when I posted about some knitting projects I made. They looked so terrible then! One day, I decided I did not want to hide my fingers anymore. I made the decision that day to stop chewing on them.

It was difficult to do. I had to consciously pull my fingers out of my mouth most of the time, remind myself to stop. I found that if I kept my nails painted, I was more likely to keep them out of my mouth. Because of this, I bought a lot of nail polish. I was making a good amount of money in a job I hated, so I spent a lot of money on polish. A little while ago, I even took my blog on a tour of my nail polish unit. Taking photos of those, and posting them was just a little embarrassing, I (or my husband) did not realize how much I had... or how much money went towards it.

While I do not buy any nail polish anymore, I definitely accomplished my goal of not chewing on my fingers anymore. It was a long process of keeping my nails painted, making sure my cuticles stayed moisturized to stop the hang nails, and constant reminding myself to keep them away from my face.

I am so proud of my nails now. I never bite on them anymore. At this point, they actually grow so long that I have to trim them all the back down because they get in the way. A few years ago, I never imagined that I would ever have that problem. My current nails are proof to myself that I really can do whatever I set my mind to. I just need to make a decision, and commit to it, like I did with my nails.

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!