My mirror, my friend – Hive and Nest

I am vain. I admit it. You may have noticed due to all the pictures I post of myself. I figure my vanity is OK because I’m pretty diligent with my preparedness. That makes up for it. And I have two callings at church, which also counteracts the amount of time and money I spend on myself. (Actually I’m a brunette who likes being a brunette so monetarily I’m way ahead of all you brunettes who are convinced that you’re really blondes. No highlights and root touch-ups for me, suckers!)

Lately I have been spending an excessive amount of time on my eye makeup (one of these days I’m going to do a tuturial. Really. Because I never got around to it on Makeup Monday) and on my nails. I used to get my (fake) nails done all the time when we lived in Oregon. This was back in the Pre-Cambrian age when I had to drive twenty minutes to get to a nail salon. I can barely remember the time when there wasn’t a nail salon on each corner. Then we moved to Utah and I was still getting my fake nails done. But I noticed that everyone was getting their fake nails done by then. Everyone. Even our fifteen year-old babysitter. And I kind of hated being like all the fake Utah girls (although I don’t have fake boobs or a fake tan so I’m already way better than them*). So I decided to let my nails go natural and boring. Being a nail-biter who loves her bad habit, my nails haven’t looked good since then. My nails are peely and brittle and then there is the whole hangnail issue. Apparently my vanity only made it down to my elbows.

I tend to not bite my nails when they are painted but you know what a drag it is to have to keep up polish. Every day there is something chipping off. What a drag. But, my friends, a miracle has occurred! And its name is Gelish. It’s a brand new type of polish that lasts for two weeks and does not damage your nails at all. It’s true! I have tried it! There are similar types of products such as Shellac (which I’ve heard through the grapevine is not quite as durable). But I am loving my Gelish. It’s sold “to professionals only” and you have to go to a salon that does Gelish to get a manicure. But being a DIY girl through-and-through I bought all the stuff myself off of Amazon and ebay. It’s not cheap. No ma’am. It only cures with a 36-watt UV lamp (at least $75). And the polishes, base coat and top coat are between $15-25 each. But once I figured that I would be doing my nails, plus my girls’, plus my moms’ (who has the most awful nails in the history of the world so her polish only lasts a week), it seemed not too unreasonable.

Plus, as I mentioned, I’m vain. And the promise of having lovely nails for days–no, weeks!–on end is pretty intoxicating.

And I make my own soap and lotion, for crying out loud. So look at all the money I’m already saving! Money that I can now spend on my nails.

It takes a couple of tries to get the hang of applying Gelish. But I’ve been wearing this red polish for nine days already. And this is after spending an hour scrubbing bathtubs with that harsh, nasty cleanser AND painting the hallway in my house (requiring much scrubbing of the hands to remove latex paint) AND doing a whole bunch of crafts involving acrylic paint (again requiring much scrubbing of the hands). Impressive, no?

*I have zero problem with fake boobs. It’s just when it’s combined with fake everything else that it starts to irritate. And if you happen to be smaller than a size 6 I will be especially critical of you. Sorry. (Not really.)