All little girls love to have their nails painted and at some point, they even begin doing so themselves. I hope the story of my nails inspires you to work on your own manicures from time to time. You won't be sorry!
Here is the story of my nails.
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1. Phase #1
Every little girl starts out with the basic nail polish at about 13 or so, and you feel cute and sophisticated for a while until you reach about 14 or 15 and realize your painting skills are sub-par and the dominant hand always looks crappy in comparison to the other. Don’t even get me started on the smudging that happens before the nail fully dries or the chipping that starts about 30 seconds after the nails have dried. Whatever the struggle may be, reality sets in that this is not the way to keep your nails looking cute! That's where the story of my nails gets started.
2. Phase #2
Going to the nail salon for the first time is a pretty deep experience. You feel like someone important as you try and look natural, like you’ve had your nails done plenty of times. The pain and soreness that follows is worth the grown, mature look and most importantly, no more nail polish! Now phase #2 lasts awhile. For me it lasted 8 years. After 8 years, a whole different struggle sets in called nail damage. Dips actually began to form in my nail beds, my nails were so thin and fragile they almost fell off. So what now? A lifetime of plain nails in order to have healthy ones?
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3. Phase #3
So after about a year of letting my nails heal and one baby later, I had no idea what to do with them. Now not only did I not want to destroy my nails again, but I had no time or money, thanks to my precious newborn, to get my nails done. So now I found myself in the nail aisle in Walmart looking at my options, which included stickers, glue on nails and nail polish. After some trial and error, and a few YouTube videos later, I found the perfect solution. The KISS brand glue on nails are amazing. File the nail beds, rub down with alcohol, add nail glue to the fake nails and one dot to your own nails and there is it is: amazing nails that last 2 weeks! Unfortunately, like before, it was just a temporary solution. After about a year of this, I started getting fungus growing on my nail beds from having moisture build up under the fake nails. My nails were also flaking badly from the constant ripping off of the fake nails every 2 weeks. So once again I stopped all nail beautification to let my nails heal.
4. Phase #4
With no solution in sight in came Jamberry with the save, like a knight on a white horse. Jamberry, if you haven’t heard of them, are sophisticated nail stickers in 1000’s of designs! I loved them so much I even sold Jamberry for a while, at least until my busy schedule took over. I got so many compliments with pumpkin nails in the fall, snowflakes in winter, seashells in the summer that they became my favorite accessory! One year later I still loved Jamberry. However, my nails were very brittle from years of the damage. They never really did recover and my nails broke often. I was constantly having to file down and repair my nail from breaks. I just wanted to do my nails and then not have to worry about them constantly. So here I was once again with an imperfect solution to my nail dilemma.
5. Phase #5
Que in present day and my current system. Like most things, one way alone isn’t the way to get the job done, so I use a combo! KISS Nails is still the best brand and I use the type that comes with glue already attached. I add the usual nail glue on it as well though, for a secure hold. For some reason, the brand that comes with glue is softer and a bit more natural for my taste and not so hard on the nails. Each week I trade off with Jamberry. The stickers give my nails a chance to heal from the week before while still letting me rock cute nails! Each nail style lasts about 2 weeks and all the compliments don’t beat the awesome feeling I get when jaws drop after I say I do my nails myself! Don’t give up on your nails ladies. Find your perfect system and keep them cute.
