Floral Mani and Updates All Around

I've been absent for such a long time.  There's two reasons for that...
1. I started my internship.  It takes up SO MUCH of my time and is SO stressful, that I completely chewed off all my nails into tiny nubbins... and THEN I started working on the cuticles.  Not only that, but I've been super concerned with what is appropriate for work, and what isn't as far as nails/nail art.  And I have a confession: I wore the same mani for two weeks in a row.  And I'm using the term mani here very loosely- I slapped on two coats of a sheer polish with no base or topcoat and just called that good- for TWO WEEKS.  By the time I took it off last night, the polish was only in the very center of my nail, and my ridges had actually worn through in some places!  It was disgusting.
2. I lost my Seche Vite!!!!!! I don't know how that happened :(  But I kept saying to myself "no point in spending time on doing my nails if I can't use my SV.  I'll do my nails when I find it."  I hardly even looked!  Well last night I tore my house apart and there's no sign of it, so I just did my nails anyway, because I'd finally reached my limit.

So anyway, like I said, I finally hit my limit last night and said "enough is enough!"  Plus I had just seen this tutorial from Rebecca Like Nails, and was all over it like white on rice.  I love a good floral mani, and even though I was a little nervous to wear it to my internship, I figured go big or go home.

Ugh those cuticles.

Products Used:

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Wet Cement

Maybelline Express Finish in Prompt Petals

ELF nail polish in Fuchsia

Revlon Emerald City

Sally Hansen Double Duty as topcoat

Bundle Monster Plate number BM14

Starting Over

So I was doing such a great job with my nails.  I mean, a great job for me.  I was painting them multiple times weekly, doing some fun designs, and they were growing!  It was working!

But I'm in grad school.  And doing my practicum.  And it got overwhelming, and the last two months of the school year I got so stressed out and it was over.  A few stressful weeks and I haven't been able to recover!

So I finally got fed up and decided to go get a professional manicure.  Which lasted for like three days.  But my practicum is over now, so hopefully this summer I will be able to recover and spend some time making my hands and nails look lovely!

My poor hands :(

Store mani

Fauxnads!  And a bracelet I made.

Products featured:
China Glaze in Sun Worshipper
Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro in Steel Grey
Nicole by OPI in It's Possible
Bundle Monster B19

I Have Been MIA... and Very Bad :(

I haven't posted in ages, and here's my excuse... I bit off ALL MY NAILS!  I am so ashamed.  I've still been painting them, but quickly and without much love, and I've been so stressed and busy that I haven't had time for photos.  But I'm back in the swing of things (my summer semester started up and it took me a few days to readjust) so hopefully I can get myself back on track and grow these babies out.

I have a mani on my nails right now that I want to show yall, but I haven't cleaned it up yet or put on a topcoat.  So I will do that and hopefully have some photos by tonight or tomorrow to get things going.  But until then, I have some non-nail-art related photos to tide you over.

My boyfriend and I went to Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm for their tulip festival a few weekends ago.  So here's some colorful, happy, springtimey flower photos!

And I leave you with a few questions/I'm asking for advice:

1. I once again attempted to use my Zoya matte polishes and, once again, they chipped off within the first day.  Then I tried again with Essie Matte About You topcoat and that STILL didn't help.  Does anyone else have these problems?  It's not with any of my other matte polishes, only Zoya.  Do you have any suggestions to make that work?

2. I am looking for a baby, baby, pale pastel blue.  Actually, any baby baby pastel color recommendations would be so awesome.  But particularly a blue, as I haven't been able to find one.  So: powder/pastel/baby blues that you've tried/heard are awesome.  

Thanks so much!  I'm trying desperately to catch up on everyone's blogs, so sorry if I spam you with comments all at once!

Starting Point

Thursday night I had class and by the time I got home I had bitten/chipped off nearly all of my nail polish.  Which is not a new occurrence, but I figured it would mark the perfect starting point for my new goal.  So heads up, this isn't pretty:

I know, right?  Look at those cuticles.

I didn't even try to put on lotion or anything, because let's be honest, I have a problem that I've been working on for years and this is still what my hands look like on a normal basis.  It isn't as bad as it could be (or has been in the past) but I'm working to make it awesome.

So anyway, this is my starting point.  And to begin I decided to try a matte royal blue.  

Not too shabby, right?  They don't look terrible when the polish is on.  

Products used:

Sally Hansen Age Correct Growth Treatment (I've been using this for years and I love it long time) as basecoat

Revlon Top Speed in Royal

Essie Matte About You topcoat

I painted these on Friday afternoon and they lasted until... today.  They were chipped up by Saturday, and I tried repairing them but by my shower this morning my repairs had worn off and I chipped the rest off all by myself while wandering through a book store.  

This is going to be harder than I thought.

It looked nice while it lasted.