First up - Swatches - I feel like I've come a long way. Lets do a little critique here shall we?
2010
- Flooded cuticles
- poor clean up
- uneven nail length
- uneven nail shape
- dry cuticles
- odd down cast of hand with lighting above nails
- grip of death on polish bottle
2013 - definitely an improvement :) Although I'm still slack at using enough moisturiser and cuticle cream and could loosen my grip on the bottle!
Stamping
Oh I remember trying stamping for the first time. I was completely blown away by what you could achieve, and despite not being able to place designs accurately on my nails, I was so in love what I created.
2010
2012 - so I still haven't learned how to position designs evenly on my nails, but what I have learned to do is not to use designs that need to be placed symmetrically. All over designs that can be put on crooked - like these flowers, are such a winner!
Polish collection AKA stash
Oh dear!
2010 - approximately 200 polishes stored in three clear plastic sistema storage containers, stacked on top of each other.
2013 - approximately 1300 polishes stored in four helmers, all polishes indexed in a spreadsheet, swatched on sticks and grouped by colour - this shit just got serious!
Nail Art
Everyone starts somewhere ok...
2010
I've learned so many new techniques for nail art in the last three years. Striping tape, tape manis, gradients, magnet designs, water decals, temporary tattoos, water marbling, rhinestones, studs... the list goes on. Nail art is now one of the things I enjoy doing the most!
2012
Life
2010 - Mr and Mrs More Nail Polish and Mr 2.
2013 - Mr and Mrs More Nail Polish, Mr 4 and Miss 2.
Little Miss 2 is the reason why there was such a huge gap in my first blogging year. The smell of polish made me want to puke, so I pretty much went polish free for at least 6 months. My two littlies are my life, and I often wonder how the hell I find time for nail polish and blogging, but I'm a highly organised individual and I just make time for it all!
Mr four, shown below at just three below, still loves polish! I'm not sure what age I should start to discourage it??
Miss two is already a polish addict - it's scary. She will sure inherit an awesome vintage stash one day!.
Giveaway?
Surely a milestone like this warrants some sort of giveaway. Absolutely! I have an epicly huge giveaway starting tomorrow, which is linked with a bit of a fun competition to enter. I'll get all that ready tomorrow and post about it tomorrow night. I'll also announce the winner of the Lust Have It subscription. I'm just waiting on my guest judge (from LHI) to pick a winner!
Are the sticks you have your colors swatched on like Zoya's color spoons? If not, what are they?
ReplyDeleteThey are swatch sticks - I'm not actually familiar with the Zoya color spoons as Zoya is hard to get here in Australia. This blog post shows them in more detail. I just buy them off ebay.
DeleteWow, you've come a long way Cathy! Congrats on 3 years :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Elissa
DeleteSo much fun to read this post and see your development :).
ReplyDeleteWas that 1300 bottles?! Wow! That would be a collection to envy. Congrats on the three years too.
ReplyDeleteYep, just tipped over 1300 bottles - oops!
DeleteCongratulations!! I love reading your blog so much, I look forward to it every day.
ReplyDeleteAlso, just to add my 2 cents, why discourage Master Four wearing nail polish at all? I've always found it very attractive in a man, like he knows who he is and has high self esteem :)
http://www.onegentsten.com/
For example ^^^
Yes, I love your attitude and I wish more people were more accepting of guys with polish. That is a fascinating blog! I certainly don't see any problem with Mr 4 wearing it and will let him for as long as he want, but Daddy certainly doesn't encourage it.
DeleteCongrats! You are doing a good job! Love your blog :) Keep it up! Youre a lovely person
ReplyDeleteThanks Mariska!
DeleteOh my gosh, Miss 2 looks like she's already a pro at applying nail polish, so cute! Congratulations on your three years of blogging.
ReplyDeleteYes, she certainly *thinks* she's a pro and she can do it unsupervised. Thank you
DeleteWhat an improvement! I can see that for myself as well. I started my blog back in October 2012 and I think all my techniques and photos have improved a lot.
ReplyDeleteYou're doing a lovely job with this blog I must also add. :)
Thank you Emma - it so great to look back and see how things have changed, its one of the reasons I started my blog, to record where I'd been. That is awesome you can see an improvement from late 2012
DeleteI'm not sure if you're asking for advice or just sort of thinking out loud, but I wouldn't actually discourage Mr. Four from using polish. When he starts school, I might tell him that other kids might make fun of him for it (just so that he knows that in advance but can make his own choice) - but that you support him 100% no matter what he chooses.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he'll decide not to wear polish anymore. Maybe he'll decide to just wear it on the weekend. Maybe he'll wear it to school for a while. He'll probably eventually stop wearing it on his own, but there's no reason to force him to stop!
By the way, my little brother used to wear dresses (he would dress up as a female character from his favorite movie) when he was 3-4 years old. My parents didn't care, they let him. He grew out of it. He's in his 20s now, he's straight, it was just a little kid thing. (I, however, who was a little girl who was not a tomboy at all, turned out to be gay. You just never know!)
Thanks for your thoughts Emi. While he is still comfortable to wear polish, them I'm happy for him to do so. I'm sure peer pressure at school will influence him greatly!
DeleteThis is pretty much exactly what I was thinking. If he still likes nail polish when he goes to school, there might be a little drama over other kids being mean, or maybe they'll just think he's funny. I agree that if he doesn't want to wear it to school due to the teasing, but still likes to play with the colors, weekends are great for that. There's also toenails, especially in the winter. It's a secret to everybody!
DeleteWow - I really enjoyed reading this and seeing the massive difference in everything in the the three years!
ReplyDeleteI'm, just starting out with my blog so this is quite an inspiration - thank you for sharing :)
Thank you, and your nails on your blog look fantastic!!
DeleteCongrats on your 3 years!! :) I regularly look forward to your posts!
ReplyDeleteI am a mother to 2 boys, while I think it is OK for men to wear nail polish, and I used put it on my oldest son (5yrs old)in the past. NOW I personaly think its best for all children (B & G) to be polish free untill they are a bit older... I'm thinking 8. This came around after discussions with my hubby, who does NOT like np on his boys, yet our son wanted to wear it (like mommy). So if we hold off until he is eight (or so) he can make his choices independenly, instead of mom and dad fighting whether its appropriate or not. I am not sure if thats right or not, but its what we decided in out family.
Yes, my hubby does not like polish on boys, but I'm afraid it's too late for my two, with my polish influence, and so many bottle at hand, its impossible for them not to want to do what I do for so much of the time.
DeleteCongratulations Cathy! I aspire to have nails as perfect as yours, and look forward to my daily dose of inspiration from your blog!
ReplyDeleteI was particularly interested to read this morning about your struggles with matching nail length early on... I have this problem, too. Any advice on how to get perfectly even nail length?
Ha ha, perfect nails - thank you that is such a compliment. Yes, I definitely struggled with nail length and shape. I used to always file with no polish on, and try to ensure that the same amount of nail was showing on my free edge. I eventually learned that my nail beds were uneven lengths, so even if I had 2mm of free nail on each hand, when I polished they looked uneven. Now I file with polish on so I don't get distracted looking at the amount of free nail showing - I'm able to get them more even doing that.
DeleteOh, and thank you for your kind words too.
Congrats on 3 years here. There is hope for me seeing your progress :) Hey if Mr 4 wants to wear polish so what, let him be who he is and I wouldn't encourage or discourage him. Let his grow up to be himself and find out who he is, society imposes enough rules on how you ought to dress, think, talk, and be, so let him enjoy being himself and free from what others say or think. He'll have enough of that later. For today if he is happy sporting colored polish, so what? He isn't hurting anyone, and he is happy.
ReplyDeleteWell said, and I totally agree. Thank you.
DeleteCongratulations with the blogiversary! This was a really fun post to read. And you know I'm a fan of your blog! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, and I read yours everyday too! :)
DeleteWow, love seeing the progress you've made in 3 years. Congrats! Also, very inspiring --- one day my nails might look that good :D
ReplyDelete-Vivian
Thanks Vivian
DeleteCongrats! It is very interesting to see your progress. You can be proud of yourself!
ReplyDeleteThank you
DeleteCongratulations on your 3 year anniversary! I started following you around year 2, and have gotten spectraflair and color morphing pigments from you. You are a fun and generous blogger, and I can't wait to see what the future brings for you!
ReplyDeleteThanks Nikki, and it's lovely to have readers stick around for as long as you have!!
DeleteCongratulations Cathy! Great post. It's always fun to see then and now. :)
ReplyDeleteYes, I love then and now posts too! I even love just looking back on other peoples blogs to see how they have improved over time!
DeleteCongratulations on the milestone. Fascinating to read.
ReplyDeleteUnder 5’s in particular imitate the adults in their lives. Also, children love to paint - anything and everything, they love bright colours. What could be better than a portable canvas on your fingers? I’m glad he has the chance to enjoy the fun because once he starts school it’s usually a case of “no nail polish allowed” - for girls or boys.
You make a good point. At pre-school it's not an issue, but in primary school it probably will be. I should enjoy it while it lasts!
DeleteThank you
ReplyDeleteah this gives me hope that one day I can have nail art as good as you!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on three years! :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! You really have a very nice blog, one of my favourites!
ReplyDeleteThis post made me realize that my own blog will be three years in May. How did that happen?
And why should you discourage Mr 4 from nailpolish? :-) Maybe he'll spread it among his friends and soon we'll have more men using nailpolish! Wouldn't that be nice? :-D
Loved this post! It is really interesting to see what results a lot of care and practice gives. I just wish I could grow mine like yours lol xx
ReplyDeleteI love these posts because it gives me hope that I can continue to improve and grow. It's always fun to see someone else's progress too. I still paint my Mr. 4's nails. His polish stays on better than my Miss 2 because she's always bitting it off! I see it as good bonding time with them. When he's done I think he'll tell me. :)
ReplyDelete