Here’s my picture for day 1 of the March Photo a Day Challenge. You can also find it and all of the others on my Twitter.
And for the record, yes, that is my eye makeup remover. It was a choice between this or a nail polish from the China Glaze Up & Away collection, but I couldn’t find any of them, so the makeup remover won.
Since my posting has been.. nonexistent.. I’ve decided to try this photo challenge for the month of March by FatMumSlim. I’ll be posting pictures both here and on Twitter. I’m debating about posting to Instagram for two reasons. First, I don’t have an iPhone anymore so it’s slightly more tricky to do than it really should be, and second, I’m really freakin lazy.
So without further ado, here are the rules/photo list to the March Photo Challenge.
ps. I’m not affiliated with FatMumSlim in any way, I just adore her blog and the awesome challenges she comes up with.
Have you ever woken up in the morning to find that one of your nails is completely missing it’s polish? Or maybe you spent the day typing only to find that your nails look like you ran them through a paper shredder? Well, have I got the product for you! It’s time to hear all about Gelish Soak Off Nail Polish!
Okay, seriously Gelish, Shellac, and Axxium have all been around for at least a year and I’m pretty sure we’ve all heard how great they are. So why did it take me that long to give it a try? Because I’m lazy. And this isn’t exactly a “normal” Gelish manicure. It’s more.. glittery.
The Gelish website lists the regular application process as this:
- Sanitize the nails and your clients hands.
- Push back the cuticle and clean the surrounding nail plate.
- Shape the natural nail using your Hand & Nail Harmony file of choice (recommended: Hand & Nail Harmony Wooden File)
- Gently remove the shine using the Hand & Nail Harmony 100/180 Buffer.
- Remove the dust and Wipe the nail with Hand & Nail Harmony Cleanser using a lint free wipe.
- Apply Hand & Nail Harmony PH Bond to the nail plate.
- Apply GELISH FOUNDATION GEL – in a thin application and seal the edges of the nail.
- Place hand in the LED 6G or LED 9G Light for 10 seconds or UV Light for 1 minute.
- Apply GELISH SOAK OFF GEL POLISH of Choice – in a thin application from cuticle to free edge. Be sure to seal the edges of the nail.
- Place hand in the LED 6G or LED 9G Light for 20 – 30 seconds (10 seconds for light colors) or a UV Light for 2 minute for lighter colors or 3 minutes for darker colors.
- Apply GELISH TOP IT OFF GEL SEALER from cuticle to free edge using a thin light application.
- Place hand in LED 6G or LED 9G Light for 30 seconds or UV Light for 3 minutes.
- Wipe off the tacky surface with HAND & NAIL HARMONY CLEANSER.
- Apply HAND & NAIL HARMONY NOURISH cuticle oil to the skin surrounding the nail.
My experience was pretty much the same, only with an added dose of glitter in between steps 9 and 10. After applying a clear gel to my nails instead of a color, the manicurist dipped each finger into a container of glitter before putting my hands under the UV light to cure. After it was set, she added another thin coat of the clear gel and put me back under the UV light for a minute or so before applying the Top It Off sealer. Because of the amount of glitter and extra layer of gel, my nails actually ended up being about the same thickness as acrylic nails. Personally, I didn’t mind, but I feel like it may be a source of irritation for some.
Blurred to show the color in the glitter
As far as the wear on these, they lived up to their claim. I got a full 2 weeks out of them before you could see any noticeable growth and another week or so after that before I started picking at them. See, in the back of my head, I knew that I could soak them off but I have a weird fascination with picking at things, so I went that route instead. I wouldn’t recommend it. This stuff sticks. Very, very well. There is no sort of lifting like there is with acrylics and the gel itself is rock hard once it’s cured, so I actually ended up filing them off. Yes it was harder than just soaking them but by that point I was doing everything I could to mess them up (unsuccessfully, I might add) so the filing was pure entertainment.
Overall, I would absolutely get another Gelish manicure, but I would probably skip using loose glitter next time and opt for one of the regular colors. The loose glitter was fun, but it was a mess and unecesarily thick.
Outside, indirect sunlight
The iTunes bookstore has an interesting definition of what is considered nonfiction. Just sayin’.
I’m actually testing out the Android WordPress app, and so far it’s decent. Nevermind the fact that I used a screenshot off of an iPhone that I no longer have in a post about an Android app.
I’ll consider doing an actual review of it once I’ve used it for more than 4 seconds.
This is a little different than my normal content but after much googling last night, I noticed that this information isn’t out there anywhere. At least not for this specific problem.
Here's the card and sticker with activation instructions. Notice it's only good for 3 months.
We (my husband and I) switched from Comcast to AT&T U-verse in December. There wasn’t a lot of thought put into it, just that Comcast had caused one too many problems that they refused to fix and/or give us answers to. AT&T’s service has actually been great so far and the installer was awesome.
About 2-3 weeks ago, I got a letter in the mail from AT&T saying that we were eligible for a $100 Visa gift card for purchasing the equipment that we got. I went to the website listed, entered the ID number on the letter and was given a confirmation that said I would have my card in 4-6 weeks. I got it in less than 3 weeks and couldn’t have been happier, until we tried to activate it.
The sticker on the card says to either call or go to their rewards center and enter the last 4 digits of the billing phone number on your account as the PIN to complete the activation. This is where we ran into all of the trouble. We went to the website first and tried the last 4 digits of my cell number, which is the billing phone number on our account. It was incorrect. Next we tried his number. Still incorrect. Finally, we tried our U-verse phone number. Nope, now we’re locked out. By now, we’re both annoyed since there is nothing helpful on the website or in the envelope that the card came in to direct us where to go next, so we call the 800 number. There are 2 options: report your card lost or stolen and activate your card. No option to speak to anyone. We tried activating it over the phone and after the third wrong entry it finally gave us an option to speak to someone. The phone rang a couple times and then another recording picked up saying that they are only open from 7am to 7pm CST. It was 5:30pm PST here. Quite honestly, I was mad at this point, more out of frustration that such a simple task was proving to be so difficult than I was at AT&T or their rewards center.
This morning, I called the 800 number again and was able to get through to a customer service rep by pressing the # key a few times whenever it asked for the card number. The first thing the rep said after I explained the situation was “Oh, your card is marked wrong. It’s supposed to be the last 4 digits of your account number.” She went on to say that there are cards for U-verse customers and cards for basic telephone customers. The U-verse cards are supposed to say to use your account number rather than your phone number and apparently mine had been mislabeled. Judging by her tone of voice and how quickly she was able to tell me what was wrong, this seems to be a fairly widespread issue. The rep was then able to activate the card in less time than it took me to get through the menu to speak to her and all is well now. I am, however, going to say this again:
If you got a rewards card for signing up with U-verse, try the last 4 digits of your ACCOUNT number instead of your phone number to activate your card. You only get 3 tries to do this before you are locked out of both the phone and website activation systems and have to have a representative activate it for you. Also, remember that the customer service center hours are 7am – 7pm CST, so that’s 5am – 5pm PST and the card is only good for 3 months after you receive it, so don’t wait until the last minute to activate in case you run in to trouble with the process.
I’m really not mad/annoyed/frustrated with AT&T or anyone else for that matter. I was able to get the issue resolved, it just would have been nice to be able to find some additional help on their website or be able to talk to someone a little later in the evening.
Went to the music store the other night. The record section didn’t disappoint.