My First Manicures

I know I've been absent for quite a while; I was busy doing work study for school and forging ahead to complete my 50 required manicures/pedicures for school, as well as preparing (mentally) for my foot surgery.  I had a bunion removed last Thursday (January 3, 2013) and from how my podiatrist sounded, he thought I should have gone with orthotics.  It turns out that the bunion was bigger than what the x-ray of my foot had shown, so he did agree that I made the right decision.  I should be feeling relief soon, but for now, my foot is throbbing and feeing sore up to the ankle.  The numbing started wearing off around midnight on Friday, so I was glad I started taking Vicodin beforehand.  I also understand why the prescription was for TWO every six hours; this puppy felt like it was being squeezed in a vice while a nail was hammered into my foot.  It got to the point where I was about to cry, it hurt so much.  Having a nerve removed was a cakewalk compared to this!  I'll probably be on crutches until this Friday, when I have my follow-up with my doctor.  I hope that afterwards, I'll be able to go back to doing my work study and services.  It's been nice, though, having a little break :-).

The following photos are from the first manicures I did when I was still in the theory part of class.  Our teacher showed us how to file nails properly (in one direction only; doing the "sawing" motion when filing causes microscopic serrations on the free edge), and also showed us the best way to apply polish.  She directed us to begin practicing on friends and family, and to send her the before and after pictures so we got credit.

A friend had a get-together and invited some ladies over from our congregation.  I had spoken with her and she let them know I needed practice for manicures, so they more than kindly agreed to help me out.  Her daughter is into nail art as well; she's a ton of fun to do nail art for and comes up with such neat ideas.  I'm including her manicure in here as well, it's too bad her rhinestone-eyed smiley face didn't turn out well in pictures :-(.

These are all "before" and "after" photos, and I'll do my best to remember what brands and colors I used.

Hope you enjoy!

Number One:

Before:

After:  Using a Funky Fingers purple holo (PURE gorgeous polish!)

Before:

After:  Using a Hot Topic red glitter polish, Stripe Rite striper in white, and rhinestones

Before:

After:  Using Sally Hansen Crackle in Antique Gold, and some nameless glitter polishes.

I loved being able to do this, because it gave me so much more practice in applying polish on nails other than my own.  I don't care if I get a bit of polish on my cuticles, but I am SUPER picky about my clients' nails.  I can't stand the thought of doing a less-than-satisfying job on them; I think I'm more picky about it than the clients are!  It also gave me practice in dealing with clients who just won't relax, and how to move their fingers around to be able to polish their nails.

I'm hoping to have some swatches and reviews up soon.  I initially started this blog to be just about nail art, but because I've relied on other bloggers doing swatches of polishes I want to get, I'm going to follow in their footsteps.  Hopefully I can make a light box so the photos turn out better and more true to life.

Have a wonderful day!