Good Habits For Healthy, Beautiful Nails

As I get older, I found that I have unintentionally started taking care of my body. I moisturize more. I care about what I eat (sometimes). I pay attention to what is in the products that I use on my skin. The thing that I found to be most important in my new obsession with caring for my body, is nail care. I've always loved painting my nails but never spent much time making sure they were healthy.

Now, I'm no nail care professional, but, for the past two years or so I've had some time to come up with an effective routine. Sometimes it is rather tedious to go through the motions of cleaning and prepping your nails before painting them, but I assure you, it's the number one reason my cuticles and nails look good. So here are five good habits for healthier, stronger, beautiful nails.

Keep Them Clean
This is the single most important thing you need to do that will help your nails grow stronger and prevent hang nails and nasty infections. You'll actually enjoy tending to your nails before painting them once you get the hang of doing it regularly. My usual regime for cleaning my nails goes as follows:

• Remove any nail polish left on your nails. I use acetone free remover with vitamin E. It does tend to take longer to remove polish but it's a lot healthier for your nails. 
• Wash your hands with mild soap and warm water, massage cuticle butter into nails bed if desired. If you have time, a good 5-10 minute soak in warm water never hurt nobody.
• Clip or file any nails that aren't to your preferred length. Do not cut your nails too short or cut your cuticles. You can avoid infection by leaving them be. If your cuticles are getting a little unruly, it's fine to gently push them back a tiny bit.
• Very gently buff your nails to your preference. I usually use the flat side of my buffer if I'm not planning on painting my nails to leave them shiny and beautiful, and use the rougher side to buff them matte before I paint my nails. I don't know if there is any specific way you're suppose to buff them, but, you can do it any way that works best for you. 

Use A Cuticle Oil Or Butter
Taking care of my cuticles if the best thing to ever happen to my hands. I apply Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream or if I have it, Lush Cosmetic's Lemony Flutter to my cuticles and fingers as often as I remember to, and always after I've tended to my nail beds before painting them. It leaves the skin so soft and moisturized and makes for a way easier nail painting experience. After I've painted my nails and they've dried, I always apply a coat of Essie's Apricot Cuticle Oil to my nail beds and massage them until absorbed. Definitely two great investments, your cuticles will thank you and your nails will grow stronger.

Let Them Breathe
I don't follow this rule as much as I should, but, it probably is pretty important when trying to keep your nails healthy and beautiful. Before I had a nail routine, I always found that my nails looked dingy and yellow after removing polish. More times than not, my nails would be stained from whatever colour I had on previously. I always just painted over it instead of letting them repair themselves. Now that I clean my nails regularly and remove any stains by gently buffing the area, they actually grow better and don't split as easily. The growth is much, much healthier after I let them breath for a day or two in between colours.

Tip: If you can't stand a bare nail, Julep carries a special oxygen treatment that is a light pink that helps let your nails breathe while still looking adorable. 

Apply Thin Layers Of Polish
After getting into the habit of steps 1-3, your nails are going to feel like they've spent a week at the spa. You will find they'll also be a lot easier to paint. If you find you have trouble keeping your polish from peeling quickly, it's most likely due to how you're applying it. Your first coat should be really thin, so that it dries fast and works as a primer for the second coat. If you have a quality polish, two coats should do the job. If you're using a thin formula, it pays to do thin layers so that a third one won't be too thick, which is why polish peels.

Tip: I suggest also finding a great top coat that dries fast. Seche Vite is a big favourite for everyone, but if you're looking for a formula that is better for the environment, I've been a fan of Essie's Good To Go and Julep's Polymer Top Coat.

Avoid Painting Your Cuticles
I always thought it was weird that you wouldn't want to paint your entire nail, but once I started doing it, I was hooked. It makes your manicure look 1000x better. It also helps your cuticles from drying out, feeling sore, or looking messy. Start at the base of your nail, leaving a small gap between your cuticle and the start of the polish. Your brush should make a rounded stroke and be easy to shape your polish the same curve as your cuticle. Then do two more strokes, one on each side of your middle stroke, avoiding the sides of your nails. If you get any on your skin just quickly scrap it off with your thumb nail. You won't need to spend any time shaping around the base of your nail with your second coat because gravity will just let it settle on top of your first coat.

It doesn't even have to look perfect, because it will still look amazing compared to painting your cuticles and skin. Practice makes perfect and you will be able to paint your nails without touching your cuticles in no time.

Tip: Pay attention to the brushes when picking out nail polishes. I have brand favourites based on the brush and not necessarily their formulas or colours. It's all preference, and you will discover what works best for you. 

Do you have a nail care regime? What are your favourite polish brands or products for nail health? Do share, as I'm always looking for new things to try!

xo Amber
This post was not sponsored by any company, however I have used links pertaining to my relationship with Julep. 
To learn more about about affiliate links click here.

Better Blogging // To Do List

Hey dolls, remember when I discussed what I've learned in my first year of blogging? Well, that was the first installment of a long line of blogging discussions I would like to have. I know I'm a new blog, but that doesn't mean I can't give advice, or share my goals, or do anything I can to improve my blog, or better yet, help others improve theirs!

So here it is, my second topic for Better Blogging (that's what we'll call it), and I want to discuss some things I would like to do to help myself stay motivated about blog posts. It's not easy for me to set goals for myself and actually follow through with them. But, I'm hoping that making my weaknesses public might help push me harder to make sure I make them stronger, and that I'm keeping my word. Maybe some of you can follow along and try some of my blogging challenges. Think you can do it? Let's try! Here's ten things I am going to do to improve my blog:

♥ Keep a posting schedule. Bloggers can't stress this enough it seems, and I finally understand why. It really does feel better to have a full week, or even 2 posts ready to go. Especially when you're too busy one day, or simply just don't feel like whipping something up the night before. I've already started trying this task and so far it's going really well. I currently have 8 drafts ready to be posted and it feels great! Now I can plan for better posts and have time to execute them better. 

♥ Post at least 3 style shoots a month. My real goal is to post one a week but I know I might be more successful if my goal is 3. Maybe I will exceed that and over achieve! (A girl can hope!)

♥ Take better photos. I have to admit, most of the photos I took at the beginning of my blog, I would never consider posting now that I've learned how to photograph objects better. My goal for this challenge is to not necessarily invest in better equipment, but to learn more about my camera and about lighting, angles and more. Great photos really draw me to other blogs and I want my photos to attract readers to mine.

♥ Be more opinionated. This is a big one! I stay safe with all the inspiration posts and shopping guides, I need to add more personal posts and discuss my opinions on things. Even if their not good opinions.

♥ Share more crafts and recipes. I'm always crafting and cooking and I'm going to set a goal for myself to share more how-tos. Let's start with at least once bi weekly. That seems like a good place to start.

♥ Improve my sponsor features. I love, love, love my questionnaire that everyone does for their sponsor posts but wouldn't it be awesome to give people the option to do a guest post on whatever they would like to discuss? Or maybe just give them more freedom to talk about what they'd like to talk about? Hmm.

♥ Stop. Changing. My. Layout. No description needed, I just really need to stop doing that.

♥ Brainstorm new topic ideas. This is something I'm really working on this month. Those 8 drafts we speak of? They're all relatively new kinds of posts for my blog. I feel like I'm slipping into blogger burnout and I really want to avoid that by coming up with new topics to discuss or new ways to share photos, etc. without doing the same thing everyone else is doing. And that leads to the next one..

♥ Be more original. I know, in the blogisphere, that's easier said than done. But, we can try? And also Beeeeeeeee yourself (Hey, Aladdin fans..see what I did there?). I find there's so many things that I love and enjoy that I almost never talk about on my blog. For instance, how obsessed I am with movies and television, and how I can recite basically any Jim Carrey movie, or SNL sketch. Or how music is the very essence of me. I've been to 13030405 concerts, own 20349595 records, cds, cassettes, books and yet I've only mentioned that maybe once on my blog. Maybe this is a gold mine I've just been sitting on and ignoring. What. An. Idiot.

♥ Nail Tutorials? This is an idea I've been playing with in my head for a few weeks now. I used to do nail art tutorials on my Tumblr blog and people loved it. I know I already post quite a bit about nail polish.. but, maybe tutorials are something you might be interested in seeing on my blog?

                                                                                                         

what i've learned about blogging

It's now past my one year blog anniversary and I wanted to reflect a bit on what I've learned about blogging so far. When I first started it felt like everything was going to just happen all at once. Obviously, that's not what happened - and thank God for that! I would die if I had major blogging success piled on top of homemaking, motherhood and what's left of my social life. I'm glad I've had a year and probably a few more years to iron out the creases and find my niche. My blog evolves everyday and I still haven't quite found a comfortable place yet. I'm not an expert by any means, but, I've definitely discovered some good tips. And despite blogging meaning different things to different people, I think these are some Do's and Dont's we can all learn from, in no particular order:

♥ DO care about aesthetics. This is definitely something I am constantly struggling with. You want your blog to be unique and beautiful, right? But you also want it to function well and be organized to make it easier on your readers eyes. I am the first person to admit I will never read a blog again if it's not aesthetically pleasing. And hey, if you're no good at html coding or designing, there are plenty of lovely people on the internet that would be more than happy to help make your blog a beautiful place!

♥ DO find subjects you love to write about. Don't write solely based on what everyone else is writing about. Find what you love to discuss and stick with it - don't worry about how many readers that topic will get you. You don't have to be a professional writer or have these crazy amazing ideas. Just write about what makes you happy and trust your instincts. If you're writing about stuff that you feel you know nothing about or that you're not quite happy with, then don't write about it! And if you're writing to get traffic you're going to end up hating your blog.  And with that being said...

♥ DO ignore all the numbers. This is something I struggle with but am slowly learning to let it go. Everyday I used to go online and post my topic for the day and then reload the page to see how many page views I was getting. Bleh - STOP! Check your numbers monthly when updating your stats, and then walk away. It doesn't matter how many people are reading your blog or how popular you are or aren't becoming. Your heart should fuel your blog, not your numbers.

♥ DON'T compare yourself to others. This is my main struggle. Not everyone is the same, has the same talents, or likes the same things. I constantly find myself wondering "Why can't I have amazing photos like that?" or "I wish my wardrobe/house was that incredible" or "I wish my life was like that" but you, nor I, should ever think that! We are all unique, we are all awesome and we all have great blogs.

♥ DO work out a schedule that works for you and your posts. I know, writing a schedule seems silly but your readers will love coming back on certain days expecting to read the latest installment of their favourite subject. Also, find the time of day that suites you best to publish your posts. Eventually you will discover what time of day works best for you and also brings you the most readers (I know that sort of goes back on what I said about numbers, but it doesn't hurt). Think about different time zones and schedules. You may post in the morning but throwing a tweet out in the evening about your post from earlier may attract your readers from other parts of the world.

♥ DO network and make friends along the way. Like I said above, social media is your best friend when it comes to promoting your blog, and will help you reach your long term goals. It will also help you make some friends and make blogging that much more fun. Making friends has really helped me with my self confidence to be honest. In the beginning I felt alone and afraid to share my outfits but now that I have some friendly peers I feel much more comfortable! It's also really fun to collaborate for guest posts, giveaways and ad swaps!

♥ DO ad swap but DON'T rely on only ad swapping. I am a broken record, yes. But, ad swapping is great for making friends, great for dipping your toes into advertising but bad for getting stuck in a little corner. As much as I love swapping - I realize that it kept me from branching out. I ad swapped the same 10-20 blogs for a year before it dawned on me that those 10-20 blogs, probably share the same readers and thus, probably already knew about my blog and have been my readers for awhile as well.

♥ DON'T be afraid to put some cash out for advertising because in my experience, it REALLY helps. And try to find the blogs that offer up services for your money. A blog that is going to feature you, tweet about your blog, offer you extra ways to promote yourself, or even extend a nice email to get to know you better - is a way better advertising route than spending money on a blog that, although really popular, isn't going to do anything for you except throw your tiny ad on the side of their blog. The quality lies in the content so research the blogs you're going to sponsor before you put money into real advertising.

♥ DO take advice and learn from your peers. The best advice you can get is from people who have lived it. Don't be afraid to ask either! They're not unreachable people and they most likely love to help. I've received a heap of advice from Kaelah from the Clueless Girl's Guide through emails and through her Blogging Tips column (Must reads!). Here are some other great and very informative articles from successful bloggers:

How To Be A Happy Blogger // Scathingly Brilliant
5 Tips For Bloggers // A Beautiful Mess
5 Blogging Tips For Purchasing Advertising // The Clueless Girls Guide
How To Start Your Blog With A Bang // A Beautiful Mess featuring Sincerely, Kinsey
Blog, Blog, Blog // I Might Just Explode
5 Blogging Tips // The Clueless Girls Guide
How To Start A Blog // Gala Darling

Mostly importantly, DO have fun! 
Don't take yourself so seriously. And if you're ever feeling down or feel like giving up just know that some of the most successful bloggers had a tonne of hurdles to climb to get to where they are. And even on your worst day, you're still a really great person, and with the right inspiration and attitude you can have a really amazing blog!