EZ Flow The It List

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I've been neglecting you because I've been neglecting my nails, I'm sorry.  I just wasn't up for dealing with another long removal and redoing this fake tip until I absolutely had to, and today I had to.  The old mani was nine days grown out and had a chip near a cuticle because I decided to tidy up my cuticles while taking a scalding hot bath a few days ago, and a bit of the gel came off when I did, so they weren't really looking too good.  Early this morning I got a call to set up a second interview for a position I really (really, really, really) want, and it's tomorrow morning, so the time had come to redo my nails.

The removal of the old mani was long again.  I did some more hunting for tips online and saw people say that the remover works better than acetone, so I used the remover that came packaged with it, but it was still pretty bad.  Since the Nubar removal was the easiest, what I did this time was use Nubar Gelicure products for nail prep, base, and sealer, and just the EZ Flow color gel in the middle.  This is my third time time using EZ Flow color gel, and I find that it shrinks in application quite a bit - both times before were with the whole EZ Flow system, so it doesn't seem like product incompatibility would be the problem here.  I worked around the shrinkage as well as I could, and the whole application, including one sculpted tip, was finished in under forty-five minutes (that's excluding the removal of the old one).

I went over a few options I had for what color to use this week (pretty easy since I don't have a ton of choices), and I found one I'm content with.  I considered a nice French, but vetoed it for this particular interview because it's a little on the girly side - the job's an IT team lead role, and girly just doesn't cut it.  I considered going with just clear since my nails are white enough to do that now, but I'm never comfortable with that and it would be distracting to me, and that thought led me to just wear something I'd be comfortable and confident in, which was a darker shimmery red from EZ Flow called The It List.  I know it's a bit bold, but I'll still be very understated overall - my clothes are the dressy IT choice of a charcoal skirt and a black sweater.

EZ Flow The It List Soak Off Color Gel

Looks like I got some towel lint on there after I washed my hands when I finished, so we'll all have to pretend we don't see that.  Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out - it's familiar, not especially attention-grabbing, and so I'll be at ease wearing it.  The last thing I want to be thinking about for even a moment during the second interview for a dream job is my nails, and that'll be easy with this.

So that's the update for now, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

EZ Flow Secret Shopper

Good morning, Dear Reader!  Long time no see.

I never changed around that St Pat's manicure last week, so I didn't have pictures to show you - since it was somewhat poorly executed, I had a hard time with the idea of stamping a shamrock on one nail and taking a new picture to post.  It worked out well though - I had one interview that was on short notice, requested about two hours before the meeting time.  I was kicking myself for having it on, but it ended up that all I was committing to was a phone interview so it made no difference, but I had the moment of panic that taught me a lesson.

I also had a moment of panic last week about finding a new job soon.  While the last seven or so years of my life have certainly been full, I can tell you from my experience that six moves, including buying and landscaping a new house then selling said house at a loss two years later, two marriages, two divorces, and three job changes is packing far too many very costly events into way too condensed a time, and I'm pretty broke as a result.  I can afford the roof over my head through May if a few other bills slide the last month, and I have no safety net, so I started considering what could add up to an additional month's rent, and that's where the (temporary) new ads that showed up this week came from.  The Google ad that's been at the bottom of the post is there because some testing showed me that it also has another function I wanted, but it doesn't make real money.  The way it works is that I just sign up and tell Google generally where the ad goes, and once it's made a total of $100, Google pays out its earnings at the end of the month.  As it's been, I get a payment from them every 2-3 months (it varies depending on whether they're clicked, they rarely are).  I added the others in the hope that I'll reach the threshold and get a $100 check each month until I have a new job, at which time I'll very cheerfully remove them.  I'm really sorry to crap up the page with them, I absolutely hate adding ads, and I gave the explanation to make it clear that it was the act of a desperate woman.  A reader made the suggestion of adding a PayPal donation button instead, and while it would probably drum up a few bucks, I'd feel like I was sitting on the virtual corner hassling you with my virtual tin cup, which might make it difficult to live with myself, so the ads are here for the short term.

That got long!  The reason I started writing this was EZ Flow Secret Shopper, a really pretty light purple shimmery soak off gel.  I put it on after yesterday's IBD clear and green creme removal was tough - two 20 minutes soaks and a lot of chipping and buffing the last of it off.  It seemed like a good time to try EZ Flow, although both brands are owned by AII.  Doing the fake tip went a million times better, which was good.  This time I put the real time and effort into getting the form just right, which made actually making the tip easy. It took maybe ten minutes total, but I doubled the time I needed with my fear of using too much product - I made the fake tip so thin that it was too bendy to even file it, so I had to do another layer of gel and another three minute cure.  Then I did the color gel, sealed it with the Nubar Gelicure soak off sealer, and I have a manicure that's happy and Springy.

EZ Flow Secret Shopper Soak Off Color Gel

The color is a bit sheer and in the bright light the thinner patches show, but they don't show up in normal light.  In bright light, it's so sparkly that I hadn't noticed them before looking at this picture.  I'm pleased to point out the complete lack of super amateur Photoshopping to my cuticles - they've finally healed up, and foil will never touch them again.

I think that's just about everything I meant to tell you about today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!