Tutorial: How I Photograph My Nails

  Taking a good picture of my nails was something I struggled with when I first started trying. I would see all of these awesome pictures on Instagram and I just couldn't figure out how to make my pictures turn out like that. Every time I would paint my nails I'd try to snap a picture with my phone immediately afterwards and let's just say it didn't look great. I just couldn't figure out how to get that nice, tight shot, or how to get the lighting to not look awful. It was frustrating. I asked Nicole from youngwildandpolished how she took the pictures that she posts on Instagram because her nail pics are always so good. I asked if she was using a real camera, or a macro setting or something, and she said that she always just used her iPhone. That meant that there was hope for me! She extolled the importance of really good lighting, and encouraged me to keep trying. It was that same night that I finally (a little late to the party) realized the tools I had at my disposal in the form of editing a picture. It was like a little lightbulb went off, the missing piece of the puzzle finally clicked into place. Rather than trying to get the perfect angle, or put my hand in front of the lens close enough for a tight shot, I could just crop and rotate my pictures! #duh...

June Haul and reviews

Hi guys! Somehow it's already July... How did that happen? I don't know about you, but for me the month of June just came and went in the blink of an eye. I love summer because I work at a college and over the summer we work four 10 hour days since the campus is closed on Fridays, which means 3-day weekends for 11 glorious weeks. It's wonderful, and it means I have more time for blogging (yay!), reading (yay!) and shopping (bad!). 

So over the summer my goal is to put up a bunch of how-to posts: how I paint my nails, shape them, photograph them, care for them... you get the picture. I know that I found those types of posts very helpful when I started painting my own nails, and I still hit up those kinds of things every now and then, just to see if there are any more techniques out there that could improve my routine. So if you're interested in those types of posts, stay tuned.  : )

But now, on to the haul. If you remember from my May haul, I told myself that in June I would be under a "no-buy" moratorium. Well, I almost immediately broke that promise because I found a super sweet deal on eBay for a lot of 4 Essie polishes that included three specific shades that were on my "want" list. But it was such a terrific price that I really don't care, I literally couldn't pass that offer up. After that I actually only bought one more bottle of nail polish in the month of June, everything else I'll be talking about below were all gifts. I did, however, buy a lot of makeup and makeup tools in the month of June, so I guess I really didn't do a very good job after all....