Hey Everyone!
I just wanted to say a quick hello to let you know that I haven't disappeared! I am really bad at regularly posting just about anywhere. That said, I just wanted to let you know what I've been up to, and what I hope to be putting out soon.
First off, I moved! I have been looking for an apartment for several months, and I have finally moved into one not far from either of my 2 jobs. The photo above is the part that I worked the hardest on: my coffee/tea station! I may do a post in the future about which ones I like and such.
I've also been hard at work. Doing 2 jobs is a struggle, let me tell you. I'm pretty exhausted, but I'm trying to intentionally take time to invest in myself and in others. As I've believe I've mentioned before, one of my jobs is in food service. For that job I cannot have my nails painted. When I don't work there I have my nails painted, but I do have to take off my polish before I go to my food service job. Peel off base coats are my best friends! I thought about doing a comparison post about the peel off base coats, but that would be really boring and I may as well just tell you that the UNT Ready for Takeoff is my favorite.
I have a bunch of posts written to share with y'all, but I need to take photos to go with them. Honestly that has always been the hardest part. Hopefully in my new place I can find a spot with good lighting so I can crank these photos out. Some of the posts you can keep an eye out for are a collection post, nail care, reviews of some indie polishes, and of course more nail art!
Don't worry guys, I'm not trying to disappear, you will see more from me soon! I hope y'all have an awesome week!
~ Mary Elizabeth
Monday, October 1, 2018
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Feelin' Blue
Hello Friends!
So I was looking through my nail polish collection recently, and I realized that there are a bunch of polishes I haven't used in ages! I decided it was time to break out some old favorites and perhaps put them to new use. This was the result!
So as you can see I alternated shades of blue. The lighter blue is Essie Bikini So Teeny, and the darker blue is Essie Butler Please. I haven't used either of these in quite a while, which was obvious when I pulled the brushes out of the bottles. However, on the second coat of each polish they evened out. I did a sponge gradient on the ring finger using both colors. Not the cleanest gradient I've ever done, but it looks ok. On the rest of my fingers I did a glitter gradient using OPI Last Friday Night. I don't know why it's been so long since I used this one; it's freaking gorgeous! I think I probably could have used another layer of the glitter, but the light tip coverage looks nice too :) The other change I would make if I do this again would be to add a layer of the glitter on top of the gradient. As I played around with this glitter later on, I found that this glitter is rather thin on its own, so it would have worked nicely. However, if you do want full coverage with this glitter, you can sponge it on and it packs a punch!
I hope y'all enjoyed seeing my experimentation with old polishes! Let me know if you try something like this or what polishes you have in your collection that could use some love :) Hope y'all have a fantastic week!
~Mary Elizabeth
So I was looking through my nail polish collection recently, and I realized that there are a bunch of polishes I haven't used in ages! I decided it was time to break out some old favorites and perhaps put them to new use. This was the result!
So as you can see I alternated shades of blue. The lighter blue is Essie Bikini So Teeny, and the darker blue is Essie Butler Please. I haven't used either of these in quite a while, which was obvious when I pulled the brushes out of the bottles. However, on the second coat of each polish they evened out. I did a sponge gradient on the ring finger using both colors. Not the cleanest gradient I've ever done, but it looks ok. On the rest of my fingers I did a glitter gradient using OPI Last Friday Night. I don't know why it's been so long since I used this one; it's freaking gorgeous! I think I probably could have used another layer of the glitter, but the light tip coverage looks nice too :) The other change I would make if I do this again would be to add a layer of the glitter on top of the gradient. As I played around with this glitter later on, I found that this glitter is rather thin on its own, so it would have worked nicely. However, if you do want full coverage with this glitter, you can sponge it on and it packs a punch!
I hope y'all enjoyed seeing my experimentation with old polishes! Let me know if you try something like this or what polishes you have in your collection that could use some love :) Hope y'all have a fantastic week!
~Mary Elizabeth
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Summer Diagonal French
Hello Friends!
Summer is in full force where I live, so I decided to do some summery nails. What better color to use than an aggressively bright pink?! This design is inspired by Kelli Marissa on YouTube. I thought it would be fun way to use a mega bright color without putting it all over my nail.
So for the base I used one coat of Essie Gel Couture in Fairy Tailor. I took some striping tape and laid it diagonally across the tips of my nails, starting at the right corner. Then I used one coat of China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy below the tape. I have now realized that I need to buy a new bottle of this one because mine is SUPER lumpy and old. After that I pulled off the striping tape and finished it off with Seche Vite top coat to give it a nice glossy finish.
So that is my fun, bright summer diagonal french! I love how this turned out! I'm going to have to do this type of mani with other colors in the future. I hope y'all have a great weekend!
~Mary Elizabeth
Summer is in full force where I live, so I decided to do some summery nails. What better color to use than an aggressively bright pink?! This design is inspired by Kelli Marissa on YouTube. I thought it would be fun way to use a mega bright color without putting it all over my nail.
So for the base I used one coat of Essie Gel Couture in Fairy Tailor. I took some striping tape and laid it diagonally across the tips of my nails, starting at the right corner. Then I used one coat of China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy below the tape. I have now realized that I need to buy a new bottle of this one because mine is SUPER lumpy and old. After that I pulled off the striping tape and finished it off with Seche Vite top coat to give it a nice glossy finish.
So that is my fun, bright summer diagonal french! I love how this turned out! I'm going to have to do this type of mani with other colors in the future. I hope y'all have a great weekend!
~Mary Elizabeth
Friday, July 27, 2018
Hometown Gradient
Hey Everybody!
I hope y'all have had a great last couple of weeks! This past weekend I went home to Orlando for a family reunion. I hadn't been home since December so it was fun to get to see my family again and be in familiar territory. One of my favorite (mundane) parts about going home is that I get to sort through my mom's nail polishes and paint my nails with some polishes that are not common among our collections. One thing I noticed is that my mom has a lot of shades in the pink/purple range, and in general a lot of polishes in the warm zone. I decided that while I had a different stash to play with and more time in which to do so, I would try to play with gradients. I did 2 different gradients in my time at home, but I am only going to share one with you. That is because the first one was almost indiscernible because the 2 colors I chose were far too close together. You really couldn't even tell I did a gradient at all. The second one, however, turned out quite nice! Here is my far more successful gradient.
So for this gradient I chose 2 different OPI purples. The lighter one is OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender, and the darker one is OPI Hello Hawaii Ya? My mom has a whole lot of OPI polishes, and she likes the first shade I mentioned so much that she bought 2 of them. Anyway, I painted all my nails with the lighter shade, then on the ring finger did a gradient of the 2 shades with a cosmetic sponge. There are a crap ton of tutorials on how to do this on YouTube, so I'm not going to explain how to do this. I am not super great at gradients because I don't do them all that often, but I was pleasantly surprised at how successful this was. I think I need to look for some slightly less porous sponges in the future, because up close you can see some little speckles from the sponge in the gradient. Anyway I finished it off with Seche Vite top coat, which I am slowly falling back into love with.
So that is my gradient using my mom's polishes! I really need to do these more often because this one came out so nice. Hope y'all have a fantastic weekend!
~ Mary Elizabeth
I hope y'all have had a great last couple of weeks! This past weekend I went home to Orlando for a family reunion. I hadn't been home since December so it was fun to get to see my family again and be in familiar territory. One of my favorite (mundane) parts about going home is that I get to sort through my mom's nail polishes and paint my nails with some polishes that are not common among our collections. One thing I noticed is that my mom has a lot of shades in the pink/purple range, and in general a lot of polishes in the warm zone. I decided that while I had a different stash to play with and more time in which to do so, I would try to play with gradients. I did 2 different gradients in my time at home, but I am only going to share one with you. That is because the first one was almost indiscernible because the 2 colors I chose were far too close together. You really couldn't even tell I did a gradient at all. The second one, however, turned out quite nice! Here is my far more successful gradient.
So for this gradient I chose 2 different OPI purples. The lighter one is OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender, and the darker one is OPI Hello Hawaii Ya? My mom has a whole lot of OPI polishes, and she likes the first shade I mentioned so much that she bought 2 of them. Anyway, I painted all my nails with the lighter shade, then on the ring finger did a gradient of the 2 shades with a cosmetic sponge. There are a crap ton of tutorials on how to do this on YouTube, so I'm not going to explain how to do this. I am not super great at gradients because I don't do them all that often, but I was pleasantly surprised at how successful this was. I think I need to look for some slightly less porous sponges in the future, because up close you can see some little speckles from the sponge in the gradient. Anyway I finished it off with Seche Vite top coat, which I am slowly falling back into love with.
So that is my gradient using my mom's polishes! I really need to do these more often because this one came out so nice. Hope y'all have a fantastic weekend!
~ Mary Elizabeth
Saturday, July 7, 2018
4th of July Nails
Hey there!
I hope everyone had a stellar 4th of July! If you are reading this from another country, I hope you had an awesome Wednesday celebrating you :) Every year I try and do some sort of festive nails for the 4th. In the past I have done more literal versions of patriotic nail art, but this year I wanted to try something a little different. I apologize ahead of time that there is only one photo, I was only able to get one good one before I started doing things and dragging the design around (I'll explain in a second). Anyway, here it is!
So I started with a peel off base coat, since I had to take the polish off the next day for work. I think this is what caused the dragging. The design wasn't smudged (at least not from this), but it looked like the whole nail was pushed to the side. I think this may have something to do with the fact that this base coat is meant to peel off relatively easily. I plan on eventually doing a comparison on some different peel off base coats when I've tried some more and have some more experience using them.
Anyway, for the base color on all the nails except the ring finger, I used Essie Gel Couture polish in Fairy Tailor. I may do a post at some point about this line and the polishes I have within it. I really enjoy this polish as a nice sheer wash of color on the nails. I used two coats and still have a visible nail line, but that was fine since I covered up the tips anyway. The colors I used for the dots were OPI Unfor-Greta-bly Blue, Zoya Vanessa (red), and Pop-arazzi Icing on the Cake (white). I started by putting each color on a business card. I used several different sized dotting tools to achieve the fading effect. If you don't have dotting tools, you can use toothpicks and just vary the amount of polish you use. I tried to make the dots decrease in size as they got closer to the cuticle. I decided to do each size at once, not each color (does that make sense?), which may have been to my detriment. The dots of polish on the business card started to dry a bit after a while, so they got a little gummy. If you could see my other hand you would see little strings of red from after I placed some of the dots. I kept having to add more polish so that wouldn't happen. All that to say if you try this I would recommend either doing all of one color at once or testing the polish between rounds.
For my ring fingers I used the same white polish as a base and topped it with OPI Happy Anniversary. I also sponged on some of OPI Pirouette My Whistle for that glitter. Not gonna lie, this was not the look I was originally going for. I originally wanted sparkly silver glitter, but I am totally in love with the result I ended up with! I'm definitely going to have to do this on all my nails sometime. I've never sponged on this glitter, but now that I've tried it I realize how necessary it is. It is ordinarily so hard to get those big glitters in there, but sponging is a big help. I will say, however, use a makeup sponge or something along those lines. Don't use a sponge-tipped eye shadow applicator like I did. Not nearly as effective. I topped everything off with Seche Vite top coat.
So those are my 4th of July nails! Let me know what else y'all would like me to write about, and if you did anything fun for the Fourth I would love to see! Hope y'all have a great week!
~ Mary Elizabeth
I hope everyone had a stellar 4th of July! If you are reading this from another country, I hope you had an awesome Wednesday celebrating you :) Every year I try and do some sort of festive nails for the 4th. In the past I have done more literal versions of patriotic nail art, but this year I wanted to try something a little different. I apologize ahead of time that there is only one photo, I was only able to get one good one before I started doing things and dragging the design around (I'll explain in a second). Anyway, here it is!
So I started with a peel off base coat, since I had to take the polish off the next day for work. I think this is what caused the dragging. The design wasn't smudged (at least not from this), but it looked like the whole nail was pushed to the side. I think this may have something to do with the fact that this base coat is meant to peel off relatively easily. I plan on eventually doing a comparison on some different peel off base coats when I've tried some more and have some more experience using them.
Anyway, for the base color on all the nails except the ring finger, I used Essie Gel Couture polish in Fairy Tailor. I may do a post at some point about this line and the polishes I have within it. I really enjoy this polish as a nice sheer wash of color on the nails. I used two coats and still have a visible nail line, but that was fine since I covered up the tips anyway. The colors I used for the dots were OPI Unfor-Greta-bly Blue, Zoya Vanessa (red), and Pop-arazzi Icing on the Cake (white). I started by putting each color on a business card. I used several different sized dotting tools to achieve the fading effect. If you don't have dotting tools, you can use toothpicks and just vary the amount of polish you use. I tried to make the dots decrease in size as they got closer to the cuticle. I decided to do each size at once, not each color (does that make sense?), which may have been to my detriment. The dots of polish on the business card started to dry a bit after a while, so they got a little gummy. If you could see my other hand you would see little strings of red from after I placed some of the dots. I kept having to add more polish so that wouldn't happen. All that to say if you try this I would recommend either doing all of one color at once or testing the polish between rounds.
For my ring fingers I used the same white polish as a base and topped it with OPI Happy Anniversary. I also sponged on some of OPI Pirouette My Whistle for that glitter. Not gonna lie, this was not the look I was originally going for. I originally wanted sparkly silver glitter, but I am totally in love with the result I ended up with! I'm definitely going to have to do this on all my nails sometime. I've never sponged on this glitter, but now that I've tried it I realize how necessary it is. It is ordinarily so hard to get those big glitters in there, but sponging is a big help. I will say, however, use a makeup sponge or something along those lines. Don't use a sponge-tipped eye shadow applicator like I did. Not nearly as effective. I topped everything off with Seche Vite top coat.
So those are my 4th of July nails! Let me know what else y'all would like me to write about, and if you did anything fun for the Fourth I would love to see! Hope y'all have a great week!
~ Mary Elizabeth
Thursday, July 5, 2018
The Return!
Hello Friends!
Wow it has been a minute since I updated this blog! First of all, I have no idea if anyone even blogs anymore, but I'm going to attempt to resurrect Altogether Beautiful! Next, as you can tell, I am working on revamping things here in the hopes that I can turn a new leaf and use this as a creative outlet once again. We'll see if I can keep it up ;)
Let's start with a life update, shall we? Since I last posted on here I have graduated college and moved to Birmingham on a more permanent level. Obviously I have no idea where life will take me, but for the foreseeable future I will be hanging out here. I am currently working 2 jobs and attempting to stay sane. My love for all things beauty stays strong, although as you will find out in my posts I don't get to do as much nail art as I would like. I'm hoping to use this blog in order to provide a stress relief from my everyday life.
My love of nail polish fell away for a while because I have been working in food service and therefore haven't been able to paint my nails. However, in recent months I discovered two nail channels on YouTube that reinvigorated my obsession: Simply Nailogical and Nail Career Education. These ladies reminded me how much fun I have painting my nails, nail art or no. So thank you, ladies, for inspiring me once again! (Who am I kidding, they'll never read this blog) Go check them out!
In regards to this blog, I am going to pick a day of the week to post on so that I have some level of accountability and won't forget to post (hopefully). I will decide what day that will be and announce it in the next post. I'm thinking maybe either a favorites or a First Try post. I have several ideas for posts, so hopefully I can get things out into the world!
I am really excited to return to the internet, and I hope y'all enjoy the things to come! I would love to know what kind of things people are interested in seeing, so if you are reading this and have suggestions, please feel free to leave them in a comment below! Here are some photos from my life in the last few years so you can see what I've been up to.
Wow it has been a minute since I updated this blog! First of all, I have no idea if anyone even blogs anymore, but I'm going to attempt to resurrect Altogether Beautiful! Next, as you can tell, I am working on revamping things here in the hopes that I can turn a new leaf and use this as a creative outlet once again. We'll see if I can keep it up ;)
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| Yup, still me! |
Let's start with a life update, shall we? Since I last posted on here I have graduated college and moved to Birmingham on a more permanent level. Obviously I have no idea where life will take me, but for the foreseeable future I will be hanging out here. I am currently working 2 jobs and attempting to stay sane. My love for all things beauty stays strong, although as you will find out in my posts I don't get to do as much nail art as I would like. I'm hoping to use this blog in order to provide a stress relief from my everyday life.
My love of nail polish fell away for a while because I have been working in food service and therefore haven't been able to paint my nails. However, in recent months I discovered two nail channels on YouTube that reinvigorated my obsession: Simply Nailogical and Nail Career Education. These ladies reminded me how much fun I have painting my nails, nail art or no. So thank you, ladies, for inspiring me once again! (Who am I kidding, they'll never read this blog) Go check them out!
In regards to this blog, I am going to pick a day of the week to post on so that I have some level of accountability and won't forget to post (hopefully). I will decide what day that will be and announce it in the next post. I'm thinking maybe either a favorites or a First Try post. I have several ideas for posts, so hopefully I can get things out into the world!
I am really excited to return to the internet, and I hope y'all enjoy the things to come! I would love to know what kind of things people are interested in seeing, so if you are reading this and have suggestions, please feel free to leave them in a comment below! Here are some photos from my life in the last few years so you can see what I've been up to.
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| I graduated college! Here is my boyfriend Andrew and I at my graduation |
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| My Family |
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| My friend Melissa got married! This is the bridesmaids at the bachelorette party. |
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| My sister also graduated college (about a month ago)! They grow up so fast :) |
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Here We Go Again - An Update
Hello Everyone!
I feel like a broken record saying I am sorry for the enormous gap between posts. This semester has been one of the most difficult of my life. Those of you who have been with me for a while will know that in August I lost a dear friend. I unintentionally took an extensive break from posting in order to focus on school, coping with this, and helping my friends through this time. However, this is 2015! It is a new year, and I am so excited to unlock what 2015 has in store. I have been painting my nails through this time, but it has been a lot less frequent, and to be honest none of the things I've done in that regard have been exciting enough to blog. I wanted to get a post up letting y'all know that I'm alive, nail painting, and ready to get back to blogging! Some things you can look forward to are a nail polish highs and lows of 2014 and something I haven't done before: a lip product post! I'm pretty obsessed with lip products so I figured it would be appropriate. Anyway I am really excited to be back and I can't wait for y'all to check out the upcoming posts! Have a wonderful Wednesday!
~ Mary Elizabeth
Ps Here is a taste of my semester!
I feel like a broken record saying I am sorry for the enormous gap between posts. This semester has been one of the most difficult of my life. Those of you who have been with me for a while will know that in August I lost a dear friend. I unintentionally took an extensive break from posting in order to focus on school, coping with this, and helping my friends through this time. However, this is 2015! It is a new year, and I am so excited to unlock what 2015 has in store. I have been painting my nails through this time, but it has been a lot less frequent, and to be honest none of the things I've done in that regard have been exciting enough to blog. I wanted to get a post up letting y'all know that I'm alive, nail painting, and ready to get back to blogging! Some things you can look forward to are a nail polish highs and lows of 2014 and something I haven't done before: a lip product post! I'm pretty obsessed with lip products so I figured it would be appropriate. Anyway I am really excited to be back and I can't wait for y'all to check out the upcoming posts! Have a wonderful Wednesday!
~ Mary Elizabeth
Ps Here is a taste of my semester!
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| Girl's night! I did everyone's makeup! |
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| This is my piccolo section! |
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| Travis and I on Fall break |
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| Beach day! |
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| Man in black and Dad on Halloween! (me and my roommate) |
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| Snazzy D&D! (don't judge me) |
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| Me, my mom, and my sister at the Samford/Auburn game |
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| Finally here's my haircut! |
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