Happy BlogaBirthday: The Evolution of my Nail Skills

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

12 comments
A year ago, I was a student in London, cold, soaking wet, and bored out of my mind merely studying for exams. I remembered that Sleek palettes were all the rage then, and that some of my American friends would want to view swatches of them. So I swatched a couple of palettes, and posted them on my blog, and OFAF was born. Fast forward to a year later - 12 months, 300 posts and 1000 followers later, OFAF is still the same, albeit with better photography and writing (I hope!).

I don't have a blogivesary giveaway, because I am already running a giveaway for a Karmin G3 Salon Pro Flat Iron, and there's another giveaway that I'm excited about (hint: it's perfume!). But in the spirit of things, here's a look back at how my skills have evolved over the year.

Here is my first ever post on the blog - it was an NOTD (Nail of the Day), the awfully chic Nails Inc Jermyn Street. OMG, my nails were awful. They were just mere nubbins back then, and they weren't even all the same length or shape. The fact that the polish wasn't splattered all over my fingers is a testament to the awesome Nails Inc quality.



Here's another really ugly NOTD. The colour is gorgeous, however, it's Sally Hansen's Opulent Cloud, still one of my favourites.



Over time, I tried out Konading. Here is my first ever Konad (and it sucked):



And then I started experimenting with flakies, and more adventurous colour (previously my stash was ALL exclusively pinks and purples - WTF was I thinking at that time?!) Such a waste...all those months spent painting on boring pinks and purples when I could have worn something cool. Like a duochrome. Or a flakie. Or something.

This was one of my first flakie manicures.

Rimmel Blue Me Away Nails Inc Trafalgar Square

And then I had dry skin. As you can see in the previous photo, it was REALLY BAD DRY SKIN. I didn't know what to do about it! Fortunately you girls clued me in, and I got myself some Burts Bees Cuticle Cream, and some CND Cuticle Remover. I also just got in Lush Lemony Flutter, and I hearts it!

Also, back then I didn't know a thing about shaping my nails. They were long enough, but I didn't shape them, because I didn't realize how important shape was to the look of the nail. But after seeing a few more pictures, I wanted square tips. I really like the look of square tips, although my nails seem to naturally grow out in a squoval shape.

Sephora by OPI Absinthe Makes the Heart

So I started shaping my nails, and slowly my skills started improving:



And eventually, slowly, my nails started looking a little better, and my skills improved a little too. This is the latest nail post I did, and I do think it's come a way from my first post on the blog, although it's nowhere near the awesome skills of some other bloggers I know of.

nails inc fitzharding xmas nails


Isn't it awesome how, if you put a little effort, your nails can improve? It just goes to show that no matter how terrible your nails are, there is always hope!

12 comments:

  1. My hat's off to you nail ladies. I don't have the time or patience to keep up with NOTD posts or to do all the decorating/detail work. I keep mine short, shaped, and often just in a light color of polish.

    It's funny when we look back at what we've done. I do it with makeup a lot and see where my faults were in the past or even now.

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  2. Congrats on how far you've come! Your blog is lovely.

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  3. you have come a far way! i am not a nail expert, which may be why i don't think there's anything wrong with your earlier photos, while you are disgusted with them, lol. just makes me wonder how disgusted you'd be if you saw my NOTDs! haha. keep up the great work :)

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  4. I think your nails look great in the first photo, not nubbin like at all!

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  5. Congratulations - great post showing the evolution of your nails, polish and care - love it.

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  6. congrad on anniversary! I love you swatches! keep them coming =D

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  7. I like all the swatches; I don't think any of them look terrible. Congrats on your blog anniversary! :)

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  8. Wow, big change for the better! I love my nails square too, but sometimes it feels like I'm fighting nature. Mine grow more squoval and it took a while to get them strong enough to be in a square shape.

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  9. @BeautyAmbition: OFAF stands for Of Faces and Fingers...It's just my way of being lazy and abbreviating the name of my blog :)

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  10. your konad doesn't suck! it looks so pretty!
    I have some of these polishes too, great choices of colour! I love the last mani... so pretty!

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  11. Happy belated blog anniversary! It's always so interesting to read about how a blog gets started. I'm slowly reading your blog backwards and love it. :)

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Thank you for commenting! I read each and every single comment! If you ask a question in your comment, please check back to this post, as I will reply in a comment to this post as well :) Please note that comments with soliciting links to shops or websites will be removed. Thanks!

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