This week on Monday we had a lady come in to demo a gel brand Gelousy. She was very new to doing demos so her speaking was a bit shaky but the product was pretty cool. So far I have only gotten to play with two different brands of gel and I am not yet ready to announce that this or that is the gel I will build a portion of my future trade around, but I do feel it is good enough to warrant buying a small sample to play with. So on to the list of trials it goes, which is about two pages long at this point. LOL. Wanting a real life trial of the gels from our school, on Tuesday a fellow classmate did gel extensions on my right hand and I did them on my left. It is not lifting or breaking and looks nice but for some reason I am not a fan. I still prefer to wear acrylics. And to be honest I have no real reason why I prefer them other then I just do. I want to play with them on other people though!

I did yet another set of buttons and this time they were on a barber who put my other two nail biters to shame. Super tiny nail beds, so I am pretty sure when I see her Monday she will have lost a few of her “training wheel” nails. All I put on her was the buttons to make a more normal nail bed length, nothing extra and it did not pass the tips of her fingers. She did let me try out a bit of art so enclosed is a photo of her leopard-print rhinestone nails. She loved them and raced out to show them off to the other barbers downstairs. In case any of you are wondering why I am so obsessed with nailing the buttons, it is because that has been the problem nail I have seen the most of in my area. I have heard a ton of ladies complaining about nails not staying on or being turned away, so I feel as long as they know it is a process that I am eager to help them with and just not a one-step process they will be thrilled with the results. 

Another of my nail biters has graduated to a little length to her nails. She went the whole time and didn't lose a single one. I am so proud of her! So to celebrate I tried out a Robin Moses-inspired shattered stained glass design on her. She does Pampered Chef parties so her nails are always on display and she has been thrilled with the amount of compliments they have brought her.

My shaping is still a bit off. I am frustrated by that but my consistency and length of life of the nail is leaps and bounds better. I put one acrylic nail on my mother-in-law to make it match the others when she broke one and it stayed on two weeks and two days without lifting. I really feel like I just passed a milestone!

— Mary