I Have an Unreachable Dream...

MOAN ALERT! WHINGEING IS ABOUT TO COMMENCE!
For around 6 or 7 years, I have dreamed of
becoming a nail technician. I love applying acrylic nails and LED manicures (like Shellac but cured under LED lights instead of UV and takes much less time). When me and my husband were still together, I thought I had all the time in the world to follow my dream, so I relaxed, I did a beauty course in college as my first stepping stone... And then my marriage came to a rather abrupt halt, I moved out of my home of almost ten years, left my husband and my cats and started a new life elsewhere.
For the past 15 months I have been paying rent, and working overtime to make ends meet and so that I can live a comfortable life and not have to struggle.
Here lies my dilemma; with the divorce proceedings about to start and with no money to do a nail course (which are usually around the £1000 mark), I can no longer see my dream coming true.
I do my sister's nails, my own and a couple of friends and so far I have only recorded mine and my sister's results:

Above, my sister's nails the first day that I did acrylic sculpting on her nails, french fade. It was the first time I'd done french fade on more than one nail. 

Two weeks later, I did a basic infill. Her nails grow so quickly, she had around a month's growth in just two weeks!

Another two weeks passed and I rebalance her nails. They would have been slightly longer but she had filed them down a little before I got to them.

And finally, my nails. I have a different glitter accent nail on each middle finger because I like to be unique and it goes with my motto that "life is too short to find the matching sock", ha ha. 

 I don't know who will read this, but I was wondering if anyone else has faced this dilemma and what they did about it? Any help and/or advice would be lovely and really appreciated x

Good News!

So I've been cray cray busy recently. My shifts went from week nights to weekend days, and I spent the first week trying to readjust my sleeping pattern, so I was grouchy and miserable. But then I realised I had 4 days off a week... So I decided to bite the bullet and apply for a Beauty Therapy course in a local college and a different college around 6 miles away, even though the courses started around 2nd Sep. 

The first college invited me in with open arms, but said their fees for the year would be £1,672 - I had to refuse as I don't have that kind of moolah! 

I was turned down by the second college; their course was now full, but they'd keep me on hold if a space became available. Their course covered exactly the same things as the first college, but their fees were substantially lower, at around £816, which, in my job, part of the country and economy, this seemingly meagre sum of money was still far from my reach. I talked to my mother about it, and she said if I really wanted a future in beauty (definitely!) then she'd loan me the money. But because I'd been denied, I said no, it'd give me time to save up to pay for some of the course that started in January 2015. 

BUT! Just two days after being denied, I received a phone call from the second college, asking me to attend an interview; they'd decided to expand their classes and many more people - myself included - were asked to interview. 

I was ecstatic, overjoyed, nervous, and then frightened to death - I couldn't afford the course, just after saying no to my mum for her help! So I told her about the interview, and she gave me £750 to pay for my course when I attended and was accepted! 

So this is the makeup & nails I wore for my interview and for my first day at college (I was accepted & started the same day). Unfortunately it was "Facial day", so all my hard work was cleansed right off my face within minutes of being in class. I was also told to ditch my fake nails (I've been wearing fake nails solidly for around 4 years) until the course finishes next June. 

So... Yeah, now my nails look like this: 

Soooo not happy about this, but if this is the sacrifice I have to make, then so be it!  

On the two days I have off a week, I'll be studying and trying to catch up on the work that I've missed out on, and I'll also try really hard to blog as often as possible. So sorry if my blog lags a little bit - I'll try my best to keep you peeps up to date with my beauty bites! 

Catch you lovelies soon, this is part-time college girl, over and out! 

 

Review: Kiss Gel Dress Nail Stickers in 'My Space'

So I'm running low on money this week, but really wanted to have super snazzy nails. Seeing as how I am awful at any kind of nail art, I thought these might help me out. 

I paid around £5.99 for these in Superdrug quite happily; I figured £6 for a two week, cute manicure was cheap and cheerful.

In the kit you get 20 full nail stickers, 20 French tip nail stickers (2 looks, 1 price), a nail file, cuticle pusher, gel nail wipe and an instruction manual. 

It basically says to apply the stickers to clean, dry nails, smooth up through the centre first, then smooth down on the sides of the nails. File away excess, apply Kiss LED gel polish (I have sensationail, which is the better, more expensive version of Kiss), cure it with LED light, then finally use the gel polish wipe to remove the tacky outer layer of gel polish. Then your manicure is done.

Apparently... 

I started the process carefully, following the instructions to a T. But I had a problem. My nails were simply the wrong shape for the stickers; they couldn't adhere to all sides of my nails at the same time. When I smoothed the stickers up through the middle of the nail, the outsides puckered and stuck out; when I smoothed down the outsides, the stickers came away from the middle of my nails. I was in a sticky situation (pun intended); have smooth nails in just the centre - and have the outer nails lifting immediately - or smooth outer stickers, but have the centre lift two millimetres away from my nails. Either way, they would catch and peel off within hours, possibly even minutes. I tried using nail glue over my nails to help adhere them but the sticky layer of the stickers acted as a lubricant, making application impossible. 

Above; The Aftermath. Bits of nail stickers after trying a dozen times to apply them unsuccessfully. 

I got really upset; I'd just wasted money on a manicure that frustrated me to the point of violence, so I went to my nail polish box to give myself a pick-me-up manicure. I also found some really cute little nail gems, so added them on my nails too, and I ended up with this: 

Now, although my nails aren't perfect, I feel a lot happier. 

My thoughts: For me, this was a complete waste of time and money, and I will never try using those kind of stickers again. I'm not even sure I'll be able to use the French tip part... I might try it but for the moment it's all back in the box and put away.