A return to the blogging world!

After a long absence, I am not quite sure where to start! Or is it restart? resume? un-pause? Whatever. HERE I AM.

For the last few months, my blog has taken a back seat to the now wildly popular video tutorials. It’s a funny thing, because I would rather write and write and write until my fingers are numb than film myself doing my nails. Why, you ask? Well, here’s a little secret: I do not enjoy making videos. It is extremely hard to paint at the angle that I have to film at, and I end up staying up way too late editing on my computer. I WILL continue to make them, because I love teaching and helping, but man, I miss writing. I tend to forget that I graduated magna cum laude with an English degree that does not get any use. Writing was thee biggest part of my academic career, and life, from 2009-2013, and now it’s rather obsolete since no one even reads my wordy captions. Le sigh.

I am simply going to start my blog over, but I will not delete the old content.

*If anyone reading this can help me out with a fresh and cool design/layout, please email me! Contact.nailstorming@gmail.com
I am a wizard with nails, not computers.*

Instead of what you used to be able to find here- individual posts for designs with pictorials- I will be reviewing full collections or one brand at a time. Tutorials for these designs can always be found on my Instagram page (@nailstorming) and Facebook.com/nailstorming as well. This blog’s purpose is to provide a more in depth description about the polishes themselves: amount of coats, dry time, staining, consistency, my personal thoughts, etc. Things that will serve to be very helpful when deciding whether or not to dish out $10 on that new indie shade, or if the $3 polish from 5 Below is worth bothering with. I promise to ALWAYS give my 100% honest opinion, as I would never want to believe that a polish is a beautiful no-stain one coat red only to waste my money finding out for myself that it will cling to my skin and cuticles for a week and has a streaky application.

SO in case anyone forgot/ does not know…..
I am Gianna. I run the Instagram and Facebook pages under the name Nailstorming. I am just one person behind these nails so everything you see on any of these pages displays my real, natural nails, my painting/designs, and my photographs. I am NOT a licensed nail technician, and have no real desire to be one. My dream is to pursue a career in Speech-Language Pathology, and be the best manicured speech therapist out there!

Nail timeline:
2011: In 2011 I removed gels and decided to never go back to the acrylic/gel world. My nails were weak, brittle, peeling nubs. I dubbed them “ruined sausage fingers” and hated to even look at them. More often than not they were not polished, as I no longer accounted for weekly manicures in my spending money.

2012: In 2012 I decided to pick up some nail polish and try to do my own nails. I did only a few designs and rather randomly. A few that come to mind are animal prints, and watermelons. These designs were done with all polish and I was REALLY proud of them! 

Spring 2013: In March of 2013, I did my first character designs: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Someone at the gym asked, “So what are you going to do next?” And I followed that up with Doug (the 90’s Tv show), Minions, and PacMan. Throughout the Spring I tried to do my nails more often, but it would still come second to school work.

Summer 2013: After graduating college in May, I had more time and started to do my nails consistently. I would do them about once a week and was still focused on characters: Monsters Inc, Star Wars, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Looney Tunes are some of the designs I sported during this time. In July, I started my Instagram account so that I would not bother everyone on my personal page with nail posts. I followed every nail account that interested me and tried to learn the ropes by watching, reading and asking questions.

Fall 2013: In the Fall, I started using top coat (What?! I wasn’t using it that whole time?!!? Nope. The one I had smeared everything, so I avoided it.) and worrying about cuticle care and color accurate photos. I started taking all my pictures outside in indirect sunlight and around October, I got my first big feature from a fashion account by using their corresponding hashtag. (For example a big account like @Hairandnailfashion will look through the #hairandnailfashion hashtag and choose certain pictures to feature on their account. When a big account features your design, they tag the owner in the caption, so that you are then exposed to all their followers. This usually results in more people (up to hundreds) choosing to follow the featured account.) The fall also marked the first time that I used acrylic paint for detailing, a TOTAL game-changer. I bought some in early fall, but I didn’t use it for a while because I was intimidated. (Why? Who knows. Sometimes I’m scared of new things… like food.) Anyway, one night I tried a Guns N’ Roses mani with my acrylic paint and my mind was forever changed. My brushes cheered and so did my little imaginative brain piece that kept coming up with things that were too hard for my skill level. It was as if all the limits that I had set for myself were suddenly surpassed and left in the dust.

Winter 2014: In the Winter, I had about 15k followers, and started the blog since I was starting to review for companies and swatch their polishes. I also learned about cleaning up my manicures with acetone and a small brush to give a crisp line around the cuticle, a HUGE step for a clean look.

Spring 2014: The Spring was a huge turning point for my Instagram page. I started video tutorials and my account exploded. I went from 30k-100k in a matter of weeks, and I was constantly featured on the “Popular Page,” before it changed to be more specific to each users interests. I also learned to deal with my first encounters of negativity and hate on my account, and kept painting and polishing through the discouraging comments.

Summer 2014: Summer has continued in step with the last few seasons: consistently posting daily tutorials and manicures, and I had the honor to start swatching for companies like Zoya and China Glaze. My Instagram page has grown at a steady pace and is still my main form of social media.

And finally… here we are Fall 2014: Most recently I was featured in Nail It! magazine’s Sept/Oct issue with a page feature for their “Can’t Live Without” article. I am currently working two jobs: as an instructional aide in a preschool inclusion classroom full time and coaching gymnastics part time, while taking a GRE course and preparing graduate school applications. I am the busiest I’ve ever been and am somehow handling all the polish as well!

So there is my story! I hope everyone is ready to see some beautiful polishes =)

Xo,
Gianna