Rough diamonds may sometimes be mistaken for worthless pebbles. // Thomas Browne
+ The dishes will never be done. (And it’s okay.)
+ Just one more dress from Rack: This gorgeous silk floral.
+ Feisty. Lucky. Ambitious. The words that undermine women.
+ WFH Outfit: Tie-front shirt + Girlfriend chinos + Tortoiseshell buckle sandals
+ The inescapable pressure of being a woman on Zoom.
+ This Biolage all-in-one spray is here to take care of your hair.
+ This 20-minute stretch routine will undo WFH soreness.
+ Need pajamas? I love these and these.
+ Intuitive Scheduling creates a productivity plan that feels doable.
+ I love Ann Taylor sunglasses. Check out these round frames and these cat-eyes.
+ Can these mothers and girls really take back the purity movement?
+ This <$30 jersey maxi dress is perfect for now.
+ Will the four-day work week save us all, or just New Zealand?
+ The scent of this Bottomless Mimosa candle is sublime.
+ Long Read: Mothers are quitting their jobs due to the pandemic.
At the beginning of the pandemic, I posted some tutorials discussing how to do your own beauty treatments at home. Some of you have asked for a manicure tutorial, but the truth is, I don’t have one — because I just use Emily Schuman’s.
The tutorial is the most straight forward one that I’ve ever seen. And her suggestion that I use a small art brush dipped in nail polish remover to clean up any mistakes was a game-changer for the quality of my at-home manicures.
As for my favorite products, I like Deborah Lippmann Gel Pro top and base coat the best. It’s a bit spendy, so if you want something more budget friendly, team up OPI’s Chip Skip with their Infinite Shine ProStay top and base coat.
Beyond that, I always suggest working on your cuticles after a shower when they’re softer. And after four or five days, add another layer of topcoat making sure to get really close to the edges.
That’s it; those are my manicure tips.
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A trick I learned from my mother: every time your hands are wet, use your towel to gently push your cuticles back as you dry your hands. It doesn’t mean you’ll never have to do any other maintenance, but it buys you time until you do.
That article about mothers having to quit jobs… ugh. Sometimes it is the right financial decision for the family for the mom to quit but I have yet to hear a story about a dad who quit his job because the mom said she couldn’t do a 12 hour shift watching their child.
The story was interesting, but the first family in the article made me groan because after three days, the dad couldn’t handle it, even though the mom was the higher wage earner.
For sure. An acquaintance out earns her husband by almost double. He’s working. She’s taking FMLA, unpaid, because their son contracted COVID and has a pre-existing condition which has made getting better a challenge. When a friend asked her how they came to that decisions she responded that “two kids was just too much for him.” You never know what someone’s marriage looks like on the inside, but you wonder what the thought process is in a situation like that.
Sometimes we find ourselves trapped in arrangements we didn’t see coming until it is too late and renegotiating is a high conflict high cost endeavor
The Vogue article was interesting. I get what the community leaders are trying to do, which is make the purity community more inclusive and less stigmatizing of “bad” behavior. But supporting the idea of purity inherently means deeming some girls (and their actions) “unpure.” So to me that’s a culture worth leaving behind, rather than trying to modernize or take it back.
I would rather be in the position of turning them into two separate sets of choices and celebrating engaging in either in a safe and healthy way. But it could use a name change.
I cannot say enough good things about Dazzle Dry nail polish! I have tried every gel polish under the sun and they’ve all ruined my nails despite proper removal. Dazzle Dry doesn’t need any UV light and it dries in FIVE MINUTES. I can do my nails on my lunch break, 10 minutes before I randomly decide to do laundry or wash dishes. It is a little pricey for the set (base, color, and top coats), but they frequently have sales. Game changer.
Yes, I agree about Dazzle Dry! I discovered it at a nail salon and was incredibly impressed by the quick-dry and the staying power.
Just a note on the art brush, make sure you get one with stubbier bristles like the one in the photo. The longer ones in the Amazon link don’t have enough resistance to clean up the area. I bought a nail art brush recently on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Rolabling-Professional-Dotting-Kolinsky-Acrylic/dp/B077VLBCQB/ref=pd_ybh_a_60?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=QD4NMC7NGRGK3VAPN3Z3) hoping it would be like the one in the photo and it ended up being much wider, but it did work better at getting polish off my skin than the thinner, longer-bristled brush I’d previously purchased.
Loved the 20 minute well + good stretch! I have super tight hip flexors and this really brought relief for the rest of the day.
Glad it helped!
Lifechanging: Duri Rejuvacote. For decades, I accepted that my nails would peel, tear, and split, and always looks ragged and ugly. Then I started using Rejuvacote and now my nails grow like weeds — strong and long. I have to clip and file them once every 7-10 days to keep them from getting too long. This is the rare beauty product that truly works. And it’s less than $10 on Amazon.