Sunday, October 9, 2011

Tag: As Time Passes By

I'm not usually a big fan of tag posts, but recently I was tagged by Polish Amor to participate in the "As Time Passes By" post. I thought it was a great idea and really wanted to participate, even though I've only been blogging about nails for a few months now.

The idea of this particular tag post is to take some of your oldest photos and compare them to your newer ones, and see how far you have come. Let's take a journey, shall we?

First, we've got the old vs. new of a few basic manicures.

enlarge at your own risk

In the before, I didn't even know that nail shape was a 'thing.' I didn't take care of my cuticles, moisturize my hands, or trim hangnails. I didn't clean up polish, so my cuticles are flooded and I have polish on my thumb. I didn't know about base coat, so my manicure was cracked.

I had the knowledge to take good photos, but I wasn't doing it. Spending the time on taking a good picture was not something that I felt was important when I first started doing my nails. I also did not feel it was important to color balance my photos, as evidenced by the zombie flesh of my hand in the first picture.

Now let's take a look at some nail art!

again, enlarge at your own risk

This leopard manicure was the first mani I did when I started getting into doing my nails. I was following a tutorial by Molls that I found at HelloGiggles, and I went out to buy polish specifically to make this manicure. Just like in the other pic, I didn't know about basecoat, proper topcoat, moisturizing, trimming, nail shape, photo color balance, or the importance of a neutral background.

What I'd like to look at with these ones though, specifically, is the quality of the nail art. I didn't have any nail art tools for the first shot - I used a Sally Hansen nail art pen to do the black portions of the leopard print. For the look in the second shot, I used three sizes of dotting tools and a nail art brush. My work now is cleaner and more refined. Additionally, instead of following tutorials, I'm proud to say I'm writing them!

I also want to make it clear that I didn't make the post to make anyone self conscious, I think the idea of this tag post is more about self improvement through time and practice than about comparisons to other people.

It's fun to look at where you've been and how far you've come. So instead of tagging specific people, I'm tagging ALL OF YOU! If you want to participate, participate! Come back and post a link to your "As Time Passes By" post so that we can all see how far each other has come and have a little giggle at ourselves. :)
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14 comments

  1. Such a cute post!

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  2. Wow what a difference a few months make!

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  3. This tag is fun! One of the best I have seen ..... its trully amazing to see how much things have changed in just a few months!

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  4. I'm loving seeing these posts! I would participate but I'm just starting out. Lol I think I like these posts because they give me hope for me and my nails, my art and my photos.

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  5. You sure have come a long way! When did you start your blog?
    I've only been blogging since march, but I can see a major difference in my work on the nails

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  6. Polish amor got me too-mine goes up thursday! I did what you did-not tag anyone-Its kind of embarrassing for me!

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  7. @Kia, I started doing my nail blogging at the beginning of July.

    Thanks for the love ladies, I hope you will all participate too! :)

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  8. I love your pictures!
    Here's my post about the tag:
    http://mischsbeautyblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/as-time-passes-by-tag.html
    :)

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  9. WOOOOOOOOOW, i looooooove yout nails!
    http://beijofosco.blogspot.com/

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  10. You've gotten really good! (although I think your leopard mani looks pretty great)

    xo,
    Heather

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  12. Lovely! I posted a comment asking about your photography skills, then went back through some of your posts and voila. There it was. I'll be using some of your pointers both here and there for my new endeavors. Thank you.

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  13. It's good to know that the practice is worth it! I'm a bit self conscious about my photo skills, and rushed manis, but this comparison is really encouraging :D

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  14. I start to do nails one year ago, i have a blog from april of this year. My hands now are different, my works seems made from another girl :)

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