A Beautiful Mess

I DIY-dyed my hair today. It was fun. I'm such a grown-up. I realized that the only DIY activity I enjoyed doing before this was my mediocre nail art. I went through my Instagram feed to compile all of my #nails posts because that's what people who paint their own nails do.

clockwise from top left: 1) Newspaper nails are my favorite, and they're really easy to do! Apply your base color, let it dry, soak your nails in alcohol, gently press newspaper clipping onto your nail for a few seconds, peel off, top coat! I prefer platinum/any silvery shade for my base because it camouflages the heavy traces of paper left behind. 2) Prettiest shade of green: Orly's It's Not Rocket Science. 3) Powder Puff base and a rainbow of pastel shades applied with a sponge. It's a bit indiscernible in the photo but it's like an artwork when seen up close. 4) I'm easily attracted to glittery magentas.

5) Gold and glitters will never do you wrong. It used to be my go-to nail art-e. 6) But I stopped applying glitters lately because they're a pain to remove. 7) Black and white and polka dots and Beauty and the Beast. 8) The cloud trick I've learned from Nailside. I tried to do this a handful of times only to fail. Christmas last year, I finally did it justice.

9) I call myself a "master polka dotter" and I think it's obvious why. I don't own a dotting tool but I've used every single alternative there is for this (as in, toothpick, barbecue stick, ballpen, cotton buds, etc). 10) I captioned this as a "prototype for future nail projects." It never came to fruition. 11) Lady bug-inspired polkies. 12) R A I N B O W. I wouldn't do this on a normal day. This was produced during one of my "nail moods" -- unexpected days where I just grab bottles of polish and do whatever and the end result comes out perfect. Total opposite of those planned repaint-your-nails days when shit gets all ruined a day after application, which happens 95% of the time.

13) Grainy and wonderful. 14) Originally inspired by this post, and an award recipient for sheer effort.

I look at my nails now and frown. It's two weeks old and chipped like whoa. I have labandera duties tomorrow so I wish them luck.

Which leads us back to my hair. I bought two boxes of this hair dye last Friday. Why two? Because when I asked the sales rep if one would suffice to cover my hair, she said no, and that I would need two. She should know better, right? Well she was wrong. One bottle was already (more than) enough to color my waist length hair. So now I have a spare. But that's okay because I'm anointing it as my staple hair dye henceforth. It is a DIY God, I tell you (think soapsuds that you shampoo into your hair; a hair dye that doesn't stain!). Buy it and try it and you'll be happy, too!