Upcoming Changes to the Site

When I first created this blog back in July I wasn't entirely sure what was going to come of it. I love writing but in the past I had started blogs that were great in the beginning but my inspiration fizzled out and those blogs went dead. This blog however has been a continued source of enjoyment for me. Because of this I'm going to be making some big changes to the blog that I hope will improve reader experience and kick this page up a notch.

• The biggest change is going to be the eventual move of the blog off of Blogger. Blogger has been great for experimenting with the idea of the blog and testing the waters. However I feel that there are so many nail blogs on Blogger that it gets lost. Another reason is the overall layout. When I first started this page layout wasn't a big deal because I had all of three readers. Now the page views are climbing and I'm realizing that the cutesy layout that was on the page wasn't the way I wanted to go. I've applied a much cleaner look for now but once on the new site I hope to have a layout that is uniquely ours. Also, my hope is that the site will grow larger & when that happens I don't want the site tied to personal profiles such as a my blogger profile to maintain a certain level of privacy.

• Another change is the name. Manis by Sami was a cute name I picked playing off my own name. Looking at it now the name screams "I'm a novice & I don't expect many people to read this". Many of the successful nail blogs have their own brand names that people recognize & that is what I am hoping to achieve. So once the new Manis by Sami page launches it will launch as Pixelated Polish.  

• There will also be a larger variety of more frequent posts. Thus far I have limited the postings to nail designs I have tried. I am going to expand this to include more posts with deals to help readers snag great polishes for less (or none!), upcoming news about new polish collections, swatches, dupes, as well as some of my own original designs I have been coming up with. I am also toying with the video of adding some video tutorials - but if I did I would still include still shots for those who don't enjoy video.

• Which brings me to my next point. Up until this point I have been using my iPhone camera for all the pictures on the site because I wasn't committed enough to put money into this blog. Now I've reached the point where I'm ready to look for a new camera to up the photo quality & really highlight some of the beautiful polishes I've come across.

I anticipate it taking a couple months before the transition is complete & the new Pixelated Polish is launched. Until that point I will continue posting here & once the transition does happen all posts on here will be brought over for future readers to enjoy. I made the mistake of deleting the originals of most of my shots, I admit after it was discovered that Sinful Colors had stole blogger images without credit I got a tad paranoid. This means that unfortunately any pictures up until now will still have the Manis by Sami watermark. In the future pictures instead of stamping the address I will be creating a simple Pixelated Polish logo to use for watermarking purposes. 

Before I end this post I would just like to thank those of you who take the time to read my humble blog. It makes me beyond happy to see the page views consistently climbing. I hope you can be patient during this transition face and enjoy the new Pixelated Polish.

I'm Not Lion, I Love Glitter!

Hello Lacquer Loves. It has been a busy couple weeks, since returning from a wonderful vacation I've been working more. As I've mentioned before I work on a receiving dock which is quite hard on nails. Since I knew I worked so much lately I've been sticking to simpler manis since it seems a waste to spend a couple hours on a design that will only last a day or so.

I recently acquired a polish that I found beautiful enough to deserve a post of its own. That polish is part of China Glaze's new On Safari Collection.

Many of the On Safari polishes are lovely, I've purchased a few myself. But the one I was the most excited about is the gorgeous glitter I'm Not Lion. Apparently I am not the only one, my local Sally Beauty didn't have any on the floor & when I asked them to look in the back I was given the last one of their stock.

There are a couple things wonderful about this polish. The picture above shows not only the brilliant gold base color of this polish but also the holographic like shine. I'm Not Lion is not a true holo polish, nor is it marketed as such, but the rainbow shine is definitely similar to a holographic polish.

Another aspect of this polish I love is the texture. This isn't a smooth polish, it has more of a grainy texture. It reminds me of sand which is fitting for the African Safari theme.

In these pictures I have used it as an accent nail to show the texture difference between a regular gold polish and this golden glitter polish.

As beautiful as China Glaze polishes are they can be a bit pricey especially when they are first released. Today while browsing Rite Aid I stumbled upon this lovely polish called Kaleidoscope.

This is a clear polish with a gorgeous rainbow shine that was very difficult to capture on camera but I did my best. This Wet n' Wild polish only cost $0.69 so even if you are on a budget beautiful glitter is not out of reach!

Inspiration in Unusual Places

I have to admit I've been a tad uninspired lately. I was so happy my nails had gotten so long & pretty but the inevitable happened, one by one they got chipped & cracked. A couple I was able to fix with the teabag method (which the next time this happens I'll document now that I'm a tad more confident using it) but it got to the point where I only had two nice nails and had to file them down. Some people like short nails & that is fine but I just find them a tad sad. I have a few ideas floating around in my head but I feel I don't yet have adequate canvas space to really do them justice.

I'll try to be positive though. My new nails growing in look much healthier & feel stronger than my old nails. My old nails I could easily bend if they didn't have polish on & the tips would flake a lot. So perhaps my older nails breaking off so new, healthier ones could grow in their place is a good thing. I've also noticed since I started this blog manis don't take me hours anymore. I have less cleanup (even on my left hand!) & can get through a whole mani without completely having to redo a few nails.

I give credit to my nail vitamins for my stronger nails

So a week or so ago I got one of those Victoria's Secret flyers in the mail with a free underwear coupon. I was pretty stoked because who doesn't love free underwear - nobody that's who! So the other day I went in before work & picked out a really cute pair that was pink with white polka dots. Then it hit me - I want this on my nails. Since I hadn't used my dotting tools yet this seemed like the perfect idea to pull me out of my uninspired rut.

For this mani I used Essie Off the Shoulder & Sinful Colors Show Me White. This was the first time I used an Essie polish besides Shine of the Times & I was really happy with it. It went on smooth, the color was true to the bottle & it dried nicely & quickly. In this picture you can also see my dotting tools. They came as a set of five with a different size dot on each end. They were less than five dollars with shipping on Amazon & I was really excited to have some other size dots besides twisted bobby pins especially since I need those bobby pins for work.

Polka dots are fun but they aren't too flashy so I decided to do an inverse accent nail just to make this mani pop a little bit more. I made sure that the base colors were completely dry before dotting them, I was nervous enough about smearing the dots I didn't want to smudge the base colors too.

For the first couple dots I tried painted it onto the tip of the dotter but I found I achieved better, more even dots by just dipping the dotter into the polish. I was so nervous to do the dots but I was surprised at how easy it was! Just press it lightly onto the nail & there you go! Only a couple dots came out warped and those were on my right hand so I was expecting that. The dots looked a tad bumpy until I used my top coat, then it had a nice smooth look.

I am very happy with these, I feel super cute wearing them! I'm really happy to know that dotting was easier than I thought - now I just need to start playing with my nail stamps.