Raising Mami is a blog dedicated to helping women, moms and myself accept the beauty we were given by playing and learning all at the same time. Beauty, Health, Wellness and Lifestyle all while raising girls! Come join me....
My girls experienced a series of firsts this past week. Their first time on a plane, to the east coast, to the big apple. It was truly a better trip than I could have ever asked for. They were given an even bigger surprise when they were at their first ever show on Broadway.
They were eyes wide open during the entire performance. The vibrant colors coming from the stage to the actors and their remarkable rendition of scenes from the movie Matilda. They have watched the movie over and over throughout the years. This show did not disappoint! From Matilda's performance to the very big Miss Trunchbull. Outstanding attention to detail. My girls were so excited to be there.
Even though the Shubert Theater is on the small side, it was perfect. There is not a bad seat in the house. We had orchestra seats and were able to see every last detail. The way the musical orchestra brought to life the drama and comedy of the scenes was perfect. My youngest usually gets startled every time she watches the movie and the scene of "The Chokey" comes on. Presented in this form she was completely focused on Miss Trunchbull, played by Christopher Sieber. Every scene was right on, with the music, props like the desks that lied flat on to the stage floor when not in use. They thought of everything. All three of us were completely taken by Matilda, from age seven to forty. We loved it!
The only downer was that we did not have space in our luggage to bring back the Matilda souvenir cups. That's ok, as I plan on looking out for some good tickets here in Los Angeles to take them again. So whether in Los Angeles or New York City, or a city near you, go check it out. Your kids will thank you!
I have been a nail biter all my life! Since I can remember I always had a cuticle to bite and basically any part of the nail. Most of the time I had nails that only covered half of my nail bed. It was rather gross but I think it served as my safety net. If I wasn't biting my nails I was grazing on some type of food. I have always been nervous by nature.
Throughout my early twenties and early thirties I spent thousands of dollars on acrylic nails. I would also remove my acrylics at the first sign of a chip and eventually bite them off as well. Talk about a waste of money! I never really thought about having long or healthy nails because most of the people around me had artificial nails as well. Then one day I stumbled upon a YouTube beauty blogger. I watched quite a few of her videos and something was consistent, her nails were perfectly short and manicured. I then began to notice the same thing in Instagram posts of other people and surely I didn't even have good enough nail beds for that.
I needed to make a change but how do I start. I knew that in my many attempts at full set of acrylic nails, that my natural nail would then grow with it. It was as if the acrylic would pull the nail to make it grow, or maybe just the fact that I wasn't biting them. So that's what I did, I had acrylics put on for three weeks. Then I removed them myself by just allowing them to lift and eventually fall off. Once the nails were off, I was left with very thin nails. The nail however was covering my entire nail bed which was a great start. I went to ULTA to purchase a crystal nail file, Zoya Remove plus, Sally Hansen Cuticle remover, and my ultimate savior OPI NAIL ENVY!
As soon as I got home I washed my hands really well, then proceeded to apply a coat of the Nail Envy. I was very careful about how fragile my nails were. I mean just taking out the laundry bent them back. I didn't give up. That same night I applied another coat before bedtime, them rubbed in a cuticle nail oil. This happen for four weeks and my nails were already looking great in my eyes! I was so excited to actually be able to apply nail polish to more than just my toes. I then decided to film a video to document my experience with such great results.
Once I posted the video I was motivated to keep going. My nails were nowhere near healthy. They were still rather thin, they had ridges and most of there was still peeling from time to time. I kept applying OPI NAIL ENVY every time I removed the color polish. I was going through Zoya Remove plus like water. I wanted something that would remove all the residue but as the same time wouldn't harm my nails even more. I began to notice that the nail bed wasn't flat, a few of my nails were starting to form much better around the nail bed. They began to take shape and I was one very happy customer! Every time they would grow enough to see the white part of the nail I cut them to promote more growth. Here are a few pictures with and with out polish of the first months using Nail Envy.
This picture was taken 6 weeks after I began using OPI NAIL ENVY
Picture taken after 3 months using OPI NAIL ENVY
6 months of taking care of my nails. Nails were still cracking and I began to massage cuticle oil up to 4 times per day.
9 months of using OPI NAIL ENVY. Yes they grew almost immediately after I started using nail envy but I wanted my nail beds to be healthy as well!
Check out my follow up video on this outstanding product!
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