How to make your manicure last two weeks

May 30, 2017December 18, 20173 Comments

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Nearly two weeks ago, a few friends of mine and I went and got manicures and pedicures. We all know that pedi’s pretty much are indestructible, but mani’s are a completely different story. I don’t often go to the salon to get a mani, but it is fun to go as a group, so off I went.

One of my MAJOR pet peeves about paying for a salon mani is that my mani has often smudged by the time I get in my car (GRRR!!), or chipped less than a week later. SO annoying, because, hello – mani’s are NOT cheap. But, this time, I decided I would bring along my own nail polish and see if it would last a bit longer.

I had the Essie Nail Polish Summer Collections – ‘s’il vous play’ and ‘clothing optional’ to choose from!

I realized that salons, in attempt to make their polishes last longer, add a diluent – which yes, protects the polish from hardening or clumping – BUT affects the quality and robustness of your mani. So, taking your polish is always the best course of action. This time, I had several to choose from, so I picked a cute coral/reddish hue.

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Anyway, I’m nearly two weeks in and the mani has stood the test of time and I credit the following things with helping:

Taking my own bottle of polish to the salon. The bottom and top coats seemed fine, but taking a new bottle of polish seemed to make a big difference.
About three days later, adding another coat of topcoat at home. I like this one.
Depending on how fast your nails grow, trimming them 1.5 weeks in and adding another layer of top coat.

That’s it! Let me know if you decide to try these tips and how they work for you. What tips do you have for making your mani’s last?? Share them with me below in the comments section.

Buying in Bulk with Boxed

May 16, 2017Leave a comment

Disclosure: I collaborated with Boxed.com for this post, however all opinions are my own.

Have you heard of Boxed.com?? If you’re unfamiliar with the service, it’s a shop-in-bulk-have-it-delivered service. They carry tons of my favorite items and, have super, speedy shipping. I got all this in the box, and saved me a shopping trip, which is most important. 🙌

They have free delivery, no membership fees, cash rewards and points/credits for referrals, free samples, and an amazing selection of products to choose from. Check out the goodies I got this month.

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If you’re curious and want to try it, use my referral link to get $15 off your first order. Btw, I’ve already eaten two bags of Boom Chicka Pop. Omg. It’s my kryptonite! 🙈

Happy Shopping!

Until next time! Stay ‘Chic’!

What happened to Chic in Academia??

May 11, 2017May 12, 20177 Comments

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Friends, this is a question I’ve grappled with for months now. While Chic in Academia has maintained it’s momentum on Instagram and Pinterest – and to some extent Facebook – the blog for the most part has been grossly ignored.

You see, when I started Chic in Academia, I was a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, full-of-energy post-doc. I was fresh out of grad school, with two little ones under 4. Kids with no friends and no activities. Haha! Now, two slightly older kids in and three years into faculty, I find myself at a loss of time. My days are filled with meetings, writing, teaching, science-ing, followed by school and daycare pick-ups, baseball, birthday parties, and a slew of other kids and family-friendly activities. And while I used to be able to get back on the computer to write a blog post or two after the kids went to bed, these days, I find myself instead finally finding quiet time around 10pm. 10pm!! That’s when I can either A) workout, B) watch tv with the hubs, C) do some more work or answer emails, or D) or write a blog post. As you can imagine, A, B, and/or C above take priority over D.

Instagram and Facebook have been easiest to keep up with because they take so little time. I snap a pic that takes maybe 30 seconds to take. I spend another minute writing out a caption, and then boom, content for Instagram is done. And, I can do it all on my phone, anywhere. Meanwhile, for the blog, I have to physically be at a computer to type out the post, edit the text and sometimes the photos, etc. I also have to usually import pics from my phone because that’s the camera I use for EVERYTHING. So, it’s a process. And sometime a lengthy one. Especially when I have a lot to say.

Anyway, in the “blogger community”, there has been a lot of talk about where one should focus one’s effort. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Snapchat reported stunted growth and financial losses last quarter (read this, this, and this), meaning fewer people than expected are using Snapchat. Snapchat is an app that some bloggers/influencers monetize. Imagine a blogger/influencer whose largest following is on Snapchat. Now imagine that Snapchat either goes out of business or gets bought out. Now this blogger/influencer is seriously out of luck!

So, the prevailing theory in the community is that the blog is where one should focus one’s efforts. If the blogger/influencer owns their domain, then they own all their content and are not subject to the losses and performance expectations of the app the content is uploaded to (eg Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc). Say for example that Instagram were to shut down operations tomorrow. I would lose years of content, never to be recovered!

All that to say, I’d like to bring Chic in Academia’s blog flow back. I haven’t quite figured out how yet, but at least the intention is there. Perhaps posting once a week will be the way to do it. How does that sound?

In the meantime, and in case you don’t follow along on Instagram, check out some of the things I’ve been up to lately:

In brief, I went without makeup, am back to iced lattes (hello warm weather), love the Who What Wear collection at Target, also love Marshalls, figured out how to make homemade donuts, still loving ThredUp, LOVING my new kitchen, love tacos, got a Google Home, got a Gilmore Girls inspired sweatshirt and pajama pants that have become my uniform at home, and – probably most importantly – reminded myself that it’s never too late to start over. All this in a span of 5 days!! I’m telling you, it’s just so much easier to document on Instagram than it is to put this all on the blog. 😦 These topics would have comprised at least 10 blog posts. So, perhaps committing to addressing them over time – in depth – will be the best approach, whilst continuing to provide snippets of my thoughts on Instagram and Facebook daily.

We will see how this goes! I’m not teaching over the summer, so perhaps there will be a tinge of extra time that I can dedicate to the blog. For now, check out these other posts from bloggers who do blog on a more regular basis. 😀