It does get better

I just wanna share a happy story in case anyone is just starting to address their shopping addiction.

I have been on a low-buy year for 8 months now. I have slipped up several times, adjusted the rules, and made regretful purchases. Still i have not gone over 3 purchases per month and have generally stuck to the no-buy months.

Regardless of how imperfect my low-buy year is going, so far i have:

- just put the last payment on my car (yayyy)

- put away over $2k in an emergency fund

- paid off all but 1 of my credit cards (over 7k of debt paid, 2.8k left)

I live in a HCOL area as a student, and I don't make a lot, but I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I'm not living paycheck to paycheck anymore. For the first time I have money left over, and i can afford to save more than i planned. I didn't compromise on enjoying life. I picked up a new hobby and most of the materials i use were free from other people in the hobby. I hang out with friends and I don't stress about the bill. I can afford to be lazy and get takeout for lunch sometimes. All because my money doesn't trickle away throughout the month anymore.

the amount of financial stress i was in around this time last year was ruining my life. i was losing hair, losing sleep, not eating. Literally breaking down in tears if ANY unexpected expense came up. if my car started acting up - crying in the parking lot. Or at a random small medical bill - crying in the dentist office.

Now it feels like i can finally breathe. Im tearing up as im writing this because it feels unreal. I grew up poor so having money left over is just nuts to me. Can't even imagine where i'd be if i started sooner.

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u/soloshandpuppets — 1 day ago

Nails in Safiya's new vid?

kinda looks like Brucie. I know there were rumblings of a part 2 collab, so im not sure if this is related or a possible teaser.

u/soloshandpuppets — 4 days ago

[US] [SWAP] Art for Polish? Handmade GITD Mooncat Spinny Charm (and other things)

Hello again!!

I don't have much to trade in terms of polish at the moment, but if you have a growing destash pile, and think this charm is cute I would love to trade!! here's other things i make

If you have anything from my wishlist (or similar) or especially any of the below, lmk!

- Any magnetic topper (like ilnp bubbly or magnetic taco)

- Jellies (looking for anything, but especially a milky white)

- Toppers

- Flakies

I make these little magnet fidgets for myself, and have started trading them for polish with others. I can make custom magnets too, especially if you want to decorate your helmers.

My collection has grown steadily thanks to all the lovely folks i trade with here. This community has helped me try a bunch of new things and stick to my low-buy!!

u/soloshandpuppets — 5 days ago

Trapped bits of the sun in my nails

I have been soooooo insanely eager to try this and i finally had the time. Sickeningly beautiful, yet so simple. And its actually opaque in 2 coats!

base - Vibrant scents, double bond
polish - ANLAC, Cranberry iced tea (glass bead)
top - Essie gel setter

u/soloshandpuppets — 12 days ago

Squiggly magnet effect

This likely already exists as a pre-made magnet but i just had these laying around and wanted to try it.

Double bond base coat - vibrant scents

Ghoul's garden - cracked polish

Gel setter top coat - essie

u/soloshandpuppets — 15 days ago

First Tyche Order!

Full transparency, I did win a giveaway so this is more polish than I normally can get at one time, but man, I've been dying to try Tyche and the stars just aligned. I picked out some stuff from their new collection and the classics i see everyone post on here!

u/soloshandpuppets — 21 days ago

The Ether Dragon

this converted me into a shimmer lover. Possibly enough to curb my addiction to magnetics a bit.

Ether dragon - ethereal lacquer

OPI natural nails base

Essie gel setter top coat

u/soloshandpuppets — 1 month ago

[SWAP] [US] 4 Custom decants and 3 polishes for trade - Looking for top/base coats or other polishes <3

Hello!! is there a polish in my collection you would want to try? I have 4 empty mini bottles that can hold about 5ml each.

This link has all the polish in my collection and almost everything is open for decants except the following (they are my top faves rn/running low)

  • Mooncat - La petite mort
  • ANLAC - Cranberry Iced Tea
  • Nailed it - Maya the Bee

Everything else is game! Let me know which ones you wanna try and I can fill a bottle for you.

Also up for trades: Mooncat Devils Ivy, DVN Marsh, and BKL Dancing Queens.

I really wanna try some other QDTC or smoothing base coats, specifically Cracked or KB shimmer, but i'm open to try things! Also open to just trading for polishes on my wish list.

These are my two wish lists:

Polish wishlist

Polish supplies wishlist

(2 decants = 1 polish bottle)

I am on a low buy and trading is how i've been growing my collection mostly, thanks to this community!!

u/soloshandpuppets — 1 month ago

HMX Taro Silent Sound test (Thx for helping me pick!)

Keychron Q1 alu plate

HMX Taro Silent switches vs Gateron smoothies

Kinda shocked that these switches were able to make my board sound a little deep. this is the perfect sweet spot of dampened thock for an office keeb. kinda like a thud. quiet but not silent, which is exactly what i needed. also very lightweight which i love.

Ty to everyone who recommended HMX, these are fantastic❤️

u/soloshandpuppets — 1 month ago

Influenster you know me so well

After all the offers of maternity clothes and random baby stuff, this is right up my alley, thank u.

u/soloshandpuppets — 1 month ago

Who dumped fertilizer in my American blue polish?

Room for one more? I wanted to add to the pile :>

Thanks for giving my post so much love yesterday! If you saw that post where i talk about making a video for the reflection pool manis, the video links have been added to it! I've been loving making nail content so i loved getting document this lil trend.

The stuffff:
Opi Natural Nails Base Coat
BKL Bog Dweller
BKL Water Remembers
DRK Magic Effect
Essie Gel Setter
plus my magnetic milk frother contraption for glass bead

The blue in water remembers is honestly a lot stronger than bog, so this looks less like "murky swamp" and more like "couple days after the first cleaning." Like the precursor to the great stinkening.

u/soloshandpuppets — 2 months ago

Show me more algae manis ~ I'm making a video about the reflecting pool nails

I am LOVING all of these algae nails and I've been influenced to try one tonight.

I also really wanna make a video for my nail page about them, because as an anthropology student, I think this little cultural moment we're having about the dissatisfaction with our administration reflected in our nail art (no pun intended) is so insanely cool. I want it archived for others to enjoy.

If you haven't posted yours yet, please comment them. both for inspo, but also b/c i wanna show the world our silly green july 4th nail trend. (also if you have any socials you want me to credit for the vid lmk)

Edit: video is in post-production and im almost done editing!! i got so many more submissions than expected, so not every nail will be able to fit, but you all are awesome :,,>>

Edit 2: I'm finally done editing!! Here's where you can watch it:

Post Links:

TikTok Link (i'm most active on here)

if you don't have tiktok:

Youtube Link

Thank you all!! This is such a cool thing to be apart of :>

u/soloshandpuppets — 2 months ago

The nonsense skittle on nail day

where u just grab whatever and put it on to test what u wanna wear this week. my favorite part of doing my nails
left to right
- the water remembers BKL
- spinning vinyl Cracked
- bog dweller BKL
- floral maiden BKL

u/soloshandpuppets — 2 months ago

The "clean" trends are working hard but I'm working harder!

This creator always has some really great insight analyzing beauty trends, no hate to her whatsoever! Its just funny this comes up right as I got into this hobby, with 4 different polishes on my nails right now loll.

In honor of these developments, I will be wearing a sparkly jewel toned skittle in the near future, who's with me?

u/soloshandpuppets — 2 months ago

How long do your nails last if you let them? (And what do you do?)

I've been really loving making nail content on tiktok, but a lot of people not familiar with the hobby seem to think you need to be a total princess to get long lasting nails without gel - doing absolutely nothing with your hands for the sake of preventing wear.

I have a very typical white collar life, and I have some other hands-on hobbies, like sculpting, houseplants, working out, but nothing crazy, and mine last up to 2 weeks with minor tip wear (but im bored by the 1 week mark anyways). I can't speak to any more physical lifestyles so I'm curious how long you all's nails last and what you do outside of this hobby, how rough are you on your hands, at what point do you start seeing really bad wear? etc.

Also curious if any of you do any unique prep for your nail type!

reddit.com
u/soloshandpuppets — 2 months ago

Chaotic magnetic skittle for my cousin

My cousin and best friend came over after a hard day at work and wanted to try some of the nail polish stuff i've been into lately. She only wanted to try one, then two, then three...

Anyways here's a chaotic magnetic skittle with no rhyme or reason, just colors she liked!

Left hand

ILNP Lily

BKL Floral Maiden over black (i think the top coat i used doesn't work well with magnetics - CC poesy Impact QDTC)

ANLAC Great Purple Emperor

Cracked Scorchy over mooncat's bottled rage

ANLAC Fuyu over Cirque loly jelly

Right hand

Cracked Ghoul's Garden

HT Playing the field

BKL Ultimate Weapon

Haunted Polish By the moonlight

HT Feeling Sparks

Top Coat Essie gel setter

It was my first time painting someone else's nails so my application could be a little cleaner, but she was mesmerized by playing the field, feeling sparks, and floral maiden (btw her nails are PERFECT, zero cuticles whatsoever. needed no prep)

u/soloshandpuppets — 2 months ago

Quiet but not silent linear switches for office?

My bf gifted me a keyboard for my birthday, and I want to use my other one as my work keeb, but it is way too clacky. Its the Keychron Q2 with the full metal case.

Does anyone have a work keyboard with quiet yet thocky/creamy switches.

I know theres completely silent switches out there, but I don't think I would like how that feels. I'm open to any suggestions!

reddit.com
u/soloshandpuppets — 2 months ago

My First Solar/Thermal ~ Rec me some more!

This is so entertaining and reactive I'm like dreading the day that this polish dies. I want it to last forever. What are the longest lasting thermals/solars you've tried, and how did you store them?

Opi natural nails base coat
Lyn B Designs Butterfly Pea Flower Lemonade
CC Poesy Impact Top Coat

u/soloshandpuppets — 2 months ago

Instead of FOMO, try FOBI (Fear of Being Involved)

Has anyone else heard of this term? I don't know who first coined it, but I just heard this from a video about the pokemon community, and FOBI around the horrible frenzy that is buying cards in person. it's kinda life changing to think about stuff this way. A FOMO mindset has you thinking about all the things you're missing out on (naturally)- all the releases, all the new finishes, all the limited editions.

I'm gonna try to foster a FOBI mindset from now on. Instead of focusing on the excitement, focus on the negatives.

The feeling of disappointment when a polish doesn't live up to the hype,

The anxiety of hunting for it, getting up early on drop day, spending money you didn't plan for,

The stress of having another thing in your collection that you have to store and find the time to wear

...the feeling of defeat when you realize, after all that, you just duped yourself.

And the most painful for me- the regret when, months later, you see it getting destashed everywhere for half what you paid.

Thinking about it like that definitely gives me FOBI.

reddit.com
u/soloshandpuppets — 2 months ago

[US] [SWAP] [ISO] ~ Looking for some jellies, some magnetics

I'm looking to trade these polishes for anything in my iso. 

These are the polishes I have to trade:
- BKL - The Ultimate Weapon
- BKL -  Dancing Queens
- Mooncat - Devily's Ivy
- Moonshine Mani - Aviar

This is my main ISO:
>> Jen & Berries - Champagne Spray (especially looking for this)
- Cirque Colors- Milk Glass 
- Cirque Colors - Wine jelly
- Cracked - Spinning Vinyl
- BKL - Goddess of spring
- ILNP - Hypnosis

I'm on a 3 item/mo low buy and this list is everything that I stubbornly want to fit into these limits for the year, even though my whole year of purchases is already planned out.

If you don't have anything in this iso list, here's my bigger wishlist ~ https://www.moonsift.com/collection/soloheroina/gKbXVtAFk7i47edcKqsK

Comment or message if you want to trade anything! thank you <33

u/soloshandpuppets — 2 months ago