I moved away from home and followed my fear

well well well....

This past month has been definitely a busy one for my self. I moved away from home. Here's my journey:

Back in January 2014 after I had finished my time at high school (since I had gone back for one semester to upgrade some classes even though I didn't really need to, I just wasn't ready to leave that part of my life yet to be honest) I had literally no idea what I wanted to do in college but I did know that university was not for me. All through high school my love for nail polish and related things grew and grew. I never saw esthetics as an option as a career for me because I felt like it was mindless work and wouldn't provide me with a great future so I looked into other courses I could take in college. I never could find something I could see myself doing for potentially the rest of my life.
After the college application deadline had passed on February 1st, 2014. I felt like such a failure. I felt like because I never submitted an application to a program that year, I would never find a program that I could see myself in. The weeks following I channeled my feelings into my nail art because it is something I was and still am passionate about. And that was that, an epiphany. Why not follow my passion and go to school for esthetics even though I thought I wouldn't be happy with the money aspect afterwards once I started my career. Now I just had to find a school that I wanted to go to.

When I was looking into other programs I came across a massage therapy course at Humber College in Toronto, Ontario. If you were to ask my friends if I were to live in any city, I am so sure they'd immediately say Toronto. I have such love for this city and have so many great memories there. So I just felt like Humber College was the right place for me to be. So when I had finally decided to pursue esthetics as a career I looked if Humber had any related programs and there it was, Esthetics and Spa Management. I knew instantly that this is the program I am supposed to take since I have always wanted to work for myself and own my own business. I knew this school would be the place that I start my career.

Within a week of finding out about this program I decided I would apply for the following January (2015) intake date instead of the coming September so could work until then since I figured out financial aid wouldn't cover all of my expenses. As January grew closer and closer, I did not feel ready to move away to school and I did not feel like it was right timing within my personal life. I decided to wait once again. This time I was so sure that I was doing the right thing, I knew by the time school came around in September (2015) I would be ready to make this huge change.


So here I am today, sitting in my rented room away from home looking back at how this past year and a half has gone for me. I moved to Toronto on September 1st, 2015. I just finished my first week back at school. I am so flipping excited to start this new stage in my life.

Being as excited as I was about finally going back to school that only thing I felt appropriate was to obviously paint my nails to reflect so.


Here are some pictures of my design:

Free hand painted the Toronto skyline

Added some acrylic paint for a water colour effect

This little three word quote has been a driving force in keeping me
inspired and motivated within this whole process.
I feel like if you aren't afraid of what the outcome of a risk you are
about to take you aren't going to progress and grow from the
experiences that challenge you in life. Yes moving was very scary and
challenging for me but I knew that I had to do so to become a better me.

I was so busy the week leading up to my move I didn't even have time to take off this design, so I actually had this on for a bit over two weeks.

no chipping, no touch ups in two weeks *heart eyes*

Since I'll be working with my hands in school in my practical classes we need to have short nails so here are some before and after pictures from chopping my nails off.

Before

Just clipped, and still too long for school

Nail length as of today

I would love for you to join me on my journey through school and life as I update my blog hopefully more frequently than in the past.
If you ever feel stuck in a place throughout your life, please do not be afraid of taking chances and following your fear, it will only lead you to bigger and better things. ♥


xo
- Kassie

EASY Half Moon design | NO TOOLS NEEDED // nailsbykassie

Hellooo! I'm back with another post. Two in one month, this has got to be a record for me. 

I definitely did not start out this mani to do a black and pale pink half moon. My original plan was to dry out little tiny flowers I found on some local trails where I live but the didn't turn out the way I needed them to so this is what I came up with instead. I have actually never attempted a half moon mani before but I really do like the look of them some of the time. 

In today's design I used: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat, Seche Vite, Wet n' Wild "Black Creme" and E.L.F. Nail polish "Wedding Bells".

My camera has a really hard time picking up the pink tones in Wedding Bells, it makes it look like it's leaning more on the brown side of an opaque nude polish. If you want this polish but don't have E.L.F. near you a nearly perfect match is SinfulColors "Easy Going", this does lean more to the brown side but is still very pretty pale pink nude.

EASY Half Moon design | NO TOOLS NEEDED // nailsbykassie

Instagram Post :)

"Simple little half moon from last week. This is the first time I
have ever done a half moon before, I really like it"

please please please share your recreations with me on instagram @nailsbykassie and using the hashtag #inspiredbykass

KeshiaLilly inspired design

Aloha!! :)

Today's design is inspired by KeshiaLilly from instagram. She is a super nice lady that I am always inspired by. Enjoy! ;)

I used: 

OPI Base Coat and Color Club Fast Dry Top coat

OPI in Elephantastic Pink

Instagram Post :)

"I really like how this turned out, but it definitely cannot stand against @keshialilly's 

almond shaped original! I honestly don't think there is anything better than 

black, white and pink designs"

Bonus Blog Picture

In the comments below let me know your favourite top coat, I'd love to try some new ones! 

♥ ♥ ♥

Katy Perry inspired nails

Hey Ladies!
I'm so overwhelmed and still completely stunned that I got to see Katy Perry this past Friday (July 18th, 2014) at the Air Canada Centre. Katy is one of my top 3 favourite artists (Demi Lovato, and Ariana Grande are the others in case you wanted to know)  and has been for 2 or 3 years now. If any of you has seen someone you really love in concert after waiting for such a long time, I'm sure you know how I was feeling before, during, and after the concert. I would like to thank my best friend, Natalie, for taking me along with her, love you girl!

I'd like to share a few pictures with you all before we get into the nail stuff if that's alright ;)

We had these special glasses that made lights look
like spectrum's from a prism. I looked super cool!

She entered the stage from inside a triangular prism

And her first costume was super cool too

Kitty Purry as Katy Perry

Another shot of the prism effect

Her exit from the stage :)
She did come back and do two more encore songs
 that were Birthday and Firework

And now onto the nail stuff ;)

For this design I used Essie's Grow Stronger Base coat and Color Club Fast Dry Top Coat

OPI in Barre My Soul

China Glaze in Take a Trek

Instagram Post :)

"This past Friday I went to Katy Perry's Prismatic World Tour.
I can safely say it is was the best concert I have been to, and
one of the best nights of my life so far!"

Bonus Blog Pictures

I used the same nail vinyls in my last post to get the chevron on my ring finger 

This was inspired by Katy's 'MTV European Music Awards Costume, here it is....

Obviously mine is not the same as her costume. I felt like it looked better on my nails if the shapes were straight edged. If you haven't seen her performance, you should definitely check it out, I'll even give you a link ;)

In the comments below let me know what your favourite singer or band is and your favourite concert experience you've had, I'd love to hear your stories! :)

♥ ♥ ♥

Purple Aztec

Heres is a colourful aztec inspired design!

In today's design I used:
OPI's Base Coat, Color Club's Fast Drying Top Coat and Black acrylic paint

Color Club in Pucci-Licious

Color Club in Take Me To Your Chateau

Color Club in Twiggie

Color Club in He Loves Me

Instagram Post :)

"Aztec inspired design :)"

Bonus Blog Pictures

Ahhh! Can I just say that I love this so much, it's just so pretty! I did this design with the help of StickMeNails chevron nail vinyls. I placed the points of two strips together creating the diamond shape which I then lined with Twiggie and then removed the vinyls with tweezers. After that, I followed the chevron pattern with the other colours I listed above to fill up my nail while leaving some white spaces.

If you like this design be sure to follow my instagram for more of my pictures! If you want to recreate this, use the hashtag #inspiredbykassie in your post and I'll follow you :)

♥ ♥ ♥

Pretty In Pink

Yaay! This is my first actual nail blog entry :)

More often than not, ideas for nail designs come to me when I'm laying in bed before I fall asleep. Other times I see something on instagram that I absolutely love so I will recreate it and credit the original.

In todays design I used:
OPI's Base Coat and China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat

SinfulColors in Easy Going

E.L.F. Nail Polish in Blush

Instagram Post :)

"Really simple yet very pretty pink nude design :) I couldn't quite capture the
 colour of the base exactly. I absolutely love the rose gold polish. 
I also used @stickmenails chevron vinyls"

Blog Bonus Pictures

It's not evident in either picture but because of the formula of Easy Going bubbles had formed. I thought maybe it was just the way I had applied the coats but I re-did my index and middle finger and had the same result. The polish also seemed to be a little on the thicker side but still required 3 coats and still had a bit of an uneven finish to it. Other than that I love this colour since it's great as both a base and a colour on it's own.

This is a really simple and easy design to recreate. I really like how this turned out although it's a little different from anything I have done before. You can share with me any recreation using #inspiredbykassie on instagram :) 

♥ ♥ ♥

Welcome :)

So this is it, my first blog post....

First, I'd like to say welcome to my blog. I'd like to introduce myself a bit. I'm 19 years old as of the end of June, and I live in Ontario, Canada. One of my life goals is to become and Esthetician and then hopefully open my own spa or bed and breakfast. I would love to be my own boss so I can be home with my future family as much as possible. My family and friends have definitely been a huge part of shaping who I am today.

I want this blog to be primarily kept to nail related topics but some others may slip through the cracks. The general outline of my future posts will be my instagram picture and caption, I will go into more detail here about the polishes themselves and sometimes a step by step on how to create the look. I would also like to start reviewing products (anything nail related ie. polishes, tools, brushes, oils, stamps, etc.) either independently or sponsored.

It would be really awesome if you could check out my instagram page here. I recently just passed 200 followers, which makes me really happy. I love talking to people in the nail art community on instagram and I am constantly inspired by the work they create, they are what keeps me going. I think it's funny what my boring school night - instead of doing my homework - turned into.

Here is my first ever nail art picture. At the time, I was quite proud of this and I still am proud of it to be honest. We all start somewhere.

But I guess you could say that my passion for nail polish started young as I was only 8 here :)

♥ ♥ ♥