Mani Moment: Outline Nails, From the Runway to My Fingertips

When I worked as a street photographer at New York Fashion Week Fall 2014, my job may have been to photograph stylish outfits, but I often found my eye gravitating towards trendy accessories and manicures. This look, the outline nail, is one I've been dying to try since it hit the runway.

The inspiration: Deborah Lippmann for Band Of Outsiders

 

While the Fall 2014 runway featured more subtle nail art, I'm not quite ready to give up my bold manicures just yet. I swapped Deborah Lippmann's color choices for a black outline and lilac polish. By mixing pastels and black, my look transitions from the end of winter to spring.

My way:

Get the look:

1. Apply a base coat and paint your nails a pastel color, how you normally would.

2. Use a thin brush or nail art pen in black to trace the outline of your nails. This requires concentration and a steady hand. I would recommend leaning on a surface like a table. Deborah Lippmann created her look by turning the nail while she painted, but I did each side of the nail separately since I have a bit of a shakey hand.

Suggested: Sephora Nail Art Collection

3. Put nail polish remover on a q-tip to clean up any excess black lines.

Delicate Details with Stackable Rings

If you remember my statement necklace obsession, this may come as a shock to you, but lately I've been all about more delicate pieces like stackable rings. To get the look, opt for gold metals in thin shapes and widths. Here, I layered midi rings on one hand and balanced it with a bold statement ring on my other hand. One loud piece makes the look more interesting but still subtle.

 

Necklace: Asos

Infinity Ring: Jeweliq

Cage Ring: Forever 21

Nail Polish: Maybelline (top) & Deborah Lippmann (harlem shake)

Dealing with Rejection During Your Internship Search

Since I work at my school's career center and have strong past internship experience, many of my underclassmen friends come to me with everything from resume questions to disappointment when they don’t receive a job. In these cases, I always say the same thing: want me to write you a list of all the positions I’ve been rejected from?

When I tell my friends this, they think I’m crazy. I’ve interned at Seventeen Magazine, so I must not know anything about the struggle of the application process, right? Wrong. Actually, I ultimately got my dream internship in an extremely competitive industry through hard work and determination, which can only mean one thing: a whole LOT of rejection.

Here are my tips for how to deal with rejection during your internship search:

1. Don’t Take it Personally: Don’t put yourself down just because you didn’t get the job! Who knows who you were up against. In reality, there are too many unknowns for us to compare ourselves to others. Thousands of qualified people may have applied for the same job as you. It’s hard to know exactly what an employer was looking for.

2. Consider Whether the Position Was Really Right for You: Usually, the employer knows if you’d be a good fit for their company better than you do. If you applied for an entertainment writing job when you’re really into fashion (examples from my life), the person looking over your application can usually tell. You need to show passion in an application. And if you aren’t passionate about a position, it probably wasn’t for you anyway.

3. Don’t Assume the Unknown: When we get rejected from positions, we often react by making assumptions. For example, it’s easy to assume an intern was chosen because she had a connection to the company. But why waste your time being petty? Move on to the next application instead! Basically, don’t focus on others, focus on what you can approve for next time.

4. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Feedback: You’d be surprised how many employers are willing to give feedback on why you didn’t get a position. So email them back, and say you understand their decision and hope to work with them in the future. Then add a sentence or too asking if there’s any way you could improve your application. They’ll likely be impressed by your determination!

5. Do Keep Applying Everywhere: Just because you were rejected from one position (or 100), don’t get discouraged. How will you know if you can get a position if you don’t apply? Take a risk, and send in those hard applications, even if you think there’s a chance of rejection. You may be a better fit for a different company that has just as competitive as a hiring process as one you were rejected from.

Still feeling down? You can always tweet @shinnersss for that list of positions I’ve been rejected from…

This post originally appeared on the BU CCD-ERC Student Ambassador Tumblr.

My First Masthead!

Although it's been 2 months since I completed my internship at Seventeen Magazine (how does time go so quickly?!), I basically had the best surprise ever yesterday. I was in Shaw's to grab some groceries with a friend when I decided to check the magazine rack for Seventeen's April issue. Lea Michele had her cover shoot while I was working at the mag, so I was excited to see how it came out. However, when I flipped open the issue, I was surprised to see my name along with talented magazine editors in the masthead.

Every journalist dreams of their first national magazine masthead and this is mine. I finally had that walk into a grocery store to see my name in a magazine moment and I couldn't be happier!