Good morning! Unlike my usual scheduled programming, the subject of today’s post is all about nails – and in my case, my bad little habit of biting them…constantly. I’ve always been a nail biter since I was a little girl, and over the years the bad habit has continued, even though I’ve desperately wanted to give it up for years and years. The truth is, I have pretty terrible anxiety and between the stress of work (and sometimes life), biting my nails has always been a little distraction and a way to calm my mind when it’s swirling – and there are definitely periods of time where my mind is swirling a lot. Add in the fact that I drive to work and spend about 3 hours in the car a day bored out of my mind and I’ve got hundreds of little opportunities to bite my nails.
And really, I want to stop. I want to get off the sauce because I know it’s a bad habit, and it drives my boyfriend crazy too (sorry, Tom!). But with my work schedule squeezing in time for a manicure isn’t always the easiest – and when I do find time, half the time the places are full and I leave a little frustrated (and sans nail polish).
Anyways, I knew that there had to be an easier way to get my nails done more consistently (especially if I’m going to finally fully commit to stop biting my nails), so when I discovered the Beauty Now section in the Groupon App that lets you quickly schedule and pay for beauty appointments before you head to the salon, I knew that this little trick was about to be my new best friend. And after going once, I’m completely hooked. Plus, look how good my nails look! It’s the first time I think I’ve ever willingly shown my little stubby nails on my blog without being completely embarrassed – yay! 
It’s really super easy, if you’re based in Chicago you just have to download the Groupon app on your iPhone and select “Salon & Spa Booking” at the top to start booking! You can then quickly pick through your favorite salons around Chicago to check out their services. Since I live in Lincoln Park, I stopped by Clear Nails Spa on Halstead which is only a few blocks away from my apartment. I just paid through Groupon’s Beauty Now section before I went, picked a time that was available, and then just stopped by at the time of my appointment. It’s nice because you can even leave the tip on the service in the upfront so you don’t have to worry about cash after the service!
Since I’m attempting to stop biting my nails completely, I ended up going with a gel manicure and a regular pedicure in this pretty red wine color. So far after a week, it’s holing up really well – and I’ve been avoiding biting my nails since it’s now virtually impossible 😉 I’ll probably need to get another manicure in a few weeks, but in the meantime I’m pretty happy with the final result!
And thankfully Groupon’s Beauty Now section is making it less of a hassle to get my nails done, especially during crazy weeks at work! Do you have any hacks to make your beauty routine easier during busy weeks? If you haven’t tried Groupon’s Beauty Now offerings, it’s definitely going to make your life easier in Chicago! You can check out their services right here. Also, you can save 10% off your service when you use the code STYLED10 at check out! AND you can even enter to win $600 of beauty services with Groupon entering with the the Rafflecopter giveaway below!
Thanks to Groupon’s Beauty Now for sponsoring this post! As always, all opinions are my own – thanks for supporting the brands that make Charmingly Styled possible.
