If there was ever a better time to get braces as an adult (or get a nose job) 2020 marked the beginning of that time. With everyone forced to wear masks in public, I could not miss the boat again. In September of 2020, I bought into the Smile Direct hype. And approximately 2 months later, I bought right back out. Here’s what led me to Smile Direct and what had me running in the other direction.

Two years ago, I embarked on a level up journey to transform myself into the beautiful goddess that I knew that I was on the inside. You see, as I was approaching my thirties I began to ask myself, why can I not achieve this vision that I have of my life? I’m smart, charismatic, and I’m not ugly. Well, that last part was definitely up for debate. As Coco Chanel famously said, “there are no ugly women, just lazy women,” I had a sudden realization that I was lazy. This modern, world has made many women lazy about their looks. Somewhere along the way to power and equality, we forgot one of our biggest powers and influences on the world (whether we want admit it or not) is our beauty. Obviously, my blog is a testament to my obsession with beauty. I just needed a little extra nudge to really push me to the next level. Two years ago, I began consistently putting more effort into my looks. I started applying more makeup, watching endless videos on how to apply makeup to flatter my face, I invested more into my hair, opting to not wear my natural hair out and allow it to grow. And now finally I’m putting more attention on my skin (we’ll talk about that later), and my teeth. I’ll tell you all more about this journey later, but first lets focus on my teeth.

 

black woman with long black hair

 

As an adult wanting to avoid the embarrassing look of traditional braces, I thought, “there’s always invisible aligners”.  I considered and even purchased the popular DIY invisible braces Smile Direct in the summer of 2020. My brother had completed his session and had wonderful reviews (or so I thought), plus it was affordable. Upon further research the Smile Direct Club isn’t all its cracked up to be. Not only did I suffer gum damage, but my aligners were ill-fitting and I had to send them back delaying my start date. They were almost impossible to work with. And the entire experience left me feeling less confident about the entire process. I decided to cut my losses and get my money back (their customer service team was wonderful). After waiting 3 weeks for my aligners, 10 days for my replacements to swap out the first pair that didn’t fit, and two weeks of bleeding gums, what did I do next?

Check out the video below for the rest of this story.