Green Skittlette Manicure - 23 June 2015

Finally I've managed to get my manicure for this week done, and it is a green skittlette, featuring two of the polishes I got in the Lyme Disease Awareness Giveaway Prize and another beautiful green polish.  I can't stop looking at my manicure, even though I thought I would never wear green nail polish, because it's never been one of my favourite colours.  Needless to say, I've changed my mind.  Then again, with these three beautiful polishes to use, I think it shouldn't have come as a surprise to me.

The polishes I used are Pretty Serious "VT100", Grace-full Nail Polish "Lyme for a Cure" and Emily de Molly "You're Not That Great".  "Lyme for a Cure" is the Limited Edition polish made only for the Lyme Disease Awareness Giveaway" last month, and "You're Not That Great" was also in the prize package. If you haven't already seen my post about this prize that I won, you can check it out below.  I also used Pretty Serious "Rock On Strengthener" and Grace-full Nail Polish "Quick Dry Top Coat".

Taken in the shade in my sunroom.

I started with one coat of Pretty Serious "Rock On Strengthener" on all my nails, then another coat on a couple that are still very fragile to give them a bit of extra protection.  Then, would you believe I forgot to put on my base coat?  I couldn't believe it myself, but there you go.  It will be interesting to see how "Rock On" performs as a base coat on its own.  I'll let you know when I do my next manicure.

Next I painted my pinkie and my thumb nails with two coats of Pretty Serious "VT 100", which is a beautiful deep-green shimmer polish with micro silver and green glitter, which unfortunately is no longer available.  The polish went on really smoothly, and is almost a one-coat polish, but I used two coats for my manicure.  The colour is gorgeous, and there is an amazing amount of glitter, which unfortunately was very hard to catch in some of my photos, but here is a macro photo of it that will give you some idea of how lovely it is.

Taken in overcast conditions outside.

Then I painted my index and ring fingers with Grace-full Nail Polish "Lyme for a Cure".  This polish is just beautiful to use, and coverage was fantastic with two coats.  I'm so glad I won this prize, because this polish isn't available to others, and the colour is so gorgeous and rich, with so many colours flashing through it I couldn't name them all.  It's a beautiful green holo, but unfortunately I was unable to catch its true beauty with my camera.  Here is a macro of it, however, which does show some of the colour shift.

 

Beautiful, isn't it?  This is one of the polishes that has completely changed my opinion of using green polish on my nails.  I can assure you, I will be using lots more in the future.

The polish I used on my middle nails is Emily de Molly "You're Not That Great", which is a lime green crelly, loaded with holographic lime and turquoise glitter, and blue shimmer.  I used three coats because I wanted to get the jelly effect, and the effect is amazing.  I don't know why it is called "You're No That Great" because it certainly is great!  I found it shifted almost to turquoise on my nails, but still had enough green in it to look great with the other two polishes.  Here is a macro shot of it for you to drool over.  

This polish is still available, so pop on over to Emily de Molly for a look at some more great photos.

I finished my manicure with one coat of Grace-full Nail Polish "Quick Dry Top Coat".  This is the first time I've used this top coat, and I'm very impressed with it.  There was no bubbling on any of the polishes, unlike with the OPI "Natural Nail Top Coat" I used for my last manicure.  The finish is lovely and glossy, and it flowed on beautifully.  I can really recommend it, so pop on over to Grace-full to check it out now.

Now, here are some more photos of my complete manicure, which will show you why I'm so pleased with the result.

  
These photos were taken in the sun on my front porch.

Taken in the shade in my sunroom.

  

Taken inside under artificial light.

Taken in overcast conditions outside.

Well, that's my manicure for yesterday.  I'm really pleased with all the polishes I used, and just love the final result of the combination of these three polishes.  I hope you agree, and I would really appreciate any comments you might have.

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you'll come back often to see what I have to share with you.   You can follow me by filling in the boxes at the top right-hand side of the page if you so wish.
 

Have a wonderful day, and may God bless you!

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope

http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/

 

I was not paid in any way, shape or form for using any of the items mentioned in this post,
and my honest opinions are given freely and without any bias at all.

Lyme Disease Awareness Giveaway Prize I Won - It's Awesome!!!

   

Finally I've managed to find time to show you the Lyme Disease Awareness Giveaway Prize I won a couple of weeks ago, and received last week.  It's so awesome, and I was blown away from the moment I opened the box!  Once you read what was included in the prize you'll realise why it has taken so long for me to get around to writing this post.

 

Alinta, the owner of the Polish and Paws blog website, ran this giveaway as a way of raising awareness of the fact that the Australian Government still does not recognise the fact that Lyme Disease exists in Australia, despite numerous TV documentaries and current affair segments on the subject; despite the fact that most doctors know it exists and are treating thousands of patients here; and these patients are literally living a hellish existence, simply because they can't afford the treatment they need and the government won't provide it.  Please check out the link to Alinta's blog post on the subject here, and please start helping us to raise awareness of this horrible disease and make the government sit up and take notice.  This is a major medical emergency in this country and needs to be fixed NOW!

To start with, here are pictures of the box when it arrived in the mail, and after I had just opened it.

   

Now to the details of what was in the box, and close-up photos.

Firstly, I discovered the Grace-full Nail Polish Limited Edition "Lyme for a Cure" polish, made specifically for this Giveaway's prize winners and, unfortunately, no one else, and another polish from Grace-full "Navy",  which is also unfortunately no longer available on the site.  "Lyme for a Cure" is absolutely wonderful, and unfortunately my photos don't do it justice, but when I actually use it in a manicure very soon I'll try and do better.  "Navy" is also gorgeous, and has so much glitter in it that it sparkles like sapphires.  Please check out the Grace-full Nail Polish site to find out what other amazing nail polishes Theresa, the owner and maker of Grace-full Nail Polish, dreams up and puts together for all her many, many fans.  I, for one, am completely addicted to her polish, as you will have discovered if you have read any of my previous posts when I've featured some of them.

   

Secondly, there were two Emily de Molly polishes; "You're not that great", a lime creme with holographic, lime and turquoise glitter with a blue shimmer, and "Queen of the sea", a green creme with gold to green shimmer; and three Emily de Molly Stamping Plates.  The two polishes are just beautiful, and the holographic glitter in "You're not that great" is just amazing.  This is another polish brand I am addicted to, and there are some absolutely amazing polishes coming out very soon, as well as the ones that are already available. I can see that I'm going to be kept very poor in the near future :) The designs on the stamping plates are fantastic, and there is a lot of variety.  The plate numbers are EDM06, EDM10 and EDM12.  Thank you so much, Theresa, for donating these gorgeous polishes for such an important cause, and especially for the limited edition polish.

   

Next, there were three Powder Perfect polishes; "Christmas in a Tropical Climate" (no longer available); "Four Poster Bed" (no longer available); and "Addictive Personality" (on special, so may disappear soon), which has a soft pink base with a crelly formula, and glimmers of navy, turquoise, pink and coral glitters will shine through as you layer the polish. My photo just doesn't do any of these justice because I had to take them under artificial light.  The weather here in Kingston, Tasmania has been so overcast, and wet, that it's been almost impossible to get decent photos for weeks now.  I'll try and do better when I use them in a manicure.  Thank you so much, Jacinta, for donating these lovely products for such a wonderful cause.

But wait!  There's more!  Next there are three polishes from EP Polish Company; "Lahni", "Waveryley" and "SPF+Sparkle HOLO Top Coat".  The blue and green are a lot brighter than the pictures show, and are actually neon colours, and the holographic effect of the top coat is just gorgeous. Unfortunately the store appears to be closed at the moment, but I think it is only while they get some more polish made.  If you click on the company name it will take you to their Facebook page, and you will be able to find out just what is available and when there.  Thanks so much to EP for donating these three lovely polishes to this cause.

 

But wait!  There was still more!  The next items I found in the box were three of the new Ulta3 Autumn/Winter Metallic Collection; "galaxy", " 24 carat gold" and "moon dust".  I have completely fallen in love with this set of five awesome polishes, and have actually bought a second bottle of each of the five polishes in the set, and now I have three bottles of these three.  YAY!!!!!  I used the copper one, "from the mine" in my last mani (see previous post), and it is just amazing.  If you have a pharmacy that sells these polishes, check them out - you'll want to buy them when you see them in person, I'm sure!

 

But there was even more!  The next thing I found in the box was a bottle of Peita's Polish "Cuticles be gone", which is pretty much self-explanatory. Peita's Polish has a very good reputation in the world of Indie polish, so please check them out.

 

But wait once again!  There was even more!   The next things I found in the box were some green cancer awareness ribbon vinyl stickers from She Sells Sea Shells in the UK.  Her range of nail vinyl stickers and stencils, and other nail art items, is terrific, so please check out this site.  You can buy these Awareness Ribbons in nine different colours, and there are 40 in a pack.  Then I found a set of four very fine nail art brushes, for find detailed work, and some gorgeous silver and gold decals in twelve different designs (see close-up below).  These are going to be great to use in my nail art in the future.

   

Then I found even more - three gorgeous sets of nail art transfer decals from Nailed Kit - Nail Art Made Easy in the USA, shown below.  These look terrific, and I'm going to trying to decide what I can try them out on as soon as possible.

And last, but definitely not least, there were four miscellaneous manicure and nail care items - a tube of Cuticle Balm from Powder Perfect in "Birthday Cake" fragrance (which smells scrumptious, and not too overpowering); a Two Birds Cuticle Oil Pen Dispenser with a lovely, light, lavender fragrance; a nail polish removal pen, and a hang-nail remover tool.  Please check out the Two Birds site, because they have some wonderful polish and nail-care products.

 

So, that's my amazing prize!  You can imagine how surprised I was to find out I had won this, and I was still pinching myself to make sure it wasn't a dream until it actually arrived in my hands.  

Thank you so much, Alinta, for running this Giveaway promotion, and I hope you are feeling OK.  I will be continuing to promote awareness for Lyme Disease as much as possible on Facebook, Twitter, etc, and hopefully the government will wake up to themselves and admit we have a very big problem, which they have to deal with NOW!

I'll be back in a few days with my next manicure, and until then, thanks for visiting, and I hope you'll come back often to see what I have to share with you.  You can follow my blog by filling out the boxes at the top right-hand side of my blog if you so wish, and I'd really appreciate any comments you may wish to make.  All suggestions will be accepted with much gratitude as I try to make my blog interesting enough for people to visit.  I'd also appreciate it if you would share a link to my blog with your friends and colleagues so that more people with cancer, going through chemotherapy, can be encouraged to look after their nails before they start their treatment, and hopefully will avoid having the same damage occur to their nails that happened to mine.  After all, that is what I started my blog for, and if it helps even just one person I'll be happy.

Have a wonderful day, and may God bless you!

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope

http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/

Brown And Copper Skittle Manicure - 14 June 2015

Finally, after over a week of major ups and bigger downs in our home and in our lives, here is my latest skittle manicure.  I used five different brown and/or copper colours, and I am amazed at how well they went together.  Here are the products I used:

Now to some photos of my manicure, taken in artificial light at BigW and outside, but with light cloud cover, and just a touch of sunshine.

  

                      Under Artificial Light at BigW                                   Outside In Shade

Outside Under Light Cloud

I started with one coat of Pretty Serious "Rock On" Strengthener on all my nails, and a second coat on a couple that are still very thin and fragile.  Then I put one coat of OPI Natural Nail Base Coat on them all.

On my pinky fingers I used Model's Prefer "Double Shot" creme polish, which looks like a really dark brown in the bottle, but with two coats on my pinky nails it looks black, so I was a bit disappointed, because I wanted it to be brown to fit with the rest of the colours I used. However, it was very easy to work with, and I had excellent coverage with two coats.

On my ring fingers I used Grace-full Nail Polish "And My Axe", which is a dark red-brown jelly packed with holo, silver, gold, copper and bronze glitter.  In real life, just looking at it on my hands, I seemed to have full coverage with just two coats but, thanks to my hubby buying me a smart phone with such good photographic ability, I realise now that I should have added another coat, and perhaps done a bit of dabbing.  Like all my Grace-full Nail Polish, it looks amazing under any lighting, but especially under artificial light and in the sun.  Unfortunately it was cloudy yesterday, so it was very hard to get any photos in full sunlight.  That's the problem with living in Tasmania in winter.  Unfortunately this polish is no longer available, but there are heaps of other wonderful polishes available.

On my middle fingers I used Pretty Serious Cosmetics "Seasonal Sunset", a rusty, jelly-base colour packed with gold and copper glitter. In real life it is a real glitter bomb, and it was so hard to get a a photo that did it justice.  It goes on like a dream, and I only needed two coats to get fantastic coverage.  I probably could have had enough cover with just one good coat, but I wanted it to look good for the swatch, so I gave it the extra coat. This polish is also no longer available, and was a gift from a dear friend who knew that I wanted a bottle of it and that I hadn't known about Pretty Serious Cosmetics when this colour was available.  Thank you, Therese.  I absolutely love it!

On my index fingers I used Shades of Phoenix "Fred's Courage" from the Shades of Potter Collection, which is a burnt orange, autumn-leaf coloured polish.  It went on really smoothly, with full cover in two coats, but when I put the top coat on it bubbled, and got worse overnight.  I was so disappointed, because the colour is amazing, and I was so looking forward to using it.  I will definitely use it again with a different top coat.  The Shades of Potter Collection is wonderful, and I can't wait to try the other colours in the collection.

Finally, on my thumbs I used one of the new Ulta3 Autumn/Winter Metallic Collection polishes, "from the mine", which is a gorgeous copper, metallic glitter bomb with a textured finish.  I also added just one coat of this polish to my pinky fingers to try and take some of the starkness off the colour on them. I don't normally like rough finishes, but with just one coat of top coat this was not so rough that it catches on things, and I love it. All this collection is beautiful, and I just had to give this one a try.  If you haven't tried these polishes yet, get to your nearest Terry White Pharmacy and find them as soon as you can.  There are five in the set, and every single one of them is just gorgeous. 

I finished off with one coat of OPI Natural Nail Top Coat, which gave everything a lovely glossy finish.  However, as I mentioned earlier, it made the polish on my index fingers bubble, but not any of the other polishes.

So, there you have it for this post.  I'm really pleased with how the colour combination worked out and my nails are growing once again, although they still have a long way to go, thanks to both the Pretty Serious Nail Care treatments I am using, "Rock On Nail Strengthener" and "Cuticle Hero Super Hydrating Cuticle Oil".  They are really great, and I'm so glad that I discovered them, and was blessed with some items from this range by a lovely friend of mine.  Thanks, Chris, you know who you are.

I'll be back again soon to show you my birthday present stash from my hubby, and a couple of other great finds.  Thanks for visiting, and I hope you'll come back soon to see what I have to share with you.

Have a great week, and God bless you!

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope
http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/

burnt orange Autumn leaf coloured polish.

An Amazing Gift from a Very Dear Friend!!! 5th June, 2015

I have to let you know that my faith in humanity has been partially restored, and it's so nice to know that there are beautiful people out there still who care about others, and who are willing to show they care.  I received an amazing gift package from a friend, who I've only met recently, and I can't believe how generous she has been.  Thank you so much, Therese, from the bottom of my heart!  You are one very special person, and there should be more people like you in the world.  If there was, the world wouldn't be the hell hole it is today.  Here is a picture of the items Therese sent me, with more details of the polish and other items below.

 

As you can see, this stash is amazing.  There is a beautiful card with a lovely message, two awesome bottles of Pretty Serious Nail Polish, "Seasonal Sunset" and "Generally Dangerous"; two lots of striping tape (gold and hot pink); two water transfer decals which look like postage stamps (unfortunately I didn't think to take them out of the package so I could show both of them) - one shows famous European landmarks, and the other one has the word "SHOES" written all over it in different sizes and fonts; two black acrylic bow decals with holographic glitter on them; two pretty, multi-coloured, bow decals with diamantes in the middle of the bows; two silver butterfly decals with holographic rhinestones all over the wings; two gold butterfly decals with pink, yellow and holographic rhinestones on their wings; one sheet of purple floral transfer decals; and one sheet of pretty blue, yellow and white flower sticker decals. 

Here is a photo of the two Pretty Serious nail polishes:

It was extremely hard to get a good picture of "Seasonal Sunset", but it is a dark burnt-orange jelly base that leans a little towards brown, with tons of gold and orange glitter in it.  It is definitely my kind of colour - in fact, I'm starting to fall in love with browns and oranges, especially with glitter and shimmer in them.  The other polish, "Generally Hazardous", fits the bill completely, and is a wonderful orange creme with a really gorgeous golden shimmer through it.  I can't wait to try this on my nails, and I think these two polishes will go together really well in a skittlette manicure, so I might give that a try one day soon.

Overall, this beautiful gift completely blew me away.  I didn't think that people like Therese, and Christine, another friend that sent me a beautiful care package of Pretty Serious products that I shared with you recently, still existed.  I know the nail art community are extremely helpful and encouraging, but this takes that to another level, and is unbelievably kind and generous.  Thank you both for making me realise that there ARE some beautiful people left in the world.

Well, that's enough for this post.  We have been dealing with a few disasters this week, and I am physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted.  I'll post some more news very soon once I've taken some photos of some new nail mail, and also the details of an amazing, humongous prize I won yesterday.  I'll take photos when it arrives and do a post then. Will be doing another manicure this weekend, too, so will have that to show you as well.

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you'll come back soon to see what I have to share with you.  Don't forget to sign up to receive emails when I have a new post, and please leave comments, even if they are complaints, so that I can continue to improve my blogging.

God bless you, and have a wonderful day!

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope
http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/

My Skittlette Mani On 31-5-2015

YAY!!! Finally I've been able to do a manicure!  I am so over the moon that I could finally paint my nails, and even though my camera showed EVERY flaw on my cuticles and the fact that I couldn't paint over the tips of my nails because they are so short, I'm very pleased with the result.

So, here are the products I used:

 

I decided to do a skittlette manicure so that I could feature several of my new polishes in the one mani, and these three look amazing together.  All these polishes are Aussie Indie Polish from some of the best makers in the world.

I started by putting one coat of Pretty Serious "Rock On" strengthener, and then one coat of Revlon "Quick Dry Base Coat" on all my nails.

Next, I painted two coats of Grace-full Nail Polish "Kate" on my thumb, index and pinkie nails, although one coat would have been enough if I'd used a thicker coat.  This polish went on like a dream, and the colour just blew me away.  It kept changing depending on what angle the light was hitting it from, so it is very hard to describe.  Theresa, the owner and maker of the amazing Grace-full polishes, describes it as a hot pink linear holo, and it is from the "Last Girls Of Summer" collection.  All I can say is, if you don't already have this polish in your stash, you are missing out badly.  I'm going to order another bottle soon before it disappears forever, so that should tell you how much I love it.  Thanks, Theresa, for making such an awesome polish.  You're the best!

On my ring finger I painted Shades of Phoenix "Dobby's Ears" from the "Shades of Potter" Collection.  This polish I found to be very thin, and I needed three coats to get full coverage, but it did go on very easily, and dried quickly, with no streaks at all.  The colour is a bright muted pink, with a pearl/shimmer finish in the shade, and a lovely, soft holographic finish in the sun.  I'm really hard to please with pink nail polish, because so many don't look good on my olive skin, but this one is definitely exception.  I looks great on my nails, and will be used often in the future. This collection of polishes was bought for my by my daughter for Mother's Day, and I'm so glad she did (thanks, Megs). Thanks also to Teneil for producing such wonderful nail polish for her adoring public. They are just soooooo pretty.  There are five polishes in the collection, and they are all completely different, so please check them out.

On my middle finger I then painted three coats of LYZ Cosmetics Fairybread Artisan Nail Lacquer "Flowers For My Love" from the January "Sweet Surprise Box" so that I could get the real crelly effect that I was looking for.  This polish is an absolutely gorgeous, and the only way you can get it is by purchasing the surprise box, which will not be available much longer, and Elizabeth is not doing any more of these boxes in the future, which is a real pity.  She told me that she would be replacing it with something equally as good, though, so I'm keeping an eye out to see what she comes up with, but if you'd like to get this particular polish, you'd better be quick.  It is a beautiful very pale pink crelly, with different sizes of hot pink and gold glitter, and a gorgeous soft shimmer.  It is really hard to describe, but is really pretty.  Here is a macro shot of it.  The crelly effect is amazing!  Thank you so much, Elizabeth, for this beautiful polish, and for all the others that I have purchased from you.

Next I added some gold decals to my ring fingers, and finished off with one coat of Revlon "Quick Dry Top Coat" on all my nails except for my ring fingers, to which I added two coats for extra protection for the decals.

Here are some photos taken in different lighting effects to show the amazing differences I found in all these polishes depending on where I was when I looked at them.

Left hand in the sun

 

Right hand under fluorescent lighting in the doctor's surgery.

Right hand in the kitchen.

Right hand again in the kitchen.

   

On the left is my left hand under light at night; on the right is my right hand in daylight inside.

So, that's my manicure for this week.  Even though I was so out of practice, and made a bit of a mess of it, I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out and, of course, the beautiful polishes made all the difference.  I only wish I could have had longer, better shaped nails so that I could do them full justice, as others have done online.  However, now my nails are starting to grow again, and I'm thrilled to bits with that.  Since starting to use my Pretty Serious "Rock On" Strengthener I haven't had one break, whereas before that I was having them nearly once a week at least, so I love this product, and can definitely recommend it.  I am also using Pretty Serious "Cuticle Hero" Super Hydrating Cuticle Oil, their heavy duty oil, which is only a very new product in their range, and was sent as part of a RAOK by a friend. Unfortunately, yesterday morning I was in such a rush, because I had two doctors' appointments, one in the morning, and then another one early in the afternoon, I forgot to oil my cuticles, which is why they look so dry in the photos.  They have improved immensely since my accident with the nail glue, and I'm really disappointed that I had to use these photos, but we hardly had any sun today, and the light was terrible.

Thank you for visiting my blog, and I hope you'll come back often to see what I have to share with you.  I received three more lots of nail mail today, so will share that with you very soon.  Please let me know what you think about my blog and/or reviews and swatches.  I'd really appreciate your feedback.  You can follow my blog if you go to the top of the page on the right-hand side and fill out the boxes, etc.

Have a wonderful day, and may God bless you.

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope

http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/

a bright muted pink

a bright muted pink

a bright muted pink

a bright muted pink

All these products were either bought by me or given to me by family or friends, and I received no reward for these reviews.