Update On My Nails and Latest Arcane Lacquer Purchase 9 May 2015

Today I have an update on how my nails are recovering from the disaster I had with some nail glue and acetone nearly 2 months ago (see earlier post for more information), and also some photos of my latest purchase from Arcane Lacquer.

Firstly, here is a photo of my nails as they are today. Please excuse my ugly hands, which are partly the result of age, but also from losing a lot of weight over the last couple of years, and of course there is no way to get rid of the excess skin.  If anyone knows of a way of improving them I'd be very grateful for your advice, because I hate looking at them as they are now.  I slather them in hand cream throughout the day but, although they feel nice and soft, they look horribly wrinkly and OLD!

 

As you can see, my nails are coming along pretty well.  The nails on my right thumb and left pinky are only just growing past the nail base, as are the nails on both of my middle fingers.  Also, many of them are still lifted off the nail bed, the most obvious of which are my two index fingers, but I'm hoping that they will recover as they get stronger and healthier.  Most of the horrible brown, flaking tips caused by my chemotherapy last year are finally growing out, and the nails behind them are a lovely, healthy pink. My cuticles are looking so much better, and so are my nails, so I'm starting to feel a lot better about the way things are going. 

So, if I can keep them safe for another week or two, it looks like I might be able to start painting them again very soon.  I'm waiting for a new strengthener I ordered to arrive (Australia Post up to its usual standard), and this one is supposed to actually strengthen them immediately as well as treating them, so it should be amazing.  More on that when it arrives and I've given it a try.  In the meantime, I'm using Sally Hansen Miracle Cure on them every other day, and continuing to use my Jojoba Oil, Revitanail Keratin Strengthening Serum and Nourishing Oil, and Revitanail Hand & Nail Cream throughout the day, especially after washing my hands.

I have so many new nail polishes in my stash that I am dying to try out, including the two beautiful Arcane Lacquer polishes below.  This are another Indie Polish brand that I am very quickly becoming addicted to.

 

The one on the left is "Glorious Nightmare" and the one on the right is "State of Grace".  It was soooooo hard to get the true effect of these polishes, although the "Glorious Nightmare" photo is pretty close to the mark.  I have two close-ups of them below, and the one of "State Of Grace" shows some of the shimmer and micro-glitter which you can't see in the photo above, but the actual colour is a bit darker. 

  

"State of Grace" is described as a mushroom/taupe creme with a strong gold shimmer and flecks of orange and green, along with gold flakies, although I would describe it as grey. You really have to see this in real life to appreciate its true beauty. "Glorious Nightmare" is described as a deep purple jelly with berry pink, lemon and purple micro glitters. They both are absolutely beautiful, and I can't wait to try them out, which I'll be able to do very soon, God willing.

That's all I have for you today, but I hope to have more very soon when some of my purchases that I'm waiting on arrive.  I hope you will come back often to see what I have to show you, and you can follow me if you wish to by going to the top right-hand side of my page.

Have a wonderful Mother's Day tomorrow, and may God bless you.  For anyone going through treatment for breast cancer, my prayers are with you, and I hope that you come out the other end OK.  My mantra now is "I'M A BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR, AND STAYING ONE".  I actually found a badge with that written on it online, and I'm going to start wearing it everywhere.

Hugs

Christine

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

I was not paid in any way, shape or form for showing you these polishes.
 I bought them with my own money, and my opinions are given freely and without bias.

Nail Recovery Update, BUT New Damage! 10 April 2015

Hi, everyone! I hope you had a great Easter and got lots of rest, and hopefully got time to do lots of nail art.

I thought I'd better touch base and give you an update on how my nails are recovering after the disaster I told you about in my last blog two weeks ago, and also let you know what happened yesterday - another disaster!

Here are some photos of my damaged nails from 2 weeks ago and how they're recovering.

 

As you can see, the two badly damaged nails on the left hand are starting to recover nicely, and so is the thumb on my right hand.  I have been using an intensive recovery regime on all my nails and my hands since all the damage was done, and it is very encouraging to see that it appears to be working.  For the first week I used pure Jojoba Oil, Revitanail Nourishing Oil, Revitanail Keratin Strengthening Serum and Revitanail Hand & Nail Cream. 

After a week, once my nails had stopped hurting so much, I started on the Revitanail Nail Strengthener program, which involves 2 coats on the first day, 1 coat each day for the next 5 days, removing it on the 7th day, and then repeating this for 3 more weeks.  The whole program takes 28 days, and then you can leave it off for a week or two, and repeat the 28 day program again until you are happy with the strength of your nails.  You can't use nail polish over the treatment, so I'm afraid my nails are totally nude all the time at the moment.

As well as the Nail Strengthener, I have continued to use pure Jojoba Oil, Revitanail Nourishing Oil, Revitanail Keratin Strengthening Serum and Revitanail Hand & Nail Cream as often as I can, and will continue to do so in the future, particularly as it really does appear to be working so well. My husband keeps looking at me and saying "Are you still rubbing your nails?", and I just say to him "Again, darl, again!". Nearly every 30 minutes finds me rubbing one treatment or another into my hands and/or nails.  In fact, I find myself massaging my cuticles even when I'm just sitting reading because it has become such a habit. Some of the skin on my fingers has started to peel off, too, caused by the burning from the acetone I used trying to get the nail glue off my nails and fingers. The tips of some of my fingers are still very tender and quite sore, so I'm having to be really careful what I do each day so no more damage is done.

So, that's the good news!  Now to the disaster last night. When I took the nail strengthener treatment off last night, I discovered that I actually had two more nails that were broken right down below the quick, and I felt physically sick.  I couldn't believe it, even though I had suspected for the last couple of days that one of them may be broken.  So, they have now been filed right back as far as I could, and I also filed back my unbroken nails so that they don't look ridiculous.  The broken nails are really sore, too, because of how far down I had to file them. Here is a photo of my right hand showing the damage, and also how some of my nails have lifted off the nail bed due to the damage done from my chemotherapy treatment last year. Most of the nails that have broken have suffered this damage, and that is why they have broken so far down my nails.

  

Now it's back to the drawing board, and onward and upward, I hope! I'm heartbroken that all this has happened just when my nails were starting to grow, and had started to look quite good when polished.  I didn't get to do an Easter design, which I was really looking forward to doing, and it doesn't look like I'll be doing one for Mother's Day next month, or perhaps even for my birthday in June.  Getting my nails in good, strong condition is more important at this stage, so that is what I am endeavouring to do.

I will be back in a couple of days to show you some of my new polishes that I have been receiving in the mail.  Retail therapy is great when you're feeling miserable, and many of the Indie Polish makers have had sales and special offers on over Easter, so I've been busy checking them all out.  It helps to keep my mind off things, too, which is good.  I only wish I had more money to spend, because, after all, a girl can NEVER have too much polish, can she?

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and for those in Tasmania, make sure you keep warm.  It's going to be a wet, chilly couple of days. Please come back soon to see what I have to share with you, and please let others know about my site if you have enjoyed your visit.

Hugs

Christine

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

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

Absolute Disaster on 27 March 2015 - DON'T BUY THIS NAIL GLUE!!!!!!

Yesterday I had an absolute disaster with 3 of my nails which I was trying to patch, using a different nail glue to the one I usually use, and here is how my nails and fingers look today!

As a result of this, I want to advise everyone NOT TO BUY THE NAIL GLUE shown below:

and here's the full story of what happened.

After taking off last week's manicure and the patches I had on three of my nails, I still couldn't cut my nails back because they were broken a long way down the actual nail, and not only on the tip section.  So, I set out to put patches on them again before I put on this week's mani.  I had run out of the glue I had been using, which came with the Manicare Nail Repair Kit I bought months ago, so I decided to use the nail glue shown above, which I had bought to use to attach artificial nail swabs to my nail polish bottle lids before I put them up on the shelves.  It said "Nail Glue", so I presumed it would be safe to use, and I had to make a tiny hole with a sharp needle in the top, so there should have only been a small drop of glue on the index nail on my left hand (the one with breaks on both sides of the nail) when I put it on.  However, that is not what happened.  It spread all over my nail, and onto two of my fingers, and then dried instantly.  My fingers were stuck together, but I managed to get them apart, and managed to finish that patch.

I then spent half an hour trying to get the glue off my fingers with acetone, and still didn't manage to get it all off, but I wanted to go ahead and patch the other two nails that needed repairing, so I decided to finish trying to get it off after I had finished the patches.  I had read during the week that micropore tape from the pharmacy is a good alternative to tea bags to use for patches, so I applied some over the splits on the middle finger on my left hand and the thumb on my right hand.  I filed off the excess bit of the fibreglass tape that I used with the nail glue patch, and smoothed off the surface of the glue.  

Next, I added two coats of Sally Hansen "Hard As Nails" original formula nail hardener to all my nails, waiting for each coat to dry before adding the next one.  I then added one coat of Jordana "Mellow Yellow" to all my nails except for my ring fingers, and one coat of Sinful Colors "White On White" to my ring finger nails.  I was planning to do a gold and green water marble manicure for the Cricket World Cup Final on Sunday, 29 March 2015, in which Australia are playing.  However, when the polish finally dried on the patched nails, I noticed that the polish was really rough on the ones I used the micropore tape on.  So, I decided to remove the micropore patches and do them the same way as the one with the glue, and that's when disaster struck.

The micropore tape nails were easy to clean and remove the tape, but when I tried to do the patch on the first nail, glue went all over my fingers again.  I then tried to add some acetone to a cotton swab to try to get it off, but the acetone went all over the nails on my right hand, and I just burst into tears.  Then I tried to use the acetone to remove the glue from my fingers once again, and most of it just wouldn't shift.  I used the foil method with 100% acetone on the two nails with the glue on, and after 15 minutes they still hadn't shifted, so I added more to them, left the remover on for 15 minutes, and the glue hadn't even budged.  I tried again, and again, and finally managed to get the patch piece off, but the glue underneath still wasn't going to budge.  

Meanwhile, all this time, my finger and nails was burning because of the acetone, so I switched to an acetone-based polish remover, and after about 2 hours I finally managed to remove most of the glue, but in the process the nail on my index finger broke right off, and the other break got worse.  That's when I really gave up, and decided to cut all the broken nails off as carefully as I could, and filed the rest of my nails back a lot so they didn't look ridiculous.  I was really crying my heart out at this stage, because I was watching 9 months of careful nurturing and beautiful manicures going out the window, and my nails looked worse than they did when I first started my blog after the chemotherapy damage.  One of the nails even started bleeding, and you can see how badly the tips of my fingers were damaged by the glue and the acetone.

 

 

So, now I won't be able to do anything but nourish, strengthen and pamper my nails and hands for weeks until they start to recover, and start from scratch again.  I am absolutely heart-broken, and feeling extremely discouraged.  I just wish I could find some glue like the one I got with the Manicare Nail Repair Kit to use with the tea bag patches, but I think the only way I'm going to be able to is to buy a whole new kit, even though I've still got half the fibreglass strips left, and the emery board will last for a long time yet.  

This was a horrible lesson to learn, but I will never put nail glue made for false nails near my nails again, especially the one I tried.  After more than three whole hours just to get the two patches off, plus the time taken to put the base coat and polish on, and then take it off, and still picking glue off my fingers, I guess all I can do is start treating my nails and hands with kid gloves, and use everything in my arsenal to repair the damage.  My first port of call was, of course, my Jojoba Oil, but I have other things I can use, so my next few posts will most likely be updates on how my nails are going and how the different products that I use perform. 

I hope you won't give up on me, and that you will come back again to see how things are going.  If I find anything interesting on my travels around the internet I'll let you know, and will also keep you informed about any new polishes I get while I'm waiting to start polishing my nails again.

Bye for now, and I hope to be back real soon.  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/

Caring For Your Nails Before, During and After Chemotherapy

I have just realised that, despite the main aim of my blog being to help others who are going through chemotherapy, I haven't put my nail care advice guide, that I wrote just before I started my blog, on the site.  Silly me!!!!!  So, here it is, and I hope it can help keep someone going through chemotherapy from experiencing what I went through with my nails.  Firstly, I'd like to show you the damage done to my nails by the chemotherapy.

Caring For Your Nails Before, During and After Chemotherapy

Before I started chemotherapy for breast cancer, I was told by my oncologist, and the breast-care nurse, to paint my nails with dark nail polish to protect my nails from the sun's UV rays, and to hide any damage that might occur.  Despite using nail polish, my nails were still horribly damaged - they went a horrible brown colour, started to flake and peel, and even started to come away from the nail bed.  I went searching for information to help me repair my nails, and also ways to care for them once they were looking good again.  No one told me any of this information before I started chemotherapy, but if they had, I possibly may not have had any of the problems with my nails that I did.

So, I decided I wanted to try to help prevent all the beautiful women (and men) going through chemotherapy from going through the same experience I did.  Here are some things I WAS NOT TOLD that you really need to know BEFORE you start chemotherapy.

1.  Prevention is better than a cure, of course, so be prepared and start early. As soon as you know that you are going to have chemotherapy, start using the nail and hand routine below, and do it every day without fail.  Hopefully, this may stop you from getting the severe damage I did.  I can't promise it will prevent all the damage, but it should help a lot, and should definitely help to keep your nails from drying out.

2.  Buy yourself the best CUTICLE OIL/NOURISHING SERUM you can afford.  Revitanail and Sally Hansen make some really great ones that nourish, strengthen and protect your nails, but there are other brands out there too.  They are readily available from pharmacies, department stores, beauty shops, Priceline stores and, of course, online.

     

     I have recently discovered that PURE JOJOBA OIL is the best thing you can use on your hands and nails, so I am using that now, too.  It is available at health food shops, Priceline and Chemist Warehouse, but it is a lot less expensive online, and there are many companies that sell it.  Check out eBay, or just Google it and you will be amazed by the other uses it has, too.  It's also odourless.  AMAZING STUFF!!!  

    I would suggest you use both the cuticle oil and Jojoba Oil to give you even more protection from damage.  Massage one of them into you nails and cuticles every time you wash your hands if you can, but at least twice a day, morning and night.

3.  ALWAYS use a GOOD QUALITY BASE COAT on your nails before applying your nail polish, because today's nail polishes are made to adhere to the base coat, not your nails.  It will help stop your nails from being stained by the nail polishes you use, too.  You can also get strengthening and nourishing base coats - even more protection and nourishment for your nails.  Availability is the same as for the cuticle oils. 

4.  Apply as many coats of nail polish as you need to get the coverage on your nail you want, waiting for each coat to dry before applying the next coat.  Usually two coats are enough, but some polishes require three.  Apply thin coats, because the thicker the coat the longer it will take to dry.  They are available from the same places as mentioned above.

5.  If you want your nail polish to last more than just a few days, you should use a good quality TOP COAT to stop it from chipping and getting damaged.  There are some great top coats available, from the companies I have already mentioned, and of course from the same places.  Reapply your top coat every other day to make your polish last longer.

6.  Finish off by applying a good quality HAND AND NAIL CREAM.  Massage a generous amount into your hands and nails at least twice a day, but more often if you are washing your hands a lot, because washing dries out both your hands and nails.

7.  Always try to use gloves when you are washing the dishes, gardening or cleaning around the house, because they, too, will help to prevent your nails from getting damaged.

8.  Always use an ACETONE-FREE POLISH REMOVER, because acetone dries your nails out, and is very harsh on your cuticles.  There are some great conditioning ones for different skin types. They are available from the same places as the other nail care products.

9.  Every time you remove your nail polish, massage your cuticle oil/nourishing serum into your nails and cuticles several times, over a couple of hours, before applying your next nail polish.  This gives the oil/serum a better chance of getting right into your nails and cuticles, and will really make a difference to how strong and healthy they are.

10. Don't use a metal nail file or emery board on your nails, because they will only cause even more damage.  Buy a good quality Czech crystal/glass nail file , which is a lot finer and so much kinder to your nails.  Manicare sell a great one which I use.  Don't be tempted to buy a cheap Chinese one, because the quality is inferior and could cause damage.

11. There are ECO-FRIENDLY VERSIONS available for all the products mentioned above if you are concerned about the environment or have allergies.  These are usually advertised as being 3-free or 5-free, which means they don't contain the nasty chemicals most of the other polishes do.  Just Google for more information and where to purchase them.

12. Lastly, one of the most important reasons for putting nail polish on your nails is that it not only helps to protect your nails, but THEY WILL LOOK GREAT, too, and that will make you feel better about yourself, and that has to be a good thing.  When you see the range of nail polish and nail art products available, even scented ones, you will be amazed at how attractive you can make them, it will really lift your spirits, and may even help to take your mind off what you are going through, which is what happened with me.

If this information helps to keep just one person from getting the damage chemotherapy did to my nails I will be happy.  Seeing my nails the way they were was so depressing, and that was the last thing I needed, and the last thing YOU will need while you are going through your chemotherapy treatment, and afterwards, during your recovery period.  If you already have damage, it's never too late to start looking after them.  It really is worth the effort.

Here's a photo taken on 25th February 2015, less than five months after the last photo was taken, showing the improvement which following the above regime has made to my nails and cuticles.  There is still some damage, for example the lifting from the nail bed, but I'm hoping that will improve with time, God willing.  Most of this improvement has come since starting to use the pure Jojoba Oil mentioned earlier.  Please do give this amazing essential oil a try.  It's an absolute miracle worker, and makes your hands and nails feel great, too.

I would like to wish you all the best for your journey through your cancer treatment, and hope that you reach the other end with a good outcome.  Look good and you'll feel better!

© Christine Chipman 2014

 My Nail Art Journey - http://chips48nailartjourney.blogspot.com.au/

Nude With Gold Glitter Nail Art

After a week of disasters, I can finally show you the manicure I resorted to this week in desperation.

I told you in my last post that I would tell what brought me to tears before I managed to get my manicure done for this week.  To cut a long story short, we had to go shopping before I could get around to doing my nails and, right at the end of our shopping trip, I looked at my nails and, to my absolute horror, the tip of my left middle finger nail had snapped right off.  I could have cried then, but that's not the end of the story.

When we got home, I filed my broken nail off, and decided my nails looked wrong with all different lengths, so I bit the bullet and filed the others off shorter as well.  So, here is how my nails looked after I filed them back.  Awful, aren't they?

As you can see, the middle nail on my left hand is really short now, as are the middle and index fingers on my right hand.  The ones that were starting to grow really well are now a lot shorter, also, which is so disappointing, as they were really starting to look good when they were polished.  Anyway, I started to do my manicure for the week, which was going to be red, pink and blue different-sized dots on a white background, with contrasting smaller dots on top of the larger dots, and then even smaller dots on top of those in another colour.  However, I stuffed it up completely, to say the least, and I was absolutely devastated.  I was feeling really depressed at this stage, and had lost all my confidence to try anything else.  It was late in the evening anyway, so I took off the polish, oiled my cuticles (with Jojoba Oil of course), put on some hand cream and went to bed.

But wait!  There's more!  Things just got a whole lot worse.  While I was having a cup of coffee before starting my manicure the next day (24th Nov), I looked at my nails, and nearly died.  My index fingernail on the left hand had a break in it, and so did the thumb and middle fingernails on my right hand.  Then I did cry!!!  I couldn't believe it.  I know one thing for sure, though.  I won't be leaving my nails without any protection on them again before the damage caused by my chemotherapy has all grown out and they have recovered.  They are just so fragile that the slightest thing can cause them to break or peel away.  The damage was too far down the nails for me to file them off, so drastic measures had to be taken.

I promptly applied a patch to each nail, using the tea-bag and glue method, and tried to decide what to do with my nails for the week.  As they are now so short again, and because I was feeling so depressed and didn't want to risk wrecking another manicure, I decided to just do a nude base with gold glitter.  Here is the final result, after three ghastly days of disasters:

I started with a base coat using OPI "Natural Base Coat", then applied two coats of OPI "Passion", which is one of the loveliest pale pink nudes I've found so far.  It went on really easily, and two coats gave reasonable coverage.  If I hadn't been putting a glitter coat on, I would have done a third coat of "Passion" to get full coverage.  Then I added one coat of Savvy "High Voltage", which is one of the most beautiful shimmer/glitter combinations I've tried to date.  It immediately covered each nail with a fine sheen of gold shimmer, with lots of medium-size pink glitter scattered all over the nails.  I finished it off with one layer of OPI Top Coat, which I top up every other day, as usual. 

The photo really doesn't do it justice, because I couldn't get the pink glitter to show (it looks gold in the photo), but when I move my nails around, it has a different look depending on how the light catches it.  At times you can almost see through the nude base, and the rest of the time I have this gorgeous gold and pink shimmer/glitter effect. Although it isn't anything startling, and considering this was going to just be a hold-over mani to give me time to cool down and recover enough to do a decent manicure, I must say I am surprisingly happy with the results.  It really is very pretty, and the light catches it beautifully when I'm outside in the sun or under fluorescent lighting in the shopping centres.  I'll definitely be using this shimmer/glitter many times in the future.

I haven't decided yet what I will do for my next mani, but I won't be attempting anything too ambitious for a while until my nails start to get longer and I recover my confidence again.  I'll wait and see just how I feel when the time comes.  It has now been 4 days since I painted my nails, and so far no chips and no wear.  So, thanks for visiting, and I hope you had a better week than I did.  

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/

P.S. I have received no monetary or material gain from my reviews of the products used for this manicure.
Everything comes from my personal stash, all purchased by me, either in-store or online.

Amazing results from last mani!

I'm completely amazed at the results I got from my last mani.  After 10 days, just before I took it off, there were only two chips in my polish.  I'm definitely going to keep using the OPI Natural Nail Base Coat and OPI Top Coat.  They are awesome.  I topped up the top coat every other day, and I just can't believe how long it lasted.  Here is a photo showing you how it looked after the 10 days.  Sorry about the focus, but it was the only one I had to show you.

Below is how my nails looked after I took my nail polish off.  You can see that the new growth is looking really healthy, but the tips are still looking awful. 

 

There are actually 3 different areas of growth on each nail - the tips show the damage done by the chemotherapy, the middle of my nails shows how they have regrown just using Revitanail Nourishing Oil and Revitanail Keratin Strengthening Serum, and at the base of my nails you can see where I started using Pure Jojoba Oil as my main treatment, with the occasional use of the nourishing oil and strengthening serum, and of course, hand and nail cream (I have still to find an ideal one, but I slather it on as often as I can).  If anyone knows of a good hydrating hand cream that will plump up the skin on my hands so they don't look so old, that is reasonably priced, I'd really love to hear about it.

I use Jojoba Oil at least 3 times a day, and some days even more, especially before I do my new manicure each week.  I spend about 2 - 3 hours rubbing Jojoba Oil into my nails and cuticles every half-hour or so before I start applying my polish.  The results are fantastic, and I would recommend Jojoba Oil to everyone as their main cuticle and nail treatment.  You can buy it here, or just Google Jojoba Oil.  Also check out just what you can use it for.  I was extremely surprised with just what it does.  It will be very easy to find wherever you live, I'm sure.

I'll be back tomorrow with my new nail art for this week, and will also show you what happened that brought me to tears yesterday while I was out shopping, after I'd taken my nail polish off, but before I had done my new mani.

Thanks for visiting, and God bless you.  I hope you'll come back soon to see how my nail art journey is developing.

Hugs

Christine

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

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