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 Latest Purchases From Grace-full Polish as promised - 26 April 2015

Sorry for the delay, but I've had a very busy week.  I can't believe it has taken so long to put these up, because they are absolutely awesome.

I have eight bottles of polish to show you today, all made by Theresa Carter of Grace-full Nail Polish in Port Sorell, Tasmania.  These polishes are all hand mixed, and 3 free, which means they don't have those horrible nasties so many of the mainstream polishes have.  Unfortunately I still cannot swatch any polish, so all I can show you are the bottles.  If you want to see some swatches, just click on the name of the polish, and it will take you to the link on the Grace-full Nail Polish site.

Here are the first four polishes I want to show you, which were in the first order of the two I'm featuring today:

 

 

 

The first one is "Christine", which is "a gorgeous rich teal with shimmer and flakie sparkle", which I just had to have, of course, because my name is Christine.  However, the main reason I bought it is because this is such a beautiful teal shimmer polish in any light, and photos just can't do it full justice.  The shimmer effect is amazing.  It is on sale on the site at the moment, so I don't think it will be around for much longer, because I think it has been discontinued.  So, if you like the look of it, you'd better get in quick before it is all gone!

The second polish I have to show you is "Mandy", which Theresa describes as "a deep blue that has purple undertones, lighter blue micro flakies and blue fantasy flakies that have sparkling effects and a glamorous look", and that's exactly what you see when you view it in the flesh.  It is such a vibrant blue, unlike any I've found anywhere else.  It also is on sale, and probably is on the discontinued list, so it is another one you should hurry and grab now before it, too, disappears forever!  This polish was a free gift to help cheer me up, and I'd just like to say thank you to Theresa for being so kind and thoughtful.  I can't believe how generous and encouraging all my nail art friends and the Aussie Indie Polish makers have been to me since my nail disaster 5 weeks ago.  They are really such a wonderful group of people, and I'm so glad I've met them all, and am making new friends daily since joining some of the Facebook groups.

Now onto "Eboni", which is described as "a dark purple galaxy, similar to O Holy Night but in purple with silver holo stars, violet hex and squares and rainbow iridescent glitter."  I bought this polish for 2 reasons - firstly, because it is the name of my cat (if you change the "i" to a "y"), but mostly because it is soooooo AWESOME!  The photos leave a lot to be desired, because it's almost impossible to show it in pictures.  The swatches on the site are really good, though, and will give you a better idea of what it's like.  It's like looking up into the sky at midnight when you are out in the open away from artificial lighting!  I am dying to get this onto my fingers, and the wait is really depressing me.  A friend suggested swatching these polishes onto swatching sticks/wheels, but I WANT TO SEE THEM ON MY NAILS!  Please pray that my nails will hurry up and grow out so that I can start painting them again.

The last polish in this section is "And My Axe", which unfortunately is no longer available.  It is a beautiful brown jelly, loaded with copper, gold, pink and holographic glitter of various sizes and shapes. It truly is a unique polish, and it's a shame that it has disappeared from the site, because once I'd received it I would have loved to have bought another bottle.  I'm going to see if I can talk Theresa into bringing it back sometime soon.

Now to the next four polishes, which are from the second purchase that I'm featuring today:

 

 

The first of these polishes is "Tiffany" (which is the name of my other cat), and is a polish that Theresa added to my order as a special thank you gift, and to cheer me up.  Apparently it was a polish she made for her friends for Christmas, and I'm sure, if I was one of her friends who received it, I would have gone into raptures, and would immediately declare Theresa as my BFF, because that is how I felt the moment I saw it.  It is a beautiful red/gold microglitter, holographic colour-shifting polish, and is mind-blowing. I haven't been able to stop looking at this polish since I opened my package, and my husband kept laughing at me, because I kept picking it up and moving it about under the light, and/or in the sunlight, and saying "I can't believe someone would be so kind as to give me this!", or "OMG! This is soooooo AWESOME!" The pictures above were taken in natural light, but here are a few other photos I took under artificial light to try to give you a better idea of it's beauty:

  

As you can see, this one was a very hard one to catch the real effect of on camera.  I just wish everyone could have a bottle of this amazing polish.  You really have to see it to believe it!  Thank you so much, Theresa.  You made my day!!!!

The second polish in this section is "Love's Bouquet", described as "a deep purple jelly full of violet, fuchsia, red, garnet, lilac and purple glitters in various sizes."  This one is so gorgeous, and the flashes of colour when you move the bottle are fabulous, but it also is on the discontinued list, and is on special, so check it out on the site before it disappears forever.  Don't miss out, now!  Be quick and check out the beautiful swatches on the site so you can get a better idea of its true beauty!

The next polish in this section is "You Have My Bow", which is from the "Fellowship Collection", and Theresa describes it as "inspired by Legolas Greenleaf and named after the pledge he makes to Frodo that begins the fellowship. This jelly has a leaf green base and is packed with different green glitters in hexes, triangles and dots as they represent both woods of the elves and his last name, and a sprinkle of small gold glitter to represent his blond hair."  This is the green jelly polish that I wish I'd had for St Patrick's Day (if I'd been able to do nail art for St Patrick's Day sigh!).  The green is sooooo green, it's like looking at the clover in your backyard lawn just after the rain, with the sunshine reflecting off the raindrops on the leaves.  It also appears to be going to disappear soon, because it, too, is on special, so you must grab this one if you love to celebrate St Pat's Day!  I'm sure you'll regret it if you miss out, so don't wait too long!

And the last polish I have to show you today is just wonderful.  It's called "Trudi", and is another beautiful explosion of glitter in an amazing jelly polish.  Theresa describes this one as "a deep magenta jelly base with Fuchsia diamonds and dots, orange hex and gold squares and large dots."  I couldn't believe the colour of this one when I saw it, and it just blew my mind!  The different size and shape of the glitters are so amazing, and I fell in love AGAIN!  You really should check out the photos on the site to get a better idea of just how beautiful this polish is.

I really don't know how Theresa comes up with such beautiful polishes time after time after time, and I didn't think she could top the ones she already has on her site, but she has just proven me wrong.  Her latest collection, the Fireside Collection, is so fabulous it set my heart beating the minute I saw the teaser swatches on the Grace-full Nail Polish Fan Group page on Facebook. (You really should join this group if you want to find out what's coming up.  It is a closed group, so only members can get to see the sneak previews, etc, but it's very easy to join).  Then, when Theresa finally showed us the official release photo of the set, ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE in the group, I think, fell completely and utterly in love with them all.  I have purchased the whole collection, and they may well be the first lot of polishes I review when my nails are ready to be polished again.  So, keep an eye out, or better still, check them out right now at Grace-full Nail Polish "Fireside Collection".  If you do end up buying some of Theresa's polish, please let her know that you heard about her site on my blog, and also let your nail art friends know about her site, too.  It doesn't get me anything at all, except the pleasure of introducing someone else to some of the most beautiful polishes available, and to think they come from my beautiful home state of Tasmania makes me so proud.

Well, that's all for today.  I'm sure these photos will give you all something to think and talk about, and I hope you love all these polishes as much as I do.  Since discovering Aussie Indie Polish makers online I've become even more addicted, if that is at all possible.  At the moment just about every one of them is putting out new collections, and trying to choose which one to buy now, and which ones I can wait a pension day or two for, is very, very hard. 

I will try to show you some photos of my new polishes as they arrive, and of course, Mother's Day and my birthday are both coming up soon, so who knows?  Maybe I'll be blessed with some more wonderful polish.  My nails are growing slowly, are looking quite good, and I only have one more week of this first 28-day treatment program, so I may even be able to try to swatch some polish next week.  It will depend how strong they are.  If they are still too weak, I'm going to wait a week or so and then repeat the program for another month.  I would rather suffer from withdrawal a bit longer than risk damaging my nails again by starting swatching and/or doing nail art too soon.  I must say that retail therapy has helped a bit, but having all these beautiful polishes just sitting here looking at me, and begging me to try them out, is driving me quite spare.  Oh, well, better to be sure than sorry.

I hope you'll come back soon to see what else I have to show you, and that you will let your friends know about my blog. You may follow my blog if you so wish by filling in the boxes on the top right-hand side of the page.

Have a wonderful week, and God bless you all.

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 showing you these polishes.
 I bought them all with my own money, except for the two cheer-up gifts, and my opinions are given freely and without bias.

My Manicure for 1 March 2015

Today I have a full "skittle" manicure to show you, which happened by accident, because I only intended to put the pink polish on 3 nails on each hand, but I was watching TV while I was doing my mani, and before I knew what I'd done, I had pink polish on all five fingers on my left hand.  So, I just went ahead and did my other hand, but then added other polishes to my thumbs, index and pinky nails, mainly because I didn't like the color or finish of the pink nail polish on my nails, but also because I wanted to feature the Moonstone polish "Sample 10" on my middle fingers.

Photo taken in shade.

Products used:  Revlon Quick Dry Base and Top Coats, OPI "Pink-ing Of You" , Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear "Golden-I", Moonstone "Sample 10", Savvy "High Voltage", L.A. Colors Color Craze "Tinsel", and China Glaze "Bridezilla".

I started with one coat of base coat to every nail, then one coat of OPI "Pink-ing Of You" to every nail.  It was at this stage I had realised that I was supposed to be doing a "skittlette" manicure, with a feature nail and another nail with a different colour on it. (Big BOO BOO that!!!)  I then added another coat of "Pink-ing Of You" to my thumb, index and pinky nails.  However, I still did not have full coverage, so I added another coat, but still the coverage was patchy.  The polish is very thin, and not easy to work with.  It was very hard to stop it from looking patchy no matter how careful I was. That was when I decided to do a full "skittle" mani to cover up the patchiness by adding three different glitters/toppers to the pink nails, hence the "skittle" instead of the "skittlette" manicure.

Next, I added two coats of "Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear "Golden-I" to my ring fingers.  This polish is sooooooo beautiful, and I almost got full cover with just one coat, but used two for this mani, and because it is over a coat of pink, the effect is gorgeous, with just a tinge of pink showing through.  The finish is beautifully smooth and shimmery, and it went on like a dream. I will definitely be using this polish a lot in the future when I want a golden nail, or for stencils and/or nail art, and will have to go out and find another bottle before they decide to take it off the market (I hope they haven't already), because the bottle is only 11.8ml, so it probably will not last very long.

Then I added two coats of Moonstone "Sample 10" to my middle fingers.  This is a colour that, unfortunately, is no longer available, and Caitlin (the owner and maker of Moonstone polish) told me she has lost the formula, so she can't make any more.  When I first received this polish in the mail, I was so blown away by it that I went straight back to the site and bought the last bottle Caitlin had, and have since bought several more.  It is a beautiful, very, very pale blue crelly, loaded with heaps of gold and holographic micro-glitter; gold, hot pink and pink tiny, round glitter; small white square glitter; and larger pink hexagonal glitter.  It was wonderful to work with, and looked gorgeous over the one coat of pink underneath, even with just one coat, but I wanted to get the full crelly effect, so I used two coats for this manicure.  It went on smoothly, and two coats was more than enough to achieve the effect I wanted.  It looks like milky jelly with layers and layers of different glitters (see the close-up below).

My next job was to try to cover up the patchy pink polish, so I went searching through my glitter polishes and toppers and found three that completely transformed the OPI "Pink-ing Of You" to something beautiful.

The first one, which I added to my thumb nails, was Savvy "High Voltage".  It is an amazing glitter polish, loaded with gold and holographic micro-glitter (and I mean LOADED), as well as heaps of small pink and gold hexagonal glitter.  It can be used on its own, with two coats giving good coverage, but I just wanted to add a little extra to cover up the flaws in the pink polish underneath, so only used the one coat.  It was lovely to work with, and no fishing around in the bottle was needed to find the glitter. It was like adding a light smear of gold leaf with flashes of pink and gold glitter, and the shimmer effect is just beautiful.

The second glitter/topper polish I used was L.A. Colors Color Craze "Tinsel", which I added to my pinky fingers.  It is a pink jelly polish, with lots of pink and holographic micro-glitter, and larger pink and holographic hexagonal glitters.  Just one coat smothered the pink with a slightly richer, pink jelly layer that sparkles like diamonds.  It's just gorgeous in real life.

The last glitter I used is a sheer, pale pink polish with lots of holographic shimmer from China Glaze.  It's called "Bridezilla", and is simply beautiful.  It can be used on its own by using two or three coats, but even then it is very sheer, so I prefer to use it as a pink shimmer topper, and the effect is stunning.  This would work over almost any light or dark colour, and I can't wait to try it over black one day (SIGH!).

Overall, what could have been a disaster, because of the bad performance of the OPI "Pink-ing Of You", turned out to be a lovely skittle manicure, IMVHO.  I'm really happy with the result, and here are some pictures for you.

 

 

Both photos taken inside.

   

First photo taken in shade, second taken in sun.

  

The first photo is a close-up of Moonstone "Sample 10", the second one of the whole mani in the sun.

As a follow-up to last week's mani, by the time I took my polish off yesterday, 6 days from when I put it on, there was hardly any wear anywhere except the tips, which had only worn because I am constantly typing on my computer.  It left no stains on my nails, and came off very easily.  I am just so thrilled with all the Superficially Colorful polishes I have tried so far, and I can't wait to try another one from the "Remants Of Winter Collection".

 
Thank you for visiting my blog, and I hope you'll come back often to see what I have to share with you.  I have no idea what I'll have to show you next, but I will try to make it as interesting as possible.

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. All polishes mentioned in this blog were purchased by me, and I was not paid in any way for my reviews.

Before and After Photos of My Nails, Manicure for 23 February 2015, and Polish Review*

Hello once again!  Today I have some photos of how my nails are coming along since I started my blog, my manicure for this week, and a review* of the polish I used.  Firstly, the photos of my bare nails BEFORE and NOW.
 

BEFORE (19 October 2014)

NOW (24 February 2015)

When I saw the two photos side by side I couldn't believe the difference.  Admittedly, some of my nails have pulled even further away from the nail bed, but otherwise they are a lot stronger, and in much better condition than they were when I first started my blog.  It just goes to show what a little TLC, and lots of time and effort, can do when you put your mind to it.  It's been a long time, and I still have a long way to go to see if my nails will really recover properly, or if I'm going to be left with nails lifted off the nail bed down the side, etc permanently.  At least they look OK with polish over them, and the colour is a lot better.  I apologise for the horrible looking hands, but that is a result of losing a lot of weight and old age (I'm 66), and excess skin does not disappear and shrink back - it just sits there and looks horrible and wrinkly.  I lost 15 kg after 2 foot operations 4 years ago, and this is the result. So don't let these weight loss people tell you that you can immediately look wonderful after you lose a lot of weight.  I have excess flab all over my body, arms and legs that is just sitting there looking ghastly.  I'd love to know how these people in the weight-loss promos look so wonderful - they must all have cosmetic surgery to remove all the excess skin.

Now, on to this week's manicure and the review.

The polish I am wearing this week is another Superficially Colorful polish called "Turbulence", which is from Jin's "Remnants of Winter" Collection.  Jin describes it on her site as "a dark violet-pink with a hint of color shift of blue, red and gold. Not a multi-chrome, just an undecided color that changes with the light. Inspired by the unquiet air, the faraway lightning storms and the clouds colliding and leaving."

 

Photos taken in shade (click for closer view)

I started with a coat of Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat, then two coats of "Turbulence" to all my fingers, and added a coat of Savvy "Purple Viking" to my middle fingers.  I then added a gold decal to my index fingers, bought from echofairyland on eBay, and finished with a single coat of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat to all fingers except my index fingers, on which I used two coats as extra protection for the decal.

"Turbulence" is another amazing polish from Superficially Colorful.  It went on like a dream, and two thin coats were more than enough to give full coverage.  It dries with a semi-gloss finish, with some micro-glitter scattered throughout, so it has a slightly rough, textured finish.  Jin mentioned on her site that it really needs a top coat to get the best effect, and she is correct. Once the top coat was applied the finish was lovely and smooth.  The colour was beautiful without the top coat but, once I added it, the effect just bowled me over.  It is so hard to describe, because it changes with the light, and with each movement of your hand.  One minute it's purple, then it's burgundy, then it gets a dark blue shift, and then you'll see just a shimmer of pink/violet. You can just make out the little bit of glitter in it if you look carefully (it shows up really well in the sun).  What looks like stains on my fingers right next to the nails is just a reflection from the polish.  That's how strong the colour is.  The extra glitter from "Purple Viking" is very obvious in the sun and the close-up swatches below.  I really didn't need to add the coat of Savvy "Purple Viking" to my middle nails, but I usually do a skittlette manicure, so I added it anyway, and the colour matched "Turbulence" perfectly and gave it that little bit of extra pizzazz.

All in all, I think Jin has got another winner with this polish, and I suggest you head over to Superficially Colorful right now to check it out, and all of Jin's other polishes while you're there.  I haven't been disappointed with any of the ones I've tried so far, although I know I had my misgivings about "Don't Leave Me This Way" last week (mentioned in my review of the "Troubled Love" collection last week). However, the longer I had it on my nails, the more I grew to love it.  I had so many compliments from people who saw it, and it lasted 9 (yes NINE) whole days, with very minimal wear, so I am extremely impressed with the quality of the polish. 

Here are some more photos I took, and the colours are very close to what they look like in real life, but it is so subtle that it was hard to get all the different colours to show up. My hubby bought me my first smart phone the other day (Samsung Galaxy S4 i9505), and it arrived yesterday, so I was able to take the photos using it.  It has speech control for the camera (awesome), so it made it so easy to take the photos myself.  All I have to do is say "SHOOT", and it takes the photo.  Although, because it only seems to take the photo if it hears the "T" clearly, there is probably another word that would work if things are not going right LOL!  You can see the detail so clearly in the photos that I'm afraid it showed up some bits of polish and glitter I missed with my clean-up.  I'm going to have to be ultra-careful when I do them in future so that doesn't happen again :)  Now I just have to wait for my sim card to arrive and then learn how to use it properly.

Photos taken in sun (click for closer view)

  

Photos taken inside (click for closer view)

Thank you for visiting my blog, and I hope you enjoyed your visit.  I don't know what I'll do next, so you'll have to come back again to find out.  I've finally worked out how to add the gadget that allows people to follow my blog, so if you want to do so, don't forget to fill it out.  It's on the top right-hand corner of the page.

God bless you, and have a wonderful day!

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog, too.)

Words of Life and Hope

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

*Polish reviewed and all other items mentioned were purchased by myself and I received no payment for my comments.

 dark violet-pink with a hint of color shift of blue, red and gold. Not a multi-chrome, just an undecided color that changes with the light. Inspired by the unquiet air, the faraway lightning storms and the clouds colliding and leaving. - See more at: https://sclacquer.com/shop/remnants-of-winter/turbulence#sthash.WhVZ4wJX.dpuf

a dark violet-pink with a hint of color shift of blue, red and gold. Not a multi-chrome, just an undecided color that changes with the light. Inspired by the unquiet air, the faraway lightning storms and the clouds colliding and leaving. - See more at: https://sclacquer.com/shop/remnants-of-winter/turbulence#sthash.WhVZ4wJX.dpuf

a dark violet-pink with a hint of color shift of blue, red and gold. Not a multi-chrome, just an undecided color that changes with the light. Inspired by the unquiet air, the faraway lightning storms and the clouds colliding and leaving. - See more at: https://sclacquer.com/shop/remnants-of-winter/turbulence#sthash.WhVZ4wJX.dpuf

Manicure for 4 February 2015 - Not Happy, Jan!

Firstly, I'd like to say sorry for not showing you my nail polish stashes that I received last week as promised, but I put them all away, and they all got muddled up with my other polishes before I remembered I was supposed to be photographing them for my blog.  OOOPS!!!

Now to this week's mani.  After looking at the photos my hubby took for me today, I have to say that I have a lot to learn about the art of cleaning up my manicures.  My cuticles and the side of my nails look dreadful, so I'm going to have to do some research and see if I can find any tutorials to show me how to do it properly.  However, despite the horrible cuticles, etc, I've decided to show you my first mani for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month - featuring the color "teal".

Products used are:  OPI Natural Nail Base Coat; Revlon Top Speed Fast Dry Nail Enamel Spirit, the white polish on my index and ring fingers; Essie Beach Bum Blu, the teal blue shimmer on my pinky and thumb nails; and LYZ Cosmetics Fairybread Nail Polish Mermaid's Voice, the first Australian Indie nail polish I have used, on my middle finger. I also used Savvy Teal and a stencil from Smart Nails (see photo above) to do the OCA ribbon design on my ring fingers, and two different shape and size teal blue rhinestone decals, bought through AliExpress, on my index fingers. Then I finished it off with one coat of OPI Top Coat on all nails except the nails with the decals, where I used two coats..

Mermaid's Voice was one of the two polishes in the December Sweet Surprise Box I purchased from Fairybread Nail Polish.  They put out a Sweet Surprise Box every month which has two polishes in it, and all you see in the listing is the name of the polishes and two photos which give you a clue to what type and colour polishes you may receive.  It is such a lovely surprise to get when you open the packaging.  So, in case you decide you want to purchase the December box (it is still available on the site), or one of the other boxes on offer, I won't tell you what the other colour I received is.  But I can assure you it is beautiful.  My photo doesn't do Mermaid's Voice polish justice, though.  It is a soft teal base, with heaps of teal and pink small and medium hexagon glitter, and lashings of microglitter, and looks particularly beautiful in the sun or under artificial light.  I used 2 coats of Mermaid's Voice on my middle fingers, and got good coverage, but I'm still trying to work out whether I should have used it as a top coat or on its own. It looks beautiful in the sun, and in the shade, but I couldn't catch it properly in my photo.

I'm afraid to say that I do not like the Revlon Top Speed Spirit I used on my index and ring fingers.  It was hard to get good coverage and, even after three coats and a top coat, I still couldn't get a smooth finish. I certainly won't be using it as a base for any nail art again.  It may be good for stencils and dotting, etc. though, so I'm sure I'll find a use for it sometime.

The Essie Beach Bum Blu is a beautiful, bright teal blue shimmer, and it went on very well, but it took 3 coats to get full coverage, because it is a fairly thin polish.  Unfortunately, though, after I put the top coat over it, the polish on my right thumb bubbled, so it looks awful.  However, the other three nails I used it on are just fine. So it really has me puzzled.  Also, I have no idea what the white mark is on my thumb nail in the photo, as it's definitely not on my nail.  All I can think is that it must have been a trick of the light at the time.

The Savvy Nail PolishTeal  I used for the stencil came out a lot darker than it looked in the bottle, which was disappointing, because I thought it would be just a bit darker than the Essie.  However, the SMARTnails Stencils were amazing.  They stuck to my nails really well, without being TOO sticky, and I had no trouble with smudging when I removed them.  However, when I put my top coat over my middle nails, the ribbon smudged badly on my left hand (I obviously put too much pressure on it, because it was very, very dry, and shouldn't have smudged.  It smudged very slightly on my right hand when I virtually just waved the brush over it with the top coat, but nowhere near as badly, and that is why you are seeing my right hand instead of my left, which is actually my preferred hand to photograph because it is my non-dominant hand, and the nails are actually better to look at with regard to shape and length.

When attaching the rhinestone decals, I dabbed a little top coat where I wanted them to go, picked them up with a wax pencil and placed them on my index nails. I then put two coats of top coat over them to hold them in place.

Overall, I'm pleased with the actual colour and design of the manicure, but I just wished my nails looked neater, and that the photo showed the colours better.  I really am going to have to work on both of these aspects of my manicures, because it really upsets me when I see how bad they look compared to others on the web.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and that you have enjoyed my reviews and my manicure.  I hope you will come back often to see what I have to show you, and check out the beautiful, exciting hand-made nail polishes at LYZ Cosmetics Fairybread Nail Polish, the fabulous nail art stencils at SMARTnails, and the wonderful array of nail art supplies available at AliExpress.  You will be very pleasantly surprised if you haven't discovered these sites yet.

God bless you!

Hugs

Christine

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

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

Manicure for 26 January 2015 - Australia Day!

It was Australia Day on Monday, so I decided to do a red, white and blue manicure with Australian Flags on my middle fingers. Sorry it doesn't show very clearly in the photo,

I started with one coat of OPI Natural Nail Base Coat.  I then painted my middle finger with three coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White. This colour was not easy to work with, and even with the three coats, I wasn't really happy with the coverage but, because I was going to put a transfer on those fingers, I decided to leave it on.
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Next, I painted my thumb and pinky nails with 3 coats of MUD Deep Blue Sea.  I found this polish to be very, very thin, and even with 3 coats it was still very patchy, so I decided to cover it with glitter (details below).  I followed this with 2 coats of Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine Luminous, which I can honestly say I have fallen in love with, to my index and ring fingers.  It went on like a dream, and if I'd been putting anything else on the nail I could have just used one coat, but decided to do 2 because I wanted it to look great!  The colour is so rich, and one of the most beautiful reds I've come across so far in my nail art journey.  I know I will be using this again and again, if I can continue to get it once my bottle runs out.  I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for any on sale.

Now to the glitter, Avon Opal, which I'm absolutely drooling over.  The photo doesn't do it credit, because it is the most amazing clear-based iridescent glitter, which really looks like you have placed shards of opal all over your nail.  One coat was all I needed to get this much cover, and the glitter is right through the polish and hadn't sunk at all, so I didn't have to go fishing for it.  The finish was a bit rough, but a good thick coat of top coat soon fixed that. I think I'll be buying some more of this next time it's on special at Avon, just in case they take it off the market.  I might even buy two bottles, because I think I'll be using this one a lot, it is just sooooooo beautiful!

I then covered all my nails with one coat of OPI Top Coat, which is still my top coat of choice.  Then I placed a transfer of the Australian Flag in the shape of a heart to each of my middle nails.  This was my first time using transfers, and I actually found these easier to work with than stickers, because stickers have got a habit of grabbing on before I have them exactly where I want them.  They are just so sticky, but I guess I'll get used to them after I've used them more.  I have lots of both transfers and stickers, so will be using these a lot in the future.  I then applied one more coat of OPI Top Coat to my middle fingers over the transfers, which actually caused a bit of a disaster.  On my left hand, I was a little heavy-handed with the brush when applying the top coat, and the colour smudged.  On my right hand, the one in the picture, of course, I just sort of waved the brush over it with a rather thick glob of polish on the brush, and it turned out fine.  So, another lesson learned through trial and error.  And, you know how the saying goes, one should learn something new every day or it has been wasted.  I've certainly not been wasting my manicure days, I can assure you, because I learn something new each time I do a new manicure.

I have been inundated with new polishes this week, but haven't yet got any photos of them, so can't show them to you yet, but I will as soon as possible.  They all turned up at the same time yesterday (Tuesday) - some were brand new Indies (YAY!!! Finally got some!), some were mainstreams I'd ordered online from BuyInvite last month, and the rest were from someone destashing, which only cost me postage.  I can't thank her enough, because she ended up sending me 13 polishes, and I was only expecting 6 or 7.  If she reads this, she'll know who I'm talking about, so thank you so much, Brianna.

I finally got my Konad stamper yesterday, too (the postman was overloaded with packages for me - 6 all-up for the day), so I might try experimenting with some stamping again and see how it works.  I hope it does, because otherwise I'm giving up on stamping forever.  There are so many other wonderful things I can do with my nail without resorting to stamping, so it really won't be a loss.  I love the look, though, and I've got some wonderful stamping plates, so I'm going to give it one more try.

Well, that's it from me for another week.  I hope you'll come back and visit often, or even follow me through G+ or email, because I've finally worked some more of the gadgets out for blogging on Blogger, so more learning as I go.  I'll work it all out eventually, and hopefully my hubby and I will be able to get some better results with our photos, too.  We're still trying to figure out the best place in the house, or outside, to take them, and what to use as a background.

So, God bless you, and have a wonderful week!

Hugs

Christine

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

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

Manicure for 17 January 2015 - Very Disappointing!

 

Above you can see this week's manicure, and to say the least, I am extremely disappointed with it.  I thought I would give Seche Vite another go for my top coat, in case the problems I had last time I used it were because of incompatibility with the polish I used, but I wish I hadn't used it again!  As you can see, after only 2 days (and in actual fact the morning after I did my manicure), the polish had started shrink back from the tips and bases of my nails, and a hard edge had formed along the side of some of the nails, instead of being lovely and smooth like the other top coats I've used in the past.  All I can say is, I will only use Seche Vite again if I plan to only leave my manicure on for a day or so, e.g. if I am doing a review of polishes for someone, etc.  If I want one that lasts, I'll use something else.  Oh, well, one learns from one's mistakes, but I'm upset because this was my first time doing an ombre manicure, and I was hoping it would work out as well as it looked before I put the top coat on.

The polishes I used for this manicure were from a Fing'rs EDGE OMBRE Nail Polish boxed set of 5 different mini purple nail polishes.  The set came with a bit of sponge, too, so that I could do a sponge ombre manicure if I wanted to, and I might try it in the near future.  I'm sorry the colours didn't come out quite right in the photo, because they really are so rich and pretty. We're still experimenting with how to get the best results with our different cameras we have in the house, but I'm still not happy with the way the colours turn out.  I'll have to try some different lighting experiments and see if we can find something that gives better results.

I started with a coat of OPI Ridge Filler Base Coat, followed by a coat of OPI Natural Nail Base Coat.  The individual bottles in this set didn't have names for the colours, but you can see what shade I used on each nail, so it doesn't really matter.  All the polishes went on beautifully, and I only needed 2 coats to get lovely even coverage.  I then added one coat of Sinful Colors I Miss You glitter polish, which looks lovely under some lighting, but not so bright indoors in natural light.  The glitter in the bottle is a lovely tiny silver and holographic purple in a purple base, which was pretty transparent, but you could probably get full cover with 3 coats.  I might try this sometime and see how it turns out.

Next, I added 3 different shaped and sized gold decals to my ring fingers that I bought on eBay from echofairyland.  They have an amazing selection of Nail Art products, and their prices are amazing, so I can definitely recommend them.  Then, finally, as you already know, I added a coat of Seche Vite to all my nails, and another coat to the nails on my ring fingers.  No more need be said on that subject.  I think I covered it all at the beginning of my post.

The colours in the set look wonderful together, and I'll definitely be trying another ombre with them in the future, but with a different top coat.  I wasn't too sure how they would look before I started, so it really was an experiment to see what an ombre manicure looks like on MY nails, instead of on someone else's nails online.  I was a bit nervous before I started, as I always am when I'm trying something new.

Now to the other disaster that occurred while doing this manicure.  I had intended to do some stamping on my feature nails, but the two different stampers I already have, which I received in stamping sets, just don't work.  One came with my Salon Express Nail Stamping Kit, and the other one came with some stamping plates I bought online.  I tried using some stamping polishes that came with the stamping machine I bought to try (silly me), but they dried on the plates before I could even get the stamp on the plate.  So, I tried a couple of different nail polishes, but still no luck.  They aren't very soft, so that could be part of the problem, but even using the nail polish I barely got any of the image onto the stamper.  I tried a few different plates from different brands, but still no image.  So, I had to give up on that idea and I'll have to go back to the drawing board on that issue.  I'm going to try again with different polishes, and if I still can't get them to work, I'll buy a new stamper.  I even tried two different types of scraper, and an old credit card, but they didn't work either.  Altogether, the whole experiment was a disaster, and I was so looking forward to having a lovely design on my nails to show you.

I've also received my first request to do a review of some Indie nail polishes, which is a real thrill for me.  I didn't think anyone would ever ask me to, and I was really surprised when they said they wanted me to do some, and that they would send me their new collection to review.  I won't spoil the surprise by telling you the name of the polishes, so if you want to find out what they are and who they were made by, you'll have to check back in a few weeks (or earlier if they don't take too long to arrive).  It is not an Australian Indie polish, which is another reason I was so surprised that I was asked to do the reviews.

So, that's it for another week. I hope you'll come back often to see what I have to share with you, and you can now choose to follow me if you want to do so.  The links are on the top, right-hand side of the page.

God bless you, and have a wonderful week.

Hugs

Christine

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

Words of Life and Hope

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

My New Year's Eve 2014 Manicure

I've just realised that I haven't blogged about my New Year's Eve manicure yet.  I've been so busy, that I forgot all about it. So, here it is!

I decided to use the China Glaze "Unforgettable Collection" I received in the mail the day before, which I thought was really gorgeous and would make a great New Year's Eve mani.  The colors included in the set are:  Platinum Silver, Liquid Leather (black), Bridezilla (pale pink shimmer), White On White, and Nova (holographic glitter in a clear base). Here's a photo of the collection.

I started with one coat OPI Natural Base Coat, which is still my favourite.  It hasn't let me down once when I've used it, so I'll be keeping an eye out for it on special for sure.  Next I added two coats of Platinum Silver to my pinkies (two coats was all I needed for great coverage), two coats of Liquid Leather to my ring fingers (2 coats also ample here), three coats of White On White to my thumbs and middle fingers (which was still didn't give the cover I would have liked), 4 coats of Bridezilla to my index fingers (I think I should have added a pink nude under this, or some other pale colour), and one coat of Nova to my ring fingers over the Black Leather.  Then I added some quirky cat stickers I picked up online some time ago (can't remember where - AliExpress, I think), and I love them.  I adore cats (have two of my own), so I will most likely be featuring cat-themed nails quite a bit :)

I finished off with one coat of my OPI Top Coat, which I still think is better than Seche Vite if you don't want any shrinkage of your polish, and you want your manicure to last more than a couple of days.  The OPI dries quickly, and leaves a great shiny finish.  Seche Vite dries your manicure faster, but as I usually have plenty of time, I won't be using it very often.  I certainly don't think I'll be replacing it after I've used it all (I've still got a large bottle to go). I'll only use it if I need my mani to dry extra quickly. As usual, I will add another layer of top coat every other day to freshen it up and keep it on longer.

As you will notice, the tip of my index finger is still showing where the nail lifted off the nail-bed down the side of my nail because of the chemo earlier in the year (see just under my logo).  My other index finger is the same, and so are several of my other nails.  In fact, my left index finger is actually looking worse each time I take my polish off.  I'm praying it is not going to come off completely.  I'm hoping they will all grow out normally, but I don't know if they will or not.  I know a lot of people get permanent damage from chemotherapy.

Also, on Saturday evening I banged my lovely middle fingernail, shown in the photo, which I have been nurturing along for months and months, and took a great chunk out of it, so I had to file it right back.  I nearly cried, because now the nail looks all lopsided as the break was so far down my nail.  The cat on that nail now has part of his tail and bottom missing.  I immediately covered it all with another coat of OPI Top Coat, and hopefully it will last until Tuesday, when I intend doing my nails again.  The reason it broke instead of flexing is because the top half of my nails are still so very fragile because of the chemotherapy damage, and still look brown and ugly without any polish on them.  I file a tiny bit back each time I do my nails, so they are slowly growing out, and I guess I'll just have to be patient.  My middle finger on my right hand is still being held together using the "tea bag patch" method because the tip is threatening to come off at any time.  The patches are working well each time I do them, though, so I can definitely recommend it as a solution if you have a split in your nail.  I just couldn't rescue the other one because it broke right off.  BUMMER!!!!

The only polish I didn't particularly like in this collection was the White On White.  It went on very patchily, and was hard to get full coverage, even with three coats. The other colours were lovely to use, and went on very smoothly.  I particularly like the Liquid Leather, which is a black polish I'll be going back to time and time again, I think.  It went on so smoothly, two coats were more than enough, and the finish was really glossy.  I just love it!    I'm still struggling to get the stickers to go where I want them to on my nails, though, so a couple of them are a bit crooked.  The trouble is they are just so darn sticky :).  I'm going to try water transfers next time and see how they go.

Well, that's me for another week.  God willing, I'll be back again next week (if not before) with my next mani, and I hope the New Year is a great one for you and your loved ones.  Have a great week!

Hugs

Christine

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

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

I have nothing to declare - all polishes were from my personal stash, all bought and paid for by me.

Another Christmas Manicure 14 December 2014

Sorry it's been a while (12 days, I see), but I had another disaster this week.

My last manicure lasted 9 whole days with virtually no damage at all.  I was amazed, but I didn't want to bore you with more photos of it. However, I stuffed up royally with my manicure for this week first time around, so I had to take it all off and start again, after I had slept on it and worked out what I had done wrong.

So, today I have a Christmas-themed skittle manicure (with each nail completely different).  Here's the best photo I could get of it - although it still doesn't really do it justice,  it's pretty close.  I love the colours of all the polishes I used, and will certainly be using them again.

I started with 1 coat of Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Base Coat.  I then added 2 coats of Colours by TBN "Dancing In The Forest" on my pinkies, 3 coats of Revlon Brilliant Strength "Hypnotize" on my ring fingers (although 2 coats would probably have been enough), 3 coats of OPI "Alpine Snow" on my middle fingers and thumbs, and 2 coats of ulta3 "scarlet" on my index fingers. I found the OPI "Alpine Snow" rather hard to work with and, if I hadn't been adding glitter and stripes to the nails I used it on, I would have had to add another coat to get a smooth finish.  The other polishes were all really easy to work with, and I only added the third coat on the gold nail to add intensity to the colour.  This is a gold that I will be using a lot, I'm sure, because it is just so easy to use, and looks so amazing.  I think it would be great for stamping and/or water marble manicures, too.

Once my polishes had all dried, I placed strips of masking tape and striping tape on my thumbs. I then added one coat of ulta3 "scarlet" over the nail, quickly removing the tapes before the polish dried.  I'm afraid I wasn't very happy with the way the stripes turned out, because there were a few spots where I obviously hadn't pressed the tape down firmly enough, especially on the edges of my nails.  I discovered last night, after I had finished it, a tip suggesting that I use a coat of top coat on my nail before doing the striping, and I'll try that next time. However, as a first time striping job (where I painted over them instead of using them as the stripes), I am reasonably happy with it.   I then added 2 coats of KBShimmer "Kringle All The Way" to my ring fingers, and 2 coats of ulta3 "disco fever" to my index fingers.  I had to fish around for some large glitter with the KBShimmer, but there is heaps of different-sized glitter in the bottle (red, green and silver in different sizes, and tiny holographic glitter throughout), so it wasn't hard to get some large ones.  The ulta3 red glitter was really easy to use, and also has plenty of glitter.

Finally, I applied 1 coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (Yay! I finally got some!) to each nail, and I'm thrilled to bits with the finish it has given to my nails.  It covered all the glitter beautifully, and dried my manicure so quickly I couldn't believe it.  I will be interested to see how long my manicure lasts with this as my top coat.  I'll be adding another coat, as usual, every other day, and will let you know next time how well it goes.

The damage on my nails is still growing out, and I am nursing another break on my right thumb, but each week there is less of the horrible, dark-brown, fragile, flaking area on my tips left, and more of the lovely pink new growth at the base of my nails.  I am just filing a small amount off each week before I do my new manicure, and my nails are definitely getting a lot stronger each week since I started using the Jojoba oil at least twice a day. They seem to be growing faster, too, which is fantastic.  I'm also using Swisse "Hand Skin Nails" tablets, and I'm sure they have helped, too.

I've been having trouble finding a good, natural cuticle oil that uses Jojoba oil as a base that is a reasonable price, but have decided to make my own after I have used up all the treatments I've already bought.  I'm also having trouble finding a good, hydrating hand cream, but I've found some great recipes online, so I've decided to source all the products I need to make my own, and have also found a recipe for an exfoliating sugar hand scrub, and will be making some of that this week once I find some nice jars to put it in.

I'm amazed at how much information there is available about natural solutions to my hand care problems, and I have found suppliers and recipes for just about everything I need to make my own.  I am allergic to perfumed products, and also to a lot of the preservatives and other artificial additives cosmetic companies use in so many of their products.  It's hard to avoid some of them with my manicures, of course, but at least I can with the products I use every day on my skin and nails.

As I used 2 ulta3 polishes this week, I thought I'd mention the fantastic Christmas gift ideas they have available here in Australia this year.  My hubby bought me a wonderful ulta3 Advent Calendar full of mini nail polishes, and so far the colours have been amazing, and I haven't got any of the ones that I've opened the window for, so hopefully I won't have any of them.  There is also a cube of 18 full-size ulta3 polishes, and a large candy cane full of full-size polishes. I think they have a couple of other gift items, too, but I haven't discovered them yet.  Of course, I've put my order in to Santa for one (or more, perhaps) of them for Christmas.  There are some great Colours by TBN gift sets as well, and lots of others around the stores for other brands, so I'm hoping Santa gets the message and is feeling generous.

So, that's it for another week.  I hope you like what I've shared with you this week, and that you'll come back often to see what I've been up to.

God bless you, and peace be with you all!  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.

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.

Leopard Print Nail Art Design

Finally I'm able to bring you my nail art design for this week.  It didn't turn out exactly as I would have liked, but for a first leopard print attempt, I don't think it turned out too badly.

The mistake I made was trying to put too many spots on my small nails.  Next time I'll do one with less spots, and I think it should be much better.

The polishes I used were: OPI Natural Base Coat; Maybelline Color Show "Take It Off", which is a lovely beige, nude colour, for the background colour; Revlon Colorstay "Fall Mood", which is a beautiful cinnamon-coloured shimmer, for the spots; a black nail art pen to do the outlines on the spots; and I finished it all off with OPI Top Coat, which I will top up every other day for the week.  I used 2 coats of the Maybelline "Take It Off", which went on very easily. I just placed the spots randomly on my nails using the brush in the Revlon Colorstay "Fall Mood" bottle, as I didn't want the spots to be all the same size, and they were very easy to do, and then just one coat of OPI Top Coat.  It's the first time I've used a nail art pen, but I found it quite easy to use, as long as I kept the tip clean on the pen. All up, I was extremely happy with the way all these worked together.

The picture actually shows my right hand, which is my dominant hand, but I was quite pleased with the way it turned out using my left hand to do the details. I would have preferred to use a lighter background colour, but I didn't have one, so I bought one yesterday online at a bargain price, and another one at our local beauty supply store which was on special, so I shouldn't have this problem again :)

So, that's my nail art for this week.  I'll let you know how long it lasts in my next post, as usual.  Thanks for checking out my blog, 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.  OOOPS!!!!  I nearly forgot to tell you about an awesome competition that is on at Lucy's Stash.  Head on over to http://www.lucysstash.com/2014/11/lucy-s-stash-reader-appreciation-giveaway.html and check it out before it closes.  It's amazing what she has for prizes, and I'm certainly hoping I will win one of them.

Last Week's Mani After 8 Days

Sorry I'm late again this week, but I've had an awful week.  However, as promised, here is a photo of how last week's mani looked after 8 days.

 

As you can see, there has been some wear on the tips of some of the nails, and one of the gold decals came off the day before I took the photo, but I was amazed at how little damage there was after eight days.  This polish and top coat are definitely keepers.  Of course, you can see where my nails have started to grow out at the base of the nails, which is a good sign, I think, because it means that my nails are growing normally now.

When I went to do my mani on Tuesday night after taking this one off, I stuffed it up badly when I had nearly finished it, and I could have cried.  Also, a nail I had been nursing along that had a break in it finally gave up the ghost, so I had to file that back.  So, I will have to try again, and see if I can come up with something presentable.  I'll post my new mani as soon as I can.

I also found a great bargain online which I just had to grab - A Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat Professional Kit, which includes a 4 fl oz refill bottle of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat and a 0.5 fl oz bottle as well.  All this for just $45 AU, which is amazing value.  Over here in OZ the normal price would have been about $100 for a kit like this.  I just couldn't miss out on finally finding some Seche Vite that I could afford, because I haven't been able to find anywhere in Australia that sells it, and it will last me for ages.  So, at least something went right that day.  I can't show you a photo of the set I bought, because the sale has finished and I forgot to save a copy of it, but I will show it to you as soon as I receive my package.

Hopefully I will have my new mani to show you later today or tomorrow - if it works, of course!

Have a great day, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs

Christine

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

Words of Life and Hope

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