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.

My Retail Therapy Over Last Three Weeks - 18 April 2015

As promised, I have some photos to share with you of some of my retail therapy purchases over the last three weeks.  Some were ordered before that, but most have been bought since my nails got so badly damaged.  I am happy to report that my nails are slowly recovering, and the Revitanail products I'm using seem to be working really well, which is a huge relief.  However, it's probably going to be about 6 weeks before I can do any nail art, which is driving me insane.  Hence the retail therapy.

Firstly, I have a stash of new and used polish I bought from a friend I've made in the Just Nail Polish Sales (Australia) Facebook Group.  If you live in Australia, are mad about nail polish, and you haven't already joined this site, please check it out.  It is a fantastic group, everyone is so friendly and you can pick up some real bargains, and possibly even some polish you may have been searching everywhere for.

This stash is mainstream polishes, but they are all gorgeous.

Next, I'd like to show you two beautiful polishes I got from Emily de Molly, an Australian, 5-Free, Cruelty Free and Vegan Friendly, Indie Polish maker.  They owner, Hayley, can only directly ship to Australia from her online store, but she has several international suppliers who stock her products for those who live overseas.  Just check her "stockists" list for your nearest supplier.

These two gorgeous polishes are "Restless", which has a metallic teal base, with a mix of colour shifting shimmer, flakies and micro glitter, and apparently gives full coverage in two to three coats; and "Cosmic Forces", which is a dark purple/plum jelly with lavender holo dots and hex and pink dot glitter, in lots of different sizes.  You might have to fish for the larger dots because they tend to drop to the bottom of the bottle, but it will be well worth it for the results.  "Restless" is still available at the moment, but it is on the discontinued list, so you won't be able to get it for much longer.  

The bottles are sitting on some gorgeous cat nail vinyls, which unfortunately I cannot show you the details of because they don't show up in the photographs, but you can check them out here if you are interested.  They really are amazing, with 60 cat stickers and 30 cat stencils.  Each cat design has the reverse image as well, which is often not the case with nail stickers and/or transfers, etc.  Also, Hayley, was kind enough to include some lovely silver, square nail decals, shown in the photos, as a thank you gift.  I can't wait to see what she may have coming up for sale in the future.  I'd love to buy every single one of her polishes, but I simply couldn't afford to.  The range is awesome, and so are the colours and finishes.  Please check out Hayley's store, or one of her suppliers, real soon.  You won't be disappointed, I assure you.

Next, I have two beautiful polishes from ella+mila, another 5-Free, Cruelty Free and Vegan Friendly Indie Polish maker, this time from the USA.  They ship internationally, which was a real plus for me, and they are beautifully packaged.

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These two polishes are just gorgeous, and will be perfect used in the same manicure.  The one on the left is "Entice Me", from the "Dream Collection".  It is a beautiful dusky mauve, which just a hint of shimmer.  The one on the right is "Honeymoon Bliss", from the "Love Collection", a gorgeous very soft pinky/lavender polish.  It is very hard to describe, and I couldn't quite catch the colours on my camera.  They came in cute little boxes (shown in photo), and were very carefully packed so they wouldn't get damaged.  I can't wait to do a mani using these two beautiful colours.

The third lot I would like to show you are two amazing polishes from KBShimmer, an Indie Plolish company in the USA.  I bought these from "Harlow & Co", who ship to Australia, and I can definitely recommend this company. (Please excuse the cat hair in the photo - it is one of the inherent problems found when living with two cats, and I didn't notice it until I loaded it onto my blog.)

The polish on the left is "Goldie Rocks", a yellow gold metallic polish that has a linear holo sparkle.  It is absolutely gorgeous, and the photo doesn't really catch the holo effect, unfortunately, but you should get full cover in 2-3 coats.  The polish on the right is one I have been dreaming of getting ever since I first saw it blogged online - "Men Are From Mars-ala".  This is a wonderful earthy, red-brown shade which, when indoors, is rich and warm, and outdoors or in bright light features a linear holographic finish. The photo simply doesn't do this justice, as I couldn't pick up the amazing holo effect, but if you click on the name you will be taken to the "Harlow & Co" site where you can see fantastic photos and swatches of it.  These two colours would also be awesome used in the same mani, which is what I hope to do once my nails have recovered.

Well, that's it for today, but I will be back soon to show you some more of my recent purchases, especially the two lots I bought over the last couple of weeks from "Grace-full Nail Polish" in Tasmania, Australia.  They are absolutely amazing, and I want to do a special post on these in the next couple of days.  

Please let me know if you have enjoyed seeing the pictures of my recent purchases, and I hope you'll come back soon to see what I have to share with you.  You may follow my blog if you wish by filling in the boxes at the top right-hand side of the page.

Have a wonderful day, 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/

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/

My First Water Marble Manicure - 24 March 2015

Yesterday I did my first water marble manicure, and I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. 

Picture on left was taken inside under artificial light, and the one on the right was taken in the shade.

 
Please forgive the rough skin around my finger tips and cuticles, but my nails have had a pretty tough time over the last few days.  My index finger and my middle finger on my left hand, and my thumb on my right hand, all have patches on them.  They broke half-way down my nails - they have all pulled away from the nail bed down the side of the nails because of the chemotherapy damage, and they are still very thin and fragile there.  I still don't know whether this damage will be permanent, or if they will grow back onto the nail bed as the new nail growth comes through.  Only time will tell!  I went out today and bought some Revitanail "Strengthener", "Keratin Strengthening Serum", Nourishing Oil" and "Hand & Nail Cream".  They are on special at Terry White's Pharmacies, 3 items for the price of 2, this week (in Australia), and I'm going to start using them all as often as possible.  I'm afraid I haven't been following my own advice lately because I've been so busy, and have also been feeling really depressed and not at all motivated, so I have to start practicing what I preach again and try to get things back on track.

Now, on to my water marble manicure.  I started with 2 coats of Sally Hansen "Hard As Nails" strengthener because all my nails are so fragile, and I'm hoping this will help to keep them from breaking.  I got 6 bottles of it REALLY cheap before Christmas on eBay, but forgot I had it.  When my nails broke (after I'd stopped crying - literally), I started thinking about what strengthening base coats I had that I could use, and I remembered I had this.  So, God willing, I won't have any more breaks for a while.

I then added two coats of OPI "Alpine Snow" white cream polish to all my nails. I don't really like this polish because I need three coats to get a smooth finish, but because I was actually planning to do a plastic wrap marble manicure (tutorial here http://polishandpearls.com/watercolor-nails/ and elsewhere online), I just left it at two coats.  However, I couldn't get this manicure style to work with the polishes I wanted to use, so I decided to try an actual water marble instead (tutorial here http://www.beautybay.com/EssentialBeauty/Articles/watermarblenailstutorial and in many other places online). 

I then smeared Vaseline around all my nails and part-way up my fingers to make cleaning up a lot easier, because water marbling is very messy.  I had to be careful not to get any of the Vaseline on the actual nails, because it would have stopped the nail polish from going onto the nails.

Next, I filled my bowl with tepid water straight from the tap, and added drops of OPI "Alpine Snow" (white), Face of Australia Pastels "Boys 'N' Berries" (blue), OPI "Mod About You" (pale pink) and OPI "Planks A Lot" (lilac) (in this order).  I did this three times for each design (twelve drops in all), and then used a toothpick to make my design, following the above tutorial as a guide.  All the polishes spread over the water really well, which was great. I used a small glass bowl because I wanted to do all my nails at the same time, instead of individually or in pairs, which is the usual way it is done, because I was so frustrated that the other design hadn't worked and wanted to get it over and done with.  My design was a random one, instead of any particular design, in which I just swirled the colours around and through each other until I was happy with the distribution of the colours.  Then I just dipped all five fingers of my left hand in the bowl at once, and repeated all this with the other hand.

I finished off my manicure with one coat of Revlon "Quick Dry Top Coat", which gave me a beautiful, glossy finish. I am rather pleased with the end result, and really love the way the colour combination worked out.  Of course, I still have a lot to learn about this technique, but with all the advice and tutorials available on YouTube, and numerous blogs and websites online, I should be able to have a lot of fun trying out new designs, and a multitude of colour combinations, in the future.  It really is quite easy to do, I found, and the mess was easy to clean up because I had used the Vaseline around my nails and fingers.  Next time I'm going to try using sticky tape around my nails and fingers, and see how that goes.

Thank you so much for visiting, and I hope you'll come back often to see what I have to share with you.  If you so wish, you can follow me by filling in one of the boxes at the top right-hand side of the page, and I'd love you to share it with your nail-art friends.  Now I'm off to put some cuticle oil on my cuticles and lots of hand-cream on my hands.  I couldn't believe how dry they were until I took the  photos.  My new phone has a really good camera, and it's picking up flaws in my manicures, and every little bit of damage to my nails, cuticles and hands, which don't show up when you just look at them day to day.  So, I've got lots of work to do to repair all the damage, as if I didn't have enough problems with my nails already.  Oh, well, that's my own fault, I guess, for letting things slide.

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/

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/