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

   

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

 

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

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

   

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

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

   

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

   

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

   

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

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

 

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

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

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

Have a wonderful day, and may God bless you!

Hugs

Christine

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

Words of Life and Hope

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

Brown And Copper Skittle Manicure - 14 June 2015

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

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

  

                      Under Artificial Light at BigW                                   Outside In Shade

Outside Under Light Cloud

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great week, and God bless you!

Hugs

Christine

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

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

burnt orange Autumn leaf coloured polish.

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.

k

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/

My Christmas Nail Polish Gifts

Hi, everyone.  Today I'd like to share with you all the great nail polish sets I received for Christmas this year.  I really was spoilt by my wonderful husband, Trevor, and my beautiful daughter, Meagan, and her family, and I want to thank them all for being so generous.  So, here are the nail polish gifts they gave me! I received several other lovely gifts too, but this blog is about nail polish, so I won't bore you with those :)

The first one is the "ulta3 Advent Calendar" my hubby bought me at the end of November.  As you can see, there is an amazing mix of 24 mini polishes, and would you believe I didn't already have any of them.  I was amazed! It was great fun opening the little window each day throughout December to see what the next colour would be.  I felt just like a little kid does when he/she opens his/her Advent Calendar and receives a little treat of some kind.  Silly me!!!

The colours are, starting at the top left hand corner, and reading left to right: "bright me", a lovely orange shade; "disco fever", a gorgeous red glitter in a clear base; "orchid", a beautiful deep purple shimmer; "emerald inten-city", a pretty green with a hint of blue; "pot of gold" - lots of gold glitter in a clear base; "lily white" (no description needed); "bon bon", a gorgeous, VERY pale apricot/peach shimmer (really hard to describe); "palette play", a lovely purple; "over the rainbow", which is an awesome rainbow of glitter in a clear base; "tahiti", a bright coral/orange shade; "glamour puss", a lovely silver shimmer; "blue marlin", a lovely mid-blue; "gold rush fever", a lovely gold shimmer, "new year's eve", a brilliant blue glitter in a clear base; "strawberry sundae", which is a lovely mid pink; "luck of the irish", a gorgeous bright green glitter in a clear base; "sizzling red", a lovely deep red; "lilac bloom", a lovely pale lilac/grey shade; "twinkle toes", a bright silver glitter in a clear base; "black satin" (no description needed); "pale dahlia", which is a lovely beige nude; "block it out", another lovely blue; "fruit tingle", an amazing beautiful, bright pink shade; and "pacific fever", a beautiful deep sea green shade.

Next is the "ulta3 "Colour Your World" Christmas 2014 Cube Collection", given to me by my hubby on Christmas Day.  This very quickly went onto my "Christmas Wish List" when I saw it at Terry White's Pharmacy. There were several colours in this set that were the same as those in the Advent Calendar, which was a pity, considering how many colours ulta3 make.  However, the Advent Calendar bottles were only 5ml minis, so this just meant I now have some full-size bottles of those colours (YAY)! They are: "lily white" (no description needed); "lotsa fun", a beautiful, very dark purple/blue with a little shimmer; "fruit tingle" (see above); "tahiti", a lovely coral/orange shade which is really bright and colourful; "pale dahlia" (see above); "lilac bloom" (see above); "sizzling red" (see above); "atomic oj", which is the most awesome bright orange I've ever seen; "gold rush fever" (see above); "emerald inten-city" (see above); and "silver grey", which really doesn't need a description.

Next is the "TBN Paint Tin Christmas 2014 Collection", also given to me by my hubby on Christmas Day, which has 14 different shades, all of which are great.  Some are fluoros, some are cremes, and there is even a glitter. As you can see, the packaging was really unique.   It looks like a plastic can of paint. The top and bottle are metal and the side of the can is clear plastic.  It really caught my eye when I saw it at my Terry White pharmacy, and I quickly added it to my "Christmas Wish List" :)

The colours are: "Crystal Clear" (no description necessary); "Skinny Dip", a wonderful beige/grey nude shade; "Mel-function", which is an amazing brilliant lemon-yellow fluoro; "Desperately Seeking Sue", a lovely orange fluoro; "Little Miss Mila", a lovely bright lipstick pink; "Give Me Moore"; a lovely scarlet red shade; "Cotton Candy", which is a gorgeous pale pink/mauve shade; "That's What She Said", a gorgeous lavender shade; "Jess-able", which is a beautiful rich purple; "Frog Prince", which is a lovely bright green; "Dream Catcher", a sweet pale baby-blue shade; "Rain On My Parade", a bright, mid-blue fluoro shade (picture is pretty close to true colour); "Black Beauty" (no description needed); and "Meteorite", which is an amazing glitter composed of different size black, white and holo glitter in a clear base - you really have to see this one to appreciate what it looks like.  It's awesome!

And last, but definitely not least, is the "BOE Presents MIDNIGHT Collection" of nail polishes and caviar beads that my daughter bought me.  The photo was taken with a flash, so unfortunately there is some glare, and we had to take them out of the box to photograph them because of the plastic window on the front of the box.  There are no colour names or numbers for the polishes, but there is a beautiful pale mauve shimmer, a lovely dark pink creme, a wonderful pinkish-purple shimmer, and a silver shimmer.  They are awesome! There are also two bottles of rainbow caviar beads, one bottle of cerise beads, and a bottle of silver beads.  They even added a tiny little black funnel to use to put the caviar beads back in their bottles after using them (this will come in handy for my glitter collection as well).  This is a beautiful collection, but when I contacted BOE to see if they could tell me what the colour names and/or numbers were, they told me they were one-off limited edition polishes, and won't be made again.  Such a pity, because they really are so beautiful.  So, if you see one at BigW, grab it before they disappear for ever.  You won't be disappointed.

Now you know why I said I was spoilt this Christmas.  I wasn't expecting all these polishes, and it really made for a beautiful Christmas Day for me.  When you add this to the other gifts I received, including one from my gorgeous granddaughter, Sioned (the first gift she's bought me since joining the workforce), you can see why I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family.  It may be small, but I love them all dearly, and I don't know where I would be without them, and that was even more special whilst I was going through my battle with breast cancer throughout 2014.  Thank you so much, guys.  You have no idea how much I appreciate you all.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, too, and that the New Year will be a happy and prosperous one for you and your loved ones.  My next post will be my New Year's Eve manicure. Until then, God bless you, and I hope you'll come back soon to see what else I have to share with you.

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.

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.