Saturday, November 29, 2014

Headwear and Gifts for Cancer Patients

I have just received an email from the most wonderful site for cancer patients online.  They have just upgraded their site, and they have every type of headwear you could wish for if you have experienced hair loss during and after chemotherapy, or you may know someone who has. Beautiful hats, scarves, turbans, wigs and accessories, and also beauty products and fabulous gift items to help you or your loved one look good and feel better. Or you can show your support for someone you know who has cancer, and is experiencing hair loss from their cancer treatment, by purchasing one of these wonderful items for them, or even for yourself.

The name of the site is Headcovers Unlimited, and you can find them at http://www.headcovers.com/.

If you are about to go through chemotherapy, or have been through it and have lost your hair, and you want something to make you feel better about yourself whilst going through this horrible trial, please check them out.  I purchased several items from them while I was going through chemo, and five months later I'm still wearing them because my hair still hasn't grown very much.  It's coming, but I've been advised to keep it really short for a while, to strengthen it and hopefully thicken it, too.

Or, maybe you're looking for a gift for someone you know who is going through chemotherapy, or is about to.  There are some wonderful gift items and beauty products on the site, and you could even buy them a scarf, hat, turban or even a wig.  All these things would make your loved ones feel a whole lot better.  Take it from someone who has been there, done that.  I was particularly taken with the beautiful Cancer Awareness jewellery, keyrings and magnets they have in their gift section.  There are some absolutely wonderful items here, and they would make fantastic Christmas presents for the people you care about who are suffering from one of these dreadful diseases.  Cancer is horrible, and so are the treatments for it, but you can help to make it a little easier for them, and brighten their lives, by purchasing one of these beautiful items for them.

Of course, there are others who would love these items as well.  People suffering from alopecia, trichotillomania and other medical hair loss conditions would also appreciate any of these products.  Or perhaps you want to wear one of the gift items to show your support for the people sufffering from all the different types of cancer.  Everyone is catered for here, so I know you will be able to find something you like.

Please, check the site out now.  You will be amazed at the quality of their products, and the range of items available.  Here's the link again.  http://www.headcovers.com/

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 incentive in any way, shape or form to promote this site.
I am just speaking from my own experience, not for any gain.

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.


Sunday, November 23, 2014

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/

Friday, November 14, 2014

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.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

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



Friday, November 7, 2014

Quilted Nail Art with Gold Decals & Glitter

Sorry this is a bit late being posted, but I've had an extremely busy week, with lots of doctors' appointments, etc, but I really wanted to show you what I did this week, because I am so pleased with the way it turned out.  Here is a photo of the mani for this week, taken just after it was done on Sunday, 2nd November.


I apologise for the picture being slightly blurred, but we are still trying to work out the best way to photograph my manis, etc.  However, you can see pretty well what it looks like.  

The colours I used were Maybelline "Tart", which is a beautiful, rich, dark plum colour, and MUD "paparazzi", which is gold and silver hexagon glitter of different sizes in a clear base polish. On the feature nails I added gold striping tape and placed 1.5mm gold decals where the tapes crossed over each other.  The"Tart" went on really well, and I only needed 2 coats to get full coverage.  The "paparazzi" only needed one coat to get this effect. I started with 1 coat of Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat and finished off with Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat, using 1 coat on the glitter nails and 2 coats over the taping and decals on the feature nails.  I am topping it up each day with another coat of the top coat.

Unfortunately, the photo just does not do it justice, because it really looks amazing.  The dark plum colour is so rich, and the gold and silver glitter, and the taping and decals, shine so brightly that the result is really eye-catching. Everywhere I've been this week people have said how gorgeous it looks, and asked how I did it, which has been really encouraging for me. I, myself, am really chuffed with the way it looks.  It took me ages to do, because it was my first time using the striping tape, but I just love the effect it gives and I have heaps of different colours, so I will definitely be using it more tapes in the future.

Thank you for checking out my blog, and I hope you'll come back to see what I have for you next week.

Have a wonderful day, and God bless you.

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too)

Words of Life and Hope


Update On Last Week's Nail Art Design

Last weeks mani lasted for about 5 days before it started chipping, and here are some photos of how it looked last Sunday before I took my polish off to do my next mani, which was a full 7 days from when the mani was done.  I added a top coat every other day, and I'm sure that helped it last as long as it did.


As you can see, the nail with the glitter had hardly any wear at all, which quite amazed me.  The fingers not shown had a little wear, but not very much at all.  Overall, I was very pleased with the way these polishes performed.

Thanks for looking, and have a wonderful day.

Hugs

Christine

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