Monday, April 27, 2015

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.

Saturday, April 18, 2015

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

Friday, April 10, 2015

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/