Not so polished pink.

I have not polished my nails in what feels like a long time. During and after moving I have had a serious case of Shabby Nubbins. When you don't have much in the way of nails in the first place, you do not have much to work with when you need to cut them off to start again.

Yesterday I wore Pretty Serious Mummy Mush for my Polish Us Pink Monday. It is not a pink polish but at certain angles it does look pink and peach. At other times you get pearl, gold, green and at one extreme, blue.

Breast Cancer is a "pretty serious" thing and no Mummy should need to turn to mush by hearing a breast cancer diagnosis. That means you need to check your breasts whether you are male or female and go to your doctor if you are at all concerned.

I used three coats of Mummy Mush for the finish above. It can appear opaque at most angles but at others you can still see the nail line. That does not bother me so much as it is a very pretty polish.

I tried to find the pink on my camera for you but I think I failed. I am sure the pink in the picture above owes more to my nail bed colour that capturing anything else.

Later on I added a daisy sequin to my nail with nail glue and a 3 mm pink rhinestone on top of that. For some reason the nail glue would not dry and secure the rhinestone to the sequin. I did manage to stick my fingers together when I plucked the slipping and sliding rhinestone off.

Although I am late with my post, there are other people on time with their Polish Us Pink! posts for the Mondays in October.

Pink Ribbon Day

Due to this moving operation, I have not been able to do my nails. They have turned my nails into shabby nubbins. I was supposed to post for Pink Ribbon Day yesterday but what could I put on here? I decided that there was only one thing I could do.

A few months ago I was going to do a manicure with China Glaze TTYL. I think it is a lovely peachy pink holographic and I was planning on doing some nail art over the top. After I snapped some pictures I had to go to work. By the time I returned home the polish had chipped beyond rescue but I saved the pictures. My intentions were that I would do a manicure design with this polish as the base colour but...

All of these Breast Cancer Foundations seem a little confusing. There are four major organisations in Australia and they all work together. Thank goodness. The National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) also uses the symbol of the Pink Ribbon for their logo. When you buy something with the pink ribbon logo with money to support breast cancer research, this is the organisation your money should be going to. NBCF's focuses exclusively on research with the hope of no death from breast cancer by 2030.

Polish Us Pink! Dots and Ruffles

I thought long and hard about what I could do for this manicure. I did not want to stamp and I wanted to do something that I had not done before. Honestly, it was a bonus to be simple.

Today I present three pinks to you. Mode Cerise is a pink that builds up to a cherry red. When you marble with this colour it is definitely pink. The neon shade is Hollywood from the B Collection by Bloom. I have never used a Bloom polish before but this was one out of a set of three I bought. I will have to try one out as a base to see what it is like. Last of all I thought I would use the Cleo magazine freebie, Nails Inc Bag a Bachelor. I loathe the formula on Bag a Bachelor but since I was dotting, it was not going to matter.

I started out with Cerise and gave my nails two coats except on my ring finger as that was going to be the accent nail. Then with a dotting tool I simply added large dots of Hollywood and then small dots of Bag a Bachelor.

For the accent finger I decided I would try a ruffle. I had tried once before with this style and I failed. Honestly, how could someone fail at putting dots in lines across their fingernail? Me. This time it worked out much better. I did not bother with a base colour and simply dotted my three pinks in rows. Voila! Done!

The McGrath Foundation has a very specific goal for their fundraising. They use the funds to place Breast Care Nurses in communities throughout Australia. The other focus in on raising awareness in young women.

Happy Birthday October! Black Opal

I drooled over Nubar 2010 when I first saw it. That flake goodness reminded me of black opals when it was layered over black. Something was missing from 2010 that would make the black opal just right. When Australis released Speck-tacular I realised that the play of colour was just right.

Opals are one of the birthstones for October and I always knew I was going to do a black opal manicure.

To start, I painted two coats of  Fantasy Makers Wet N Wild Black on my nails. I only managed to have this colour because I bought it for the RIP Tombstone bottle it came in. Over the top I put one layer of Australis Speck-tacular. A simple manicure but rather rich and gorgeous. I wish I had real black opals to photograph with it.

The black opal image is from the Wikipedia page for opal with the original image posted on flickr by sulla55.

Interlocking Dots

I first noted this manicure to be tried for a later date on Kelly's Kolors. Kelly's post was bookmarked in the Nail Ideas folder and that was where it stayed until now.

Fast forward to today. I wanted to do a new manicure but what? I already had Orly Sapphire Silk out on the desk. Hmmm essence You Belong to Me looks as though it would complement well with that. I did not want to stamp and I was not sure whether either of those polishes would be suitable for stamping. Then I remembered the interlocking dots.

All of my nails were painted in You Belong to Me and I applied three coats. A coat of Seche Vite was then applied because I am impatient and I did not want to wait for the polish to dry naturally before I could apply the tape.

I am a big fan of doing only one accent nail because there is less chance of me ruining the entire look. It also takes less time and it was getting close to my bedtime. So, I taped off my ring finger with some de-tackified sticky tape. On went Sapphire Silk to make a corner of teal delight. I pulled off the tape and started dotting right away. After letting the polish dry a moment, I applied another coat of Seche Vite.

I am very glad I can not take pictures of my right hand easily as I failed with my ring finger. There was little control over my dotting tool. The resulting design did look good but it certainly was not the neat interlocking design I have on my left hand.

All You Need is Love

"All You Need is Love" has been running through my head. I have loved The Beatles music for as long as I can remember. Was I born loving their music? How do you translate the song onto the nail? This is what I did for it.

I feel all rainbowy and holographic lately and I wanted to use Sally Hansen Diamond as my base colour. Diamond is sheer and although I have built it up for a base in the past, I conserved this jewel by applying two coats over China Glaze Millenium. The scattered holographic in Diamond is enough to give you little flashes of rainbow colour in normal indoor lighting.

Next I had a look at my image plates and decided that Bundle Monster's BM-311 would be ideal as it has love written over and over around a heart. My image plate did not stamp well with the text portion of the image. For the stamping polish I went with Konad Dark Red after discarding many other polishes because test runs did not stamp well.

To make this manicure completely love, I should have done all of my nails. I did not do all of my nails as I was unhappy with how this image was picking up.

Nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time.
It's easy.

All you need is love...

Happy Together! - Rainbow Smiles

For some reason my manicure makes The Turtles' song "Happy Together" get stuck in my head. Is it the rainbow of colour? Then there is the extra rainbow goodness from the holographic polish... Maybe it is just because there are so many happy faces all together on my nails?

So we have:
Thumb - China Glaze Gr8
Index - A-England Dragon
Middle - Spectraflair franken made from Rimmel Blue My Mind
Ring - China Glaze LOL
Little - Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Pink Rose Diamond

I made a little bit of a mess on my little finger by stamping a little too hard and smooshing my polish.

My stamping was done in Konad White Pearl and I used a Bundle Monster image plate. The plate itself is BM-304. On my right hand I used the negative image that is also found on this plate. I did an even worse job on my right hand I did on my left. This is what happens when you try to rush through a manicure in the morning before work. I also have a hard time trying to photograph my right hand. I know, any excuse.

Me and you and you and me
No matter how they toss the dice, it has to be
The only one for me is you, and you for me
So happy together...

Polish Us Pink with Opal Hope

Phew! I finally took a break from packing to be able to bring you this next post for Polish Us Pink Breast Cancer Awareness. Moving house is not kind to your nails and mine were already suffering from quite a number of mishaps.

Recently I bought two Orly polishes from Priceline for $3 each. I was very thrilled with my bargain. One of these polishes was the birth month polish for October, Opal Hope. I could have used this for my Happy Birthday post but I always had another manicure planned for that. Opal Hope is perfect for Polish Us Pink because it is obviously pink. And the other thing I liked was that it was for October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month AND that it has hope in the name. Perfect.

First things first. I used three coats of Opal Hope to reduce visible nail line. It is still there but I could live with it as I had decided that I would do a gradient. Opal Hope also reinforces my resolve that I shall eventually have to get a new camera as I could not capture the green duochrome. This polish also has some shimmery fleck. After googling other posts about Opal Hope I did not feel so bad about not being able to capture the duochrome. 

I was going to tape my fingers off with striping tape but the polish was not dry enough. I even left a couple of dents in my polish from this. Rather than wait, because I am impatient, I sponged a gradient of Wet N Wild Lavender Pearlescent on the tips. Originally the plan was to sponge this over the tape but... I am impatient. Lavender Pearlescent is also sheer so that the flecks from Opal Hope were able to be seen through the polish. I like how it all brings the manicure together.

Last week I shared the Pink Ribbon Day website with you. Three years ago I hosted a Pink Ribbon event and they gave me the badge I featured in this post.

This week I am posting a link the the Breast Cancer Network Australia. They help you find support groups in your area and online forums. There are a few areas of information on the site about various topics such as living with breast cancer and receiving a new diagnosis.

Inspiration: Purple Animal Print Jacket

Recently I was trying to pack for a little weekend away. What do I pack to wear? I am not usually one for animal prints but I liked a jacket in a purple and cream animal print. It inspired me to have a manicure to match.

To start with I used Sephora by OPI Don't Feed the Hand Models so that I would not need so many coats of Avon Vanilla Shake. Two coats of Vanilla Shake was applied and then I let it dry. A gradient was sponged on with a make up sponge with both Vanilla Shake and China Glaze Cowgirl Up. I alternated the direction of the gradient to match the jacket better.

There seem to be a few different styles of animal print on the jacket. I decided to use the cheetah image from Bundle Monster plate BM-221 and I stamped with Konad Black.

This manicure was effective and I think it matched my inspiration well. Cowgirl Up's shimmer also mimicked the sheen from the material. I am very pleased with my first animal print manicure. Maybe I should try another?

Christmas at Midnight - A Franken by Mr R.

Mr R likes to get in and play around mixing and frankening. If I let him have his way, I don't think I would have any "pure" polish left because he would have mixed it all into something else. Today I am featuring one of his creations, Christmas at Midnight.

There are three parents for this offspring. Mr R used Fantasy Makers aka Wet N Wild Black for his base and added Satin Nail Enamel 17. Satin Nail Enamel 17 imparted a blue shimmer to the black and made it slightly jelly. I was concerned since 17 is a pink polish but only the shimmer was gifted to the Franken. Last of all, Daring Digits Robin was added for the glitter component.

To wear this I used a coat of OPI Black Onyx as my base colour. I would have used the Fantasy Makers Black but I could not find it. I wonder why? ;) I really like Mr R's creation even if he did want to sell it to me for $1. He even suggested that we start selling frankens. Not at $1 each thanks!

Star Filled Royal Navy

There are these iridescent blue stars scattered all over my desk. I put as much from the package into a jar in an attempt to contain them but they would not fit. Originally I had bought them to do a special sleep over franken for my daughter when she had a friend from out of town stay over. Sadly the franken did not work as the polish and the stars did not play well together.

In an effort to use some of these stars I decided to match them with Orly Royal Navy. This is because I thought that the blue shimmer in Royal Navy would match well with the stars. Thankfully I was right. In the sunlight the shimmer looks pretty special with the colour change from the stars. Of course my photographs do not capture how good this looks in reality.

This manicure used two coats of Orly Royal Navy and then a smidge of top coat to stick the stars onto. Then a coat of top coat over the lot. I did notice in one of the pictures that you could see a little of my nail line on one of my fingers. It was not that noticeable but I could have done a third coat.

I did not clean this manicure up as I was not sure whether it would be staying on my hand or not. This was because I decided that I would try the essence Gel-Look top coat I bought a little while ago. I have used it once or twice before and I have not liked it. I am too used to quick dry top coats and I am impatient. I don't have the time or inclination to be careful with wet fingernails while it takes hours to dry.

The finish on the Gel-Look top coat was not anything special. It seems much the same as Seche Vite or any of the other top coats I use. The dry time seems to take for ever. I have not yet been able to wear this top coat on any of my manicures as the polish is still tacky an hour later. For a new bottle of top coat, the viscosity of the formula seems rather thick. I do not think I will bother with this top coat again.

Butter London Pink Ribbon... Month

I received Butter London Pink Ribbon free with a copy of InStyle Magazine issue for October 2012. The other free polish available is Red Pillar Box. It is not difficult to see why I prefer Red Pillar Box to Pink Ribbon. I was not going to get Pink Ribbon but I thought I may as well try out the pale pink/nude. This is a polish I never would have bought but I have been thrilled with the other Butter Londons I have.

Peek a boo! Can you see my nail line? This is with FIVE layers of polish. At least it matches the little pink ribbon decoration I placed on my ring finger. Pink Ribbon applied fine but it is too sheer for my liking.

I thought I would make this polish the first manicure for October as this month you will see plenty of events for Pink Ribbon Day. This year Pink Ribbon Day is on the 22nd October. I will have to remember to do a special manicure on on the 22nd. Funds raised from Pink Ribbon Day help support research and services provided by the Cancer Council.

Are you going to host an event? Will you get decked out in pink? I hope you do because it is always a bit of fun.

This post is also the first in the Polish Us Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Collection. I had already done this post and scheduled it for the 1st October when I read a post at The Subtle Shimmer about painting our nails pink for Breast Cancer Awareness.

I am hoping all goes well with the inlinkz tool. I have never used it before. What is blogging about? Doing something different, trying new things and sharing. Cross your fingers as there should be links to the other bloggers being polished pink.