Lupus Awareness

Okay I come today out of a bit of seriousness. Coming up in May, is Lupus Awareness. This is a disease that I along with many, many other are affected by. The symptoms range across the board from the well known butterfly rash to lesser know central nervous issues. The type they have me diagnosed with is CNS Lupus which is a rarer form of this disease. It doesn't matter "type" though. All that matters is we need to learn more and realize that so many suffer in silence. Being in nail art now has given me a voice (one that truly helps since my "real" voice doesn't always like to work right). I did a post for April showing Autism Awareness. I will have another May Awareness post but for now, I am focusing on Lupus. It is a silent disease it is not seen by anyone but the person that has it. You may think the rash we have is just a bad sunburn. In fact, would you believe doctors say in theory we are "allergic" to the sun? I just went out with my kids for a few hours and had to take allergy meds when I got home for hives from the sun. It is a disease that is overlooked because the symptoms are so widely ranged and go across the board. It is a "mimic" disease. It means it sometimes is first diagnosed as something else. Sometimes it takes years to correctly figure out the diagnosis. Doctors suspect now with me I had it at least 7-10 years before they pinpointed that I truly was ill.

 Now after all that I want to share with you my voice for Lupus Awareness. As everyone knows I am the Padawan. I am very new to nail art and wanted to do something special for Lupus. So I thought and thought, I finally turned to my Jedi and asked her opinion. We considered decals. I said that might be an option. Then I said no I did that for Autism. I want this different. I said I know let me spell out Lupus in polish. How can people miss a woman in a wheelchair with the word Lupus written on her nails?! So I got out my Orly Bonder, my CC (Color club ya know I love this brand!) Puccilicious as it is the closest purple to the Lupus butterfly at least to my color blind eyes, my new CG (China Glaze) White on White, my whole pack of brushes, and my new bottle of Seche Vite topcoat (considered one of the best topcoats btw!). And sat down to get to work. I placed the Bonder on first and let it dry real good. I put a good coat of CC on. And screwed up my thumb (not a good polish session if a glitch doesn't occur!) so I got my remover out wiped it off and started that nail over. After the glitchy and all the other polish dried super well, I went through all my brushes and decided on a super thin brush. I poured a little bit of polish into the cap I use for my jobs like this (easier than it coming out gobby onto the brush ;) ) and first did a thin outline for the first letter. I then went over it slow but sure and filled it in. I followed along and took time doing each finger slow but sure with the same premise, a thin outline then a fill in to get the right pop look. I let them dry real well so they do not bleed at all. And when you think they are dry let them dry another 10-20 minutes (hint from my Obi). Then I topcoated it to give it that perfect look. Here is a photo of my Lupus Awareness. I hope it gives you inspiration and an idea to have fun with your polish! Polish can be a voice even when we don't!

Mishmash Polishing

Sorry I haven't posted. Had some upset in the household with my health and my 3 yr old dog is very ill. I am going to show you a couple things I have accomplished in the last 24 hrs out of boredom. I am also going to include my son's polish choice. He is 12 and he is all boy but he loves his polish. So as I am on my journey with my Obi and Jedi (mini-Obi earned her saber ;) ), my son is also learning. He is also learning that he is bucking trend as it is not "normal" for a boy to like polish. I will refer to his as my Apprentice. So on Monday I found an awesomely gorgeous polish from Color Candy (CC) called Twiggy. It is a Lime Green. I fell in love. I know what love at first sight is now :) Last night my son wanted polish done. I said well go pick (picking for an ASD child can be overwhelming especially when the polish covers the dresser top). He comes back with four. I said okay which one. He goes um NONE. I said okay try again. So he comes back with 2 black. So he got one hand in one shade of black and the other in another shade of black (yes black comes in multiple shades). Here is his photos now.

He doesn't sit still well but he doesn't mind that mom isn't the perfect painter.

After he was finished I realized I had one of my nail brushes nearby and I really liked his black nail paint... But I still really enjoyed Twiggy (lime green). I thought hey how about a streak down each nail. This was created by orly bonder, CC twiggy, Maybelline Essence, and Rimmell T/C.

Yep I landed with cat eye's. Go figure! I decided to go ahead and do the other hand as well.

Now we move on to today Wed the 24th of April. I talked to my Jedi and I needed some distraction due my baby still very ill and not home. I said okay I got all the polish out and I got all my brushes. Is this a dangerous combo? She laughed and said uh oh. Well I would break it all down for you but to do that would take a whole different post. Let me just say if you are bored and got polish. HAVE FUN. Try something be brave. The worst that can happen you grab the polish remover and start over. So this is now my left hand. I don't have a good photo of my thumb but it has crackle on it. If you have never done crackle, it is a MUST TRY! So fun. Put your favorite polish on let it dry real good. And pick a different color crackle/shatter to cover doesn't have to be thick. It does break up as it dries. You can cover it with a topcoat if you want to make it shinier. But anywho here is my Mishmash of the left hand of fun :) Remember polish is like art.. Your nails are a clean slate. Just keep the oil on them Put a coat of base and then play! :)

French Manicures

Well this Padiwan did it again. I jumped off that diving board... I will have a bunch more pictures this time but still not a good camera so I apologize in advance. Anywho, jumping off the board. Well let's see, I tried the cuticle apricot cream and it turned my nails yellow. Talk about freak you OUT. I went running to my Obi-wan thinking I was turning into one of Dr. Who's Aliens!! She said no it was probably an ingredient and to super pay attention and only get jojoba oil. Well off I went online. I found some Organic Pure (come to find out this is the ultimate treat for us we can use it on nails, skin, hair even mix it with lotions etc and very very safe!!!) and nabbed a bottle. While I was at it, I really liked doing dots so I said let me nab this dotting set... The brushes and tape can't be toooo hard. Boy oh weee did I do it again. The dotting tools confuse the tookus out of me. I got everything in yesterday and decided I was going to dots on the tips. HA yea right not this Padi. So I had to fix it. Well I had my base on and a pretty coat on didn't want to take it all off and start over. I nabbed the short thin brush (will show in picture) and "corrected" the ugly dotlings. And that was the beginnings of my version (haha) of a French Manicure. Now I will say this is only left hand. Right hand will be done today and after serious though I am going to solid the nails alternating the red/white and stripe then at the cuticle instead. Told ya I was weird (but seriously blame my mini-Obi for that fine fine idea!) Now let me explain what I am wearing my base is Orly bonder (rubber), I have Color Club (Redical Gypsy), Tips (L'Oreal I Will), Topcoat Rimmel. I am going to show a few different pictures.I hope it helps :)

This is the main base color I covered the entire nail with this (after the top coat dried).

This is the brush and the White I used to tip the nails.

This is the final product...

Accidental Art

Okay so rounding off Autism Awareness, I wasn't sure what I should do next for my nails. My mini-obi had sent me bunches of nail polish that I just had to venture and try. I was chatting with my Obiwan about what I should try next and she said how about dots. I said dots?? No way I can't do dots. That is way too technical. Well she pointed me to some videos to watch. If you are like me, then you have the attention span of a dust bunny. Oh look SQUIRREL! What were we talking about? Oh yes, dots. Okay so the videos were too chipper and didn't hold interest. She said just get a paintbrush use the opposite end and try it. See what happens. Well after numerous attempts, I have to say I am quite proud of myself and my OCD. It isn't perfect but it is cute. Looks like miniature flowers on my hands :) Now I have to give you the how to on how I did this. Easy steps.. Use a q-tip cut the fuzzy off grab a paintbrush (for wide dots) and your polish. Put your normal color (whatever you want) on and let it dry. I used a matte (Fairytale) for the beginning. Then comes the fun. Pick a couple (or one) color(s) you want to dot on. Dip your q-tip or opposite end paintbrush into the polish and dab off excessive otherwise it does run (learned this after the twentieth time) away. Do this color on any nails you want and then repeat with a different or more color if you so desire. I suggest using a different q-tip or brush for each color so you don't mix it. And voila your art is masterfully done. Now you might ask yourself why did I blog this as accidental. I was aiming for a simple dotting but wound up with a flower pattern. It is amazing how accidents happen when we have fun! I used Color Club Almost Famous (the yellow) Color Club Wham Pow (orange towards cuticle) Color Club Warhol (pink in center) Enjoy until next time :) Again, I apologize for the poor quality on picture still using built-in webcam