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!