Movember: In the Know

Here's another installment of my Movember series that started last week.  This also coincides with Polly Polish's Polish Days theme for this month!  The more awareness and support, the better!  Make sure that you check out all of the awesome ladies putting their time into this cause.

*1 coat Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hardener
*2 coats Zoya Skylar--light blue is the color of prostate cancer awareness
*2 coats Zoya Tru--"orchid" is the color of testicular cancer awareness
*1 coat Seche Vite

This week I wanted to represent both sides of the Movember movement.  Tru, the pretty purple flecked with golden shimmer, is my accent nail with another rad moustache from RLR Creations Nail Art for testicular cancer.  Here is some information from www.cancer.org, provided by the American Cancer Society:

*There are estimated to be 8,590 new cases diagnosed in 2012
*360 men will die from testicular cancer
*This cancer is not as common as many others out there, but 1 in 270 men will develop it and 1 in 5,000 will die from it.  That is still too much.




 Skylar, a dusty light blue with silver shimmer, is for prostate cancer.

*There are estimated to be 241,740 new cases diagnosed in 2012.
*In 2012, 28,170 men will die from this.
*In their lifetime, 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer.  It is the second deadliest cancer for men behind lung cancer.
*More than 2.5 million men are living as survivors in the US today.
*Detection saves lives!  When found as "local" cancer (only in the prostate) or "regional" (nearby areas, non-lymph nodes) survival is nearly 100%!
*"Distant" cases where the cancer spreads to other areas, bones, or distant lymph nodes have about a 29% survival rate.
*The 15 year survival rate for men diagnosed is 91%.

 

 

The numbers really do say it all.  For prostate cancer, which can be caught in annual exams and PSA tests, early detection can be treated.  Testicular cancer can be harder to catch, and is less common, but can be noticed through self-exams.  The sooner you know what is going on in your body, the more options you have for treatment. It may be uncomfortable, embarrassing or scary, but regular exams save lives!  This may not be a "young man's" disease, but my dad is well below the average age of men (67, according to seer.cancer.gov).  On the other hand, the median age for testicular cancer is 33!  Listen to your doctors, but also feel empowered to speak up if you feel that something is not quite right.  You know you better than anyone!  While the odds may be a bit scary for facing this in your life, the statistics of survival are really hopeful--this can be beaten!

 

I'll be posting a bit more this moth, and would LOVE it if you would like to add to the mo-vement!  Do a mani, tell a story, spread the word!  Please link up your work to my gallery below (and the Polish Days one!) so that I can see and show off your work!  You are also more than welcome to grab the link and add it to your post!

 

 



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31DC: Inspired by the supernatural

I have been so excited about today's post!  I saw this "supernatural" challenge and was really worried about what on earth I could do.  Then inspiration struck!  I was so bummed that it was late in the challenge, but it's kind of perfect because it's a Halloween mani!  I'm also really pleased with how it turned out (which is rare when I attempt nail art).  I have one awesome untried today.  Here it is:

"It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!"

Growing up just north of Charles Schultz's hometown, the Peanuts gang was a huge part of my childhood.  My family loves them and no holiday is complete without a Charlie Brown special.  In honor of the mystical Great Pumpkin, here we go!

"I don't understand it. I went trick-or-treating and all I got was a bag full of rocks."  Poor Charlie Brown!  I already recreated his iconic shirt for my yellow post, so this time I recreated his ghost costume (ignore the red around my cuticle from my flag nails--that was NOT coming off!).  Chuck has a little trouble in the scissor department, but don't we all sometimes?  I used 2 coats of Julep Kate and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out for the eye holes.  In real life they look a little cleaner, but I kind of like how they are a bit messy, like the original comics were.

 

"On Halloween night, the Great Pumpkin rises from his pumpkin patch and flies through the air with his bag of toys to all the children."  Linus, with all of his hope and innocence, waits patiently for the Great Pumpkin to visit his pumpkin patch all night.  No matter what anyone says, his faith endures.  For his shirt, I used 2 coats of OPI Danke-shiny (gorgeous--a post on that later!) and Black Out. 

"There he is! There he is! It's the Great Pumpkin! He's rising out of the pumpkin patch!"  Okay, okay, it's not the real Great Pumpkin, but a really sparkly pumpkin.  Linus took such pride in his patch.  I used 2 coats of China Glaze Riveting, Black Out for the accents, and Zoya Yara for the grass and stem.

 

"Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He's gotta pick this one. He's got to. I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there's not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see."  AHHH!  I could NOT wait to get this polish and it just came!  I tried a couple of times to get Sincerest Pumpkin Patch in Sonoma Nail Art's Etsy sales, and I missed out.  I was going to have my mom stop by a boutique that sells them, but I finally scored online!  She makes such gorgeous polishes, most of them tied to our home area, and I just can't get enough!  This polish is a-mazing!  It is thin, as far as the indie glitters I've tried, which makes it really easy to work with.  The green tinted base is full of green glitters in different shapes and sizes, silver glitter that looks green, and orange hexes to look like pumpkins.  I love this!  This is just one coat over 2 coats of Zoya Yara. 

"I had to listen to you, you blockhead. What a fool I was. Trick or treats come only once a year, and I missed it by sitting in a pumpkin patch with a blockhead."  Now, I take issue with Sally in this film.  She is deeply infatuated with Linus, her sweet Baboo, and agrees to watch for the Great Pumpkin with him.  She is head over heels with Linus and follows him, and then turns on him!  Sally, we all learn the harsh lesson not to use our heads instead of our hearts, that they will waste our time, but show a little compassion!  She is usually not this brutal... For her dress, I used 2 coats of Zoya Skylar and Black Out for the polka dots.

So there is my tribute to the Great Pumpkin and the most sincere pumpkin patch around!  I love these nails and am really sad to see them go.  What are you asking the Great Pumpkin for this Halloween?  If it's this gorgeous polish, you can let him know that her Etsy shop will open tomorrow (10/30) at 5pm Pacific!

The Blues

Blogger is buggin' lately. Have any of you had issues with it? I cannot upload photos to my post without an error message unless I am in HTML mode. This does not bode well...

I needed to let go and take off my UPS mani. I needed something new and full of life. So, I tried out a couple of new polishes this weekend, mostly for an excuse to see if my Aengland baby would be all that I hoped.

*1 coat Sally Hansen Hard as Nails base
*3 coats Zoya Skylar (all nails but accent, which has 2)
*1 coat Aengland Tristam on accent nails
*1 coat Out the Door fast-dry top coat

LOVE! I was a bit disappointed with Skylar, though. My experience with Zoya had been amazing up until this point, and it didn't sour me on them, but I was surprised. I bought Skylar because I was torn between OPI's I Don't Give A Rotterdam and I Have A Herring Problem, so I went Zoya. This was the first Zoya where I really needed 3 coats for full coverage. The polish was quite thin. It was still easy to work with and a pretty, shimmery, dusty blue. Even though it's a blue polish, it's very soft and gorgeous in the sunlight. Speaking of sunlight...

Then I added a coat of Tristam as an accent, just to try it out. Oh. My. Sparkle! I love this! It was easy to use and such a rich, strong dark blue with amazing holo shimmer. I don't know how it is on its own, as far as coverage, but it looked perfectly true to its bottle after I put it over Skylar. I expected to be let down by this polish, which I got in her recent sale, and unimpressed. I fell in love and canNOT wait to get my hands on more of these!

Just look at that glitter and shimmer!  sigh.  Well, work chipped my tips quickly, so this is gone and I need some new inspiration.  I have gotten very comfortable with an accent nail (which felt weird at first) and now need to work on venturing into some art!