Go Pink Wendesday: not the end

Today is the 5th and final Go Pink Wednesday manicure for breast cancer awareness.  Andrea at Finger Painting Fingers has done a wonderful job of uniting bloggers and helping promote awareness!  It has been inspiring seeing all of you ladies promote awareness and give support to those who are fighting, have fought, or are vulnerable to this disease.
I figured I'd try to redeem by last post of polka dots (based on a tutorial from Chalkboard Nails) without my hair getting in the way!

*1 coat Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hardener
*3 coats OPI I Think In Pink
*Zoya Kimber
*Zoya Rory
*1 coat Seche Vite

I Think In Pink is a cream polish that is quite sheer.  I used 3 coats, which build pretty well, but still had visible nail lines.  I knew I was going to cover the tips with dots, so I didn't add a 4th layer.  This is pretty much the perfect baby pink, part of their Pink of Hearts duo for breast cancer awareness.

 

I used Rory for my first round of dots, knowing that Kimber would be able to cover it when I overlapped the dots.  I love Kimber so much that this light, shimmery pink tends to get overlooked in my collection.  Because of the shimmery "foil" finish, it has good coverage with just the one coat dotted on.

Beautiful, shimmery Kimber went over the top of Rory.  I still wish that the dots had a bigger difference in sizes for contrast.  Besides that, I like how these two look together, especially as a tip for the cream base. 

So, this is the end of the breast cancer awareness posts for this October, but it's not the end of awareness.  There is a danger in seeing this as a yearly crusade when it is really meant to be a daily one.  Continue to know yourself and and changes in your body.  Be comfortable and willing to discuss tough issues.  Cancer is scary.  When you are open about it, when you are aware and catch it early, when you are willing to face the reality head on, you rob it of some of its power.  Thanks to continued vigillance, research, and support, we will hopefully see a day when there is a cure.  Until then, this isn't over.

Go Pink Wednesday: girly

Today my Go Pink Wednesday manicure is pretty simple.  You'll have to forgive the tip-wear--I forgot to take pictures before I went to work this morning and my job is pretty tough on my nails.  I saw a French manicure with two shades of light pink on Pinterest that I thought I'd like to try.  I don't have these colors, but I used what I had.

*1 coat Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hardener
*3 coats OPI Pedal Faster Suzi
*Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Prest Pink
*1 coat Seche Vite

Pedal Faster Suzi is such a pretty, soft pink shade!  I love this one a lot.  I used 3 coats to get it opaque because it is pretty sheer, but the coats build well and quickly.  I added Presto Pink on the tips.  I have been struggling so much with French tips lately!  This week, even though I waited about a half hour after painting, I was still getting pulling on my base when I used tape, so I was a little too cautious and tapped it a lot to get most of the sticky off.  This made for messy lines.  Oh well--there's a new mani tomorrow!

(check out that amazing shimmer!)

 

In addition to being pretty simple, and a really cute inspiration, I like how girly this is.  I am just about ready to cut my hair and donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths for the third time.  It takes me about 2 years, but donating my hair is something simple I can do.  I donated to Locks of Love in college, and I love that foundation, but I was struck by something as I cut my hair a few years ago.  While I love children, I was struck by how hard it was to cut off a foot of hair.  I was nervous and sad to see it go.  I worried about how I would look and what I would be able to do with my hair.  In a panicked moment, I had clarity. 

It's just hair.  It grows.  It will grow again.  And I was scared.  Imagine how worried I was just cutting my hair.  How must it feel to know that, in addition to fighting for your life, in addition to losing your health, you are robbed of your hair too?  As women, our hair and nails help define our beauty, our femininity, our selves.  On top of everything else a woman with cancer faces, all of the fears and pain, this public thing that defines her as a woman is gone.  As hard as it is for me to cut my hair each time, I can't imagine how much harder it is to lose that piece of yourself.  That makes it so much easier to cut it off, knowing that someone else will be able to feel a little more like herself at an impossible time. 

I realize that that was a big tangent, but really it's not.  These little things make us feel like women, make us feel like individuals.  Our nails, our hair, and our breasts are not all that we are, but they are intimately tied to our sense of self and femininity.  This girly manicure makes me think about these little things, that are really huge things, that can make us feel like ourselves.  If it's time for a change of style, I challenge you to think about hair donation.  I know that that is not the point of these posts, but it's on my mind and short-long-term to-do list.  What better time and way to show support for women battling breast and other cancers?  We love our nails and hair, but they grow back.  The feeling of knowing that you've comforted someone in the fight for their life is with you forever.

 



Go Pink Wednesday: Momma Said Knock You Out!

You liked that little L.L. shout-out, didn't you?  I thought so...

This is week 2 of Go Pink Wednesday, bringing awareness and showing solidarity for women and men fighting, beating, and curing breast cancer. 

Cancer is ugly business.  As I mentioned last week, my family has been blessed to have dodged the breast cancer bullet, but we have had other cancers invade our world.  Melanoma.  Brain cancer.  Prostate cancer.  It's all awful and makes me want to scream and cry that life is not fair.  And it's not.  That is what makes those who fight it heroes.  Whether you are staying vigilant and knowing your body, taking care of yourself throughout treatment, researching ways to make this history, or investing your time and resources into a cure, it's a brutal, all-in fight. 

*1 coat Sally Hansen Hard As Nails base
*3 coats Sinful Colors Cream Pink
*2 coats Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out (accent)
*1 coat Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Strobe Light (accent)
*1 coat Out the Door top coat

I wanted to thank and pay a tiny tribute to those who fight this week.  Fighting breast cancer is not an isolated battle, though I can't imagine how lonely it can feel.  It is part of a big war, one with hope and promise.  It is a strong, determined, crazy fight to reclaim life.  It is bold. 
I used Sinful Colors Cream Pink for my pink this week.  While it is called Cream pink, it does have a pretty, subtle shimmer to it. 

I used my trusty Sally Hansen Black Out on my accent nail.  I liked the cream finish and almost left it alone, but decided that it needed something more, a spark.  I added Sally Hansen Strobe Light over the top.  This is a gorgeous pale pink holo glitter.  There are larger hex glitters and small micro glitters in the clear base. 

 

Keep up the fight in any way that you can!  Know your body--every mole, every bump, every wrinkle and every lump.  See a doctor when something does not look right--get the edge on the enemy.  Fight strong and dirty, taking any advantage you can.  This is a fight that we are all in, whether we have breasts or not, cancer or not, a choice or not.  Fight hard!

Go Pink Wednesday

TWO posts in one day?!?  What is going on here?
Well, there are a lot of things going on here.  First off, I had a job interview yesterday.  I'm cautiously hopeful about it, and will know soon if I will get to move onto a "real" job...but that's not something I want to think too much about.  I did, however, need to be put together and presentable, so my nails needed attention.  I also needed to keep it subdued, professional.  That meant no black for Halloween or anything.  I figured a pale pink was safe.
It's also breast cancer awareness month.   A ton of awesome bloggers are posting pink manis on Wednesdays in October ("On Wednesdays we wear pink.") to raise awareness and show solidarity for an important cause.  I have been hugely blessed to not have this hit close to home, but cancer has.  While we focus on awareness and prevention of breast cancer this month, it's really about ending all of them.  A cure for one is hope for all.  Knowing your body, being aware of changes, and being brave enough to get help when you see them will help all of us, and the earlier we can tackle cancer, the better the odds.  So, I'm all for raising awareness!

I bought the OPI Pink of Hearts duo when I saw it at Ulta recently.  I loved the glitter and can never have too many pinks.  More importantly, if I am going to spend money (and of course I was going to) I would prefer that it does good.  While my purchase did not increase their donation, OPI is giving $30,000 to breast cancer research, so I figured I could get on board with that. 

*1 coat Yellow-Out base

*3 coats OPI I Think In Pink

*1 coat Sinful Colors Glass Pink

*1 coat OPI Teenage Dream on ring finger

*1 coat Out the Door top coat



The pale cream of I Think In Pink is pretty sheer.  I used 3 coats to clear out all streaks and get a shade that was accurate to the bottle.  It is a perfect baby pink.  The pro-wide brush and formula made for a quick, easy application.  Three thin coats dried quickly and built easily. 

 I added a single coat of Glass Pink over the top for some shimmer.  This pale pink is very sheer.  It slightly muted the color of I Think Pink, but not much.  More than that, it made the cream come alive!  The golden shimmer is gorgeous and really dense.  This is a pretty new polish for me, and I can't wait to see what it can do for other shades.  This combo is amazing!  It was sparkly enough to make me happy, though subtle enough to feel comfortable walking into my interview with.

I took a chance and added the beloved Teenage Dream as an accent.  I worried it was too much glitter for an interview, but then I realized that I needed to be myself.  I needed to feel like me to feel comfortable, and this little extra was enough.  It is so pretty over the top of these!  The holo and iridescent glitters catch the light everywhere.  It is not hard to see why this topped most bloggers' favorites lists last year!

I'm wearing pink because I love it!  That's reason enough to be aware and mindful of breast cancer and all the others.  I like embracing the glitter-loving, sparkle-swooning, shiny girly-girl in me, and I need to take care of myself to do that.  What is it that you love enough to protect?