Purple Gerry

Today I have two polishes from brands I've never used before.  First up is Barry M Vivid Purple.  I ordered this from Harlow & Co recently and I was so impressed with the formula, I want to go back and order more.  You see one coat below (one coat!)  It went on like a dream, was easy to control and had a perfect luster.

Then I added Shimmer Gerry over top.  This is a glitter bomb that applies easily and it is such a stunner of a polish.  I love it!  I got tons of compliments on this manicure.

Because it is so hard to capture purple on film, the color you see is slightly less purple than it was in real life.

Vivid Purple alone:

Shimmer Gerry, WOW.  That's all I can say.  This was gifted to me in a swap I was part of and again, I need to buy up all of the Shimmer polishes!

Look at this awesome!!!  Buy all of the Shimmers!

Barry M polishes can be purchased from Harlow & Co.  Shimmer polishes can be purchased through her Etsy Store.

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My Inspiration

The theme for this weeks Girly Girl Nail Art Challenge is "What Inspires You".  The answer for me was easy, especially this time of year - my brother.

Two years ago my oldest brother was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer.  He fought bravely.  He amazed and inspired me with his strength and willingness to not let it get the best of him.  He smiled, he laughed.  He didn't want his final time on this earth to be filled with sadness or anger, he wanted it the way he always wanted it, with laughter.

He fought hard for a year and never gave up.  One year ago on Tuesday he celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary, renewing his vows with his sons by his side and his beautiful wife in front of him.  She wore blue and was amazing.  Then, he took a turn for the worse.  His cancer had spread to his spine at this point and began to cause him excruciating pain as well as cut off his ability to use his limbs.  He decided he didn't want his final time to be extended if that meant being a quadriplegic doped up in pain, he went ahead with a radical spinal surgery to remove the sections affected and replace them with metal rods.

The surgery was a success, but his liver, also riddled with cancer, was never able to recover from it.  His health quickly deteriorated and he was sent home to his beautiful home on the water he loved to be with his family.  I said goodbye to him on October 30th.  On October 31st he turned and looked at his sons and wife one final time, smiled and passed on.

Recently, the amazing and lovely Amy of Amy's Nail Boutique created a polish to honor another man who was battling with colon cancer who sadly also has left this world.  Jonathan.  Another father and husband and close friend of another lovely women I've met in this community.  A man who fought bravely and made the best of the time he had left.  For weeks every time I put it in my cart, I cried.  But I knew I had to buy it.  So I finally did.  Half of the sale proceeds of this polish goes to Jonathan's family.  Please check out the polish at Amy's Store for more information.

I could think of no better polish than this to wear today.  To my amazing brother Kevin, who was the most well liked man I've ever known.  To remind me of his beautiful wife, the pillar of strength and dedication, who wore blue on their anniversary.  To remind me of how I wish I could be more days when I complain or cry.

This is one coat of Amy's Nail Boutique For Jonathan over 3 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  For Jonathan has blue and copper glitter with a ton of blue micro glitter in the base.  As with all of my Amy's polishes, it applied perfectly.

Thanks for reading.


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Quantum Leaf

This is another polish from the KB Shimmer fall collection, named Quantum Leaf.  It is a great fall color blend with the shimmery goldenrod base with yellow, red and orange multi-sized glitters.  It reminds me of the leaves turning color this time of year.

Quantum leaf is a bit sheer going on so you can still see some visible nail line.  Next time I'm going to try this over a base.

As with all of my KB Shimmer polishes, it applies like a dream.  I've always been able to easily get the glitters from bottle to nail and I've never been disappointed with any of her polishes.

As an added bonus, I've also gotten hooked on her soaps and lotions as well.  The shea butter lotions are luxurious and the regular lotion is pretty spectacular as well.  I've also worked my way through most of the soaps and I haven't really found one I didn't like yet!  Check out some of her other products while you are on her site!

Look at all of the depth to this polish!

KB Shimmer polishes can be found at her online store.

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Ama Dablam goes ka-Bluey

Today I have one of the Butter London polishes I got during Ulta's BOGO sale.  This is the beautiful Bluey.  It went on a bit sheer at first, so you see three coats below.  As with all Butter polishes I've tried this went on like a dream and was easy to control on the nail.  I love the depth in this polish, I'm such a fan of blue polishes.

To give it a little kick, I sponged Elevation Polish Ama Dablam on the tips.  I loved the colors in this polish.  It also has something super unique in that it has circle glitter.  I thought these two worked well with each other.  I sponged it on a little thick, but from a distance I loved the way it looked!

Ama Dablam applies easily and it is very easy to get the glitters from bottle to nail.  I dripped two drops on the paper and picked up all of this on the sponge!

Close up of the glitters:

Butter, London polishes can be purchased at Ulta, Sephora or Nordstrom.  Elevation Polishes can be purchased at her Big Cartel store, Ama Dablam is, I believe, discontinued now.  I managed to get it the last round of pre-orders.  I'm sure you can find people swapping or selling it though!  
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Witch Way to see my Faux Pas?

Today's beauty is another one of the rubber finishes from Illamsqua, Faux Pas.  This is far more purple than shows up in the photos.  I am IN LOVE with these finishes.  They go on like a dream and have such a unique look to them.  You see one coat on the photos below.  (ONE COAT!).

Then, to punch it up a notch and disguise some tip wear, I decided to put KB Shimmer Witch Way on the tips.  The purples matched perfectly and it was a great little pop of colors on the tips.  This is what I wanted my fail earlier this week to look like!  I love this polish and I think it works great as an accent color for nails or would look great all over.  It is one of the more versatile Halloween polishes because you can wear it all year.

The rubber finishes are so awesome!

Illamasqua can be purchased at Sephora.  KB Shimmer can be purchased at her online store.  I also HIGHLY recommend her soaps and lotions as well.  They are AWESOME!  

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A Naked Pinkie Promise

I have joined a new cause near and dear to my heart.  For all of the Wednesdays in October, I will be participating in "Go Pink Wednesdays" with a group of amazing women.

Four years ago my mother, who is my best friend, was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Fortunately, because her sister is also a survivor (15 years and counting!) she got regular mammograms and it was caught while it was still stage 1.  She had a tiny micro-metastisis in her lymph nodes, but chemo was not required.  She is now among the ranks of amazing women who are breast cancer survivors. 

Having worked in cancer research for the past 17 years I can tell you unequivocally that early detection means drastically increased survival.  Breast cancer treatment has been so streamlined and tailored that they are able to treat most women so they can add their name on the list of survivors.

I've had a few mammograms (thanks family history!) and while they are rather unpleasant (never, EVER, go when you are PMSing.  OUCHY), the peace of mind you get from knowing things are all clear is so wonderful.  

So your breast cancer PSA is:  feel your boobies, if you feel anything abnormal, go get checked out.  Get your mammograms according to your lady docs advice.  If you have a strong family history (any mother/sister/aunt who had breast cancer before the age of 50 or who died from it), consider getting tested for the BRCA genes.

Onto the pretty:

I started off with China Glaze Naked, the perfect shimmery pink.  I can't do baby pink very well with my coloring, but this has enough of a deepness to it that I think it turned out pretty good.  I found like many of the CG shimmers, it tends to be a bit on the watery side, but still easily workable and cleanupable.  

This photo also shows off my new toy.  With rain and the coming winter, I wanted to invest in a light box to be able to still get decent shots.  So I think it came out pretty good, let me know what you think!  I'm showing you with both backgrounds as I think that changes the look of things.

Such pretty shimmer!

 Then I added Rainbow Honey Pinkie Promise on top, a tribute to the pony Pinkie Pie.  A beautiful mufti-fasceted glitter that just stands out. 

GUH, so amazing.  I just loved this, it was a smile on my nails!

The flecks in this work so amazing with the shimmer in the base.  

One of the reasons I chose to use a Rainbow Honey polish is they are having an AWESOME promotion this month.  For every "pink" polish of theirs you buy, they will donate a portion of the proceeds to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (where MOST of the money goes to programs and not administration).  For more details, please go here:  http://www.rainbowhoney.com/blogs/news/6658770-october-is-breast-cancer-awareness-month   Pinkie Promise is included in this promotion.  

I encourage all of you to share your beautiful pink manicures as well.  Funding for research is extremely important, but what that research has taught us is that early detection is key, ESPECIALLY in women of younger ages when your body still naturally produces estrogen in large quantities which often feed the tumors.  <3   So, please, give the twins a good squeeze! 

Here are the amazing bloggers who are joined into Go Pink Wednesdays, please check them out in support of this fantastic cause and leave them a comment!  <3








 


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All Dauled Up UnforGretably

Today's post is one that has been on my computer for a while and I forgot about it.  Zoya Daul.  This is a really unique polish that is purple with tons of gold shimmer.  It went on like a dream (like all Zoya's do!) and you see three coats.  I could probably have done two, but there was a bare spot on one of my nails (painter's error).

Sun:

This had such a great shift in the sun

Macro

As a bonus shot


****warning feet pic ahead****

here is OPI UnforGretably Blue.  What a great color this is, I just ADORE IT!

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Scarlett O'Hara under the Blood and Snow

I wasn't thrilled with the way the Girly Girly art came out, so I decided to salvage the mani by putting a topper over it.

Behold Metametics Blood and Snow.

While you can't see the red glitters against the red background very well in the photos, in the light they pop out just enough to make it stunning.

I got tons of compliments on this manicure.  Like all of my Metametics, this went on easily and was stunning on the nail.

This mani was a slam dunk in my eyes, I loved the shimmer of Scarlett under Blood and Snow.  Bonus props goes to Metametics for Game of Thrones themed polishes named after the magnificent Jon Snow.

Indirect sun:

Shade 

Full Sun:

 Macro (ignore the bubbles :-(  )

Metametics can be purchased at their Etsy Store.

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Fail With the Wind

This week's Girly Girl Nail Art Challenge topic was "Your Favorite Chick Flick".  I went with the most epic chick flick of all time - Gone with the Wind.

This is my mom's favorite movie of all time and so it reminds me of us two gals snuggling up in front of the TV watching it as an escape from the sea of men we lived with (I have 4 older brothers).  To me it is the mother of all chick flicks.

I chose Essie Scarlett O'Hara, which is evocative of the time the movie came out because when I think of the 30s and 40s manicure, it is always RED in my head.

However I wanted to try something different, so I matted Scarlett, which I loved, then I wanted to do the tips with a gloss.  Meh.  Sort of a fail on my part.  The application was lacking and it was hard to get a photo that didn't make it look WAY worse than it was.

Oh well, you never try, you never learn, right?

Shade:

Look at how perfect this color mattes!

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