Friday Triad (on a Sunday): Inspired by @kt_tk1

So two days ago it was time for our Triad post, but due to my work scheduling changing, working multiple public holidays and three weekends in a row, I didn't have time for nails. I actually went naked for 3 days!! I can honestly say that was three pretty bad days. We had to do PPE training at work, how to don and doff face masks, face visors and how to properly sanitize our hands. And sanitizing my hands 4 times in a row, actually lifted my polish... That's one of the reasons I stopped wearing my engagement ring weeks ago. I don't even want to know what the over exposure to different kinds of sanitizers would do to the integrity of my ring.

Anyway, Joyce and Michelle was super understanding and allowed delaying the post by two days. It was my turn to choose our inspiration and I chose this manicure done by @kt_tk1. Let me show you what I did.

I started with two coats of Fair Maiden Polish vintage romance on my thumb and index finger. On my middle finger I have a coat of Tip Top pink lemonade. On my ring finger and pinky I have two coats of Catrice oyster and champagne.

I then stamped an image from Moyou fashionista 11 with Nicole Diary white on my middle finger. I actually like that I managed to pick up the gold in oyster and champagne. Normally it just looks slightly pink in photos.

What do you think? I kinda like how it turned out. I wish I had more time for nails... I'm actually behind with the 52weeknailchallenge and I don't mean with just posting. Normally I have time to do 3 mani's in the space of two weeks. That way I stay slightly ahead, now I only have time once maybe twice in a two week period. Which is very depressing for me. Doing my nails is essential ME time. I always feel better with a new mani.

Don't forget to check what Michelle and Joyce did with my inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday Triad: Inspired by @nail_art_by_tal

Triad time! This time it was Michelle's turn to choose our inspiration and she chose this by @nail_art_by_tal. I originally had this pinned for recreation too and I'm not sure how I feel about taking it off my list! I feel cheated... But at least I actually end up doing it. Let me show you what I did.

I started with two coats of OPI DS pewter on my ring finger and pinky. On my thumb, index and middle finger I have two coats of OPI don't touch my tutu, with a coat of OPI int'l crime caper over that.

I then stamped from Lina @shannasnailartadventures collab with Mundo de Unas light grey and then Nicole Diary black.

Top coated and then added a coat of essence matt to meet you. I feel like this polish is a dud... On my middle finger it's a proper matte polish, looks and feels matte. On my thumb I added two more coats to get the same effect as my middle finger. Which is annoying!

You can see here my thumb still looks shiny compared to my middle finger. Anyway, what do you think? I love this! I'm bummed about my right hand not being properly matte, but I can live with that. Don't forget to see what Joyce and Michelle did with our inspiration.

Today is also the first day for our country wide lock down... Since the lock down was announced two days ago, people have lost their minds. Everyone and their aunt has flocked to the shops, ignoring the whole distancing thing. I won't be surprised if there's an increase in the amount of Covid cases because of this. 

Just calm your tits and chill. You will still be able to go to the shop and get food, as there will be food. The only thing that is changing, is that you can't go when you want and with your whole household. We are trying to prevent the spread of this virus. Not encourage it!

I, however, will be at work. Among all the other essential workers. So, if you aren't essential, stay home. Get to know your family again. Spend time with them, make the most of this. Start a new hobby, do that thing that you've been putting off because you didn't have time. Read a book! Because I kinda wish I was in your shoes... At home, with my other half. But I can't.

Just. Stay. The Fuck. Home!! Do what you can to prevent the spread!

Thanks for reading!

#52weeknailchallenge: unused polish

Before I start this post I would like to say something about the Corona outbreak... I'm not going to tell you to wash your hands and cover up when you cough and sneeze, because you should KNOW to do that in any way!!! As most of you might know, I am a medical receptionist at a practice with 13 Dr's.  On an average day we see about 250 patients per day. On a busy day we have closer to 300, now imagine having to deal with over 300 people for a couple of days in a row...

In the past 2 weeks I have experienced people lying about traveling, people refusing to follow our protocols of sanitizing their hands before they enter our practice and refusing to wear face masks. Putting our whole practice and subsequently putting all of the staff members, the Dr's and our families at risk. The selfishness of people shocks me to my core. BUT I have also seen people in our community offer to do shopping and odd tasks for the immune compromised and the elderly and that gives me a tiny bit of hope for humanity.

And as exhausted as my colleagues and myself are, we still try and do the best to our abilities for our patients. So if you happen to find yourself in a medical facility and the staff look harassed and exhausted, try and take it easy on them. We are worried of being a risk to our families and we are worried for the well being of our patients. We don't need you to be assholes. Hell offer us a cup of coffee! We will love you for it. With that said, be safe and look after each other.

Now to the nails.... That's what we here for right? It was easy finding an unused polish, but doing a manicure with it is the tricky part. Let me show you what I did.

I started with three coats of ILNP funhouse on my thumb, index and middle finger. On my ring finger and pinky I have two coats of Catrice PLUMdogmillionare.

I then stamped a design from Lina @urbannailart collab plate with Nicole Diary black on my middle finger.

Easy peasy and I absolutely loved this!! Funhouse almost glowed in low light and I was constantly shifting my nails looking at the pretty.

Quick and easy nail art for a long ass post. What do you think? Both of the nail art and the outbreak? Are you also in the medical field and feeling it with me?

Thanks for reading!!

A whole lot of feels....

There's been a whole lot of these personal posts around lately. And I've had immense sympathy for everyone having a hard time. I felt chuffed with myself that the only stress that I had was work.

Then I get a message from my mother... Now we have always had a very difficult relationship. There were times that we would get along quite well. And then there were times that we just did not. There were times that I would actually feel physically ill at home because of the things that my mother would say to me and how kak I felt because of it. And going to work was a welcome relief.

There was a time that I wasn't allowed to go to BF's house, unless I took the dog with.... Or that when he came to visit and we wanted to go to a friends braai I would have to ask permission... This all way into my 20's.

Then finally we managed to get a place. And our landlord was great, they brought the rent down so we could afford it, they left a fridge and a stove, because the place that they moving into already has all of that. They said we can use the stove and fridge as long as we need to. And we were super grateful. Then my parents decided to buy all these things they left behind for us, or at least so I thought.

Because fast forward to the message I got. To inform me that my mother is going to see if she can sell her stove and then she will be fetching ours. And today I got the message to say that she's sold it and will let me know when they will be fetching ours.

I am completely stressed right now. I don't know what to do, I mean sure I could do without it, but electricity is already so expensive and money is tight. And BF is just completely pissed off. I don't think that my parents really approved of him. I mean, they don't even want to come to our place, because they don't want to come to HIS place. Even though it's as much my place as his.

Anyway, I just had to get it off my chest. Maybe someone will take pity on me and send me stove. At least I know it's not just me that has a difficult relationship with the parents.

Sorry for the rant.

Hean nail polish #276 - Jungle Pop Collection

Ah man another Monday... Is it just me or could you do with more time too? I mean somehow I have to work, clean, do the washing, make food and find time to do my nails, spend time with BF, visit the parents and time to RELAX. And some people think that doing my nails and relaxing is over rated. That I could be doing any of the other above mentioned things. Honestly that's just giving me a headache. You work with the public the whole day and see if you up for the rest...

Anyway, today I have #276 from the Jungle Pop collection to show you. This is 3 coats. And it's green! I like green.

I had no idea what to do with this colour. So I decided to use some decals that I've been staring at for some time now.

I totally messed up with some of the decals... Stupid over here didn't remove the plastic cover before putting it in the water...

I made some dots on my index finger with Jungle Pop #281. I liked the flowers... It really went with this green. The decals is from BPS.

So do you have the same issue than what I do about time? Do you also need more? And what do you think of my flowers? Don't forget if you like this Hean you just need to pop over to Glamore Cosmetics to get it!!

Thanks for popping by.

#DTOwedding - For Thea

Today is a super special day for Thea from Madness Nails. She is getting married!!!

I want to wish you a blessed day, may it be filled with friends, family, love, laughter and happiness, no tears! Only if they are tears of happiness, that will be acceptable ;) May your lives be filled with joy and I hope you will always be able to find joy with each other. Congratulations!

Michelle roped in a couple of us to celebrate Thea's wedding with some nail art...

I started with two coats of Tip Top Hysteria. I'm hoping it fits in well with the colour scheme of the bride and groom. I also think my camera hates this colour, it's more plum and less red.

I then stamped using Essence stampy polish in black and the image of the girl off BPS BP-25 plate on my middle finger. On my ring finger I stamped her dress using Tip Top Armourplate. I then sponged on a glitter gradient on my thumb, index and pinky using Tip Top Galaxy.

That's it, what do you think?

And again, only the best of wishes to you Thea  
XxXxXx

An InLinkz Link-up

Disappointment

This has been bothering me for a while now. And I've come to the realisation that it's kinda making me depressed. Besides that I'm probably dead tired from working too much.

You know how it is when you do all the work and other people gets the credit? That's how I feel at the moment.

I did something and other people have done the same, the only difference is that they got credit for their work and I got none. It's not that I expect anything or that I want to gain anything from it, I just want my work to be acknowledged as well.

I feel terrible for the way it's affecting me, it's making me feel like my work is not good enough and I hate it.

Maybe you know how I feel, maybe you don't, maybe you just think I'm ungrateful and need to be happy with what I have... Maybe I should be. Maybe I'm just tired to the point where I can't tell the difference between my exhaustion and my depression. Which is kinda depressing, don't you think?

Naked Nails

Those of you that's been following me for a while might remember that I had a rough patch, where my nails were breaking one by one and I ended up with stompies for a while. I did a post here where I thanked some people for being amazing and being there for me and complained about my nails a bit.

Anyway, Sam suggested that I get a product called Ultimate Growth 2 from Glamore Cosmetics, saying it might work for me. I'm honestly very sceptical about things like this, just because it worked for you, doesn't always mean it will work for me.

Since I have very nosey nail friends and I've been asked to share my progress, this is for them.

My before picture was taken 26/12/14. As you can see there's some crazy peeling going on and it was right on that lines that my nails broke.

I then took a follow up pictures 19/01/15. There is still some peeling, but not as much as there was when I started.

Follow up pictures 07/02/15. Like wow, you can barely see the peeling. The condition of my nails did improve a lot.

And now, this picture was taken 28/02/15. My nails look healthy, I love the length and the shape. I did lose the corner off my index finger on my right hand after I took the picture, but it's not noticeable and I don't have to change my length at all.

In my first week of treatment, I wore only the Ultimate Growth adding a coat every day. After the first week I used it as a base coat for all my art and if I didn't have any polish on I added a coat of treatment every day. During this I still used my Tip Top cuticle oil and used a sugar scrub to exfoliate once a week. When I did any kind of cleaning involving water I had gloves on. Water truly is your nails worst enemy.

So, be the judge for yourself and try Ultimate Growth 2, which you can buy from Glamore Cosmetics for R150.

Llarowe winner

I haven't mentioned this on the blog before or at least not that I can remember....

But back in August last year, early one Saturday morning (before 6am, early) I got an email from a lady named Sheila telling me that I had won a $500 Visa Gift Card from Llarowe. They had this competition on their FaceBook page for getting 1 million likes. I read the rules, luckily there was some international prizes available and I took a chance.

Instead of getting the actual Visa Gift card, we opted to pay the money into my PayPal account. Which was awesome!!

Naturally I had to buy me some nail goodies!! And a lot of it. And I bought BF something too. This post is to show what I bought with the prize money. And it's in the order I received it. Obviously this took forever and a day with the postal strike that we had at that time. So some of these packages took months to eventually reach me. So obviously this post has been a draft for forever and a day too. So I'm am super stoked to finally share this!!

Firstly, the gift I bought BF. A robot from Portal.

Yea, BF is a real nerd sometimes. Although he claims he isn't.... This connects via USB to a pc and is motion sensitive. I've posted two videos to Instagram if you want to have a look. When it's activated it says some of the things the real ones do in the game.

Next I got me some Mont Bleu Crystal Glass nail files. I've been hunting for a decent glass nail file for a while and when I saw it, I think, on Lucy's Stash, I decided to take the plunge and buy it. I got two sets, one of which I gave to my mother.

Now I just need to learn how to shape my nails properly myself, because I totally suck at it.

Then I finally received the package I ordered from BPS back in August I think. Dotting tools, nail art brushes, decals, new stamping sets, stamping plates, stamping plate holders and decals. Some rhinestones and the glitter that you use for glitter placement.

If you want a close up of anything, or if you want to know what stamping plates it is, just drop me a line and I'll happily send you some shots.

Next up, is a package from Parental Advisory Polish. I ordered this back in November because there was an awesome discount going as it was Maranda's birthday. When I got this box, I for the love of me couldn't think who it was from. Imagine my excitement when I opened it! (I actually got two packages on the same day, but I opened this one first.)

I ordered fuck me boots, happy ending, dirty pickle and tiff's tush. OMG don't you just love those names! And Maranda was so kind to throw in some metallic studs and french tip guides. I love it, as I don't have any metallic studs and the tip guides are the skinny ones, which I think works better for some art than the thicker ones. Of course my mother claimed one of my happy endings (sigh).

The other package was from BPS. Some awesome decals and a nail polish bottle holder. To keep it from sliding around, which is a problem for me. I ordered two glass nail files here too, but obviously I'm sticking to my Mont Bleu ones. My mother claimed one of these ones already, even with the set I gave her.

There was also this random little packet with the package, that I (again) for the love of me don't know where it came from. In this packet was a stamping plate, decals, silver hexagon glitter, 3D flowers and loads of rhinestones. BF was like, I probably got some one else's order too. I actually think that when I placed this order BPS had a thing going that if you spent over a certain amount, you got a free gift. It's the only explanation that makes any kind of sense. Or there is actually some one out there that didn't get their BPS order.

I also ordered some polishes from Llarowe. I felt that I needed to order something from them, for the awesome prize I got. 

Isn't that just to die for? I mean, I have Emily de Molly polishes!! I got some vinyls as well and I can't wait to try them out.

There is some lightning, chevron and starburst ones.

And lastly, at least I think it is the last I ordered with my prize money. I mean it took forever!! Stamping plates and decals.

And more stamping plates!!

Betrayed and Grape Dance

I'm going to start this post of with a bit of a ramble, so if you don't wanna read it. Just scroll down to the bottom, as I do have some nail art I want to show you.

Our clinic hours have changed since the first of Jan, now due to this our working hours had to change as well, since we have to work a certain amount of hours. Now I have a a good relationship with our HOD and she tells me things that she wouldn't normally tell the other staff. I'm also her most reliable receptionist, I stand in for any one and any time. If somebody calls in sick and she needs someone, she calls me. And I'm always available. So in November I worked about 24 hours overtime, yip, 24 hours. And then they still short paid me on it. When I queried it and when she got back to me, it was because I owed the company hours and they deducted those hours from my approved overtime hours. So naturally I was pissed off, I said the her if that is going to be the case I'm not going to work overtime again. Why would I work overtime and there's no guarantee that I would get paid for it? I mean I've been a kippie for her, but this is really pushing it.

My dad brought me some paperwork to complete last year, to apply for positions that was available by him for admin work. I completed it, not thinking much and not hoping for any more than that. So on Wednesday I got a call, I need to go for fingerprints, obviously to check for a criminal background. When I got to work my HOD called me to her office and asked me why didn't I tell her about me applying for another job. And if I got it, would I take it. Skipping that conversation, I assumed they called for a reference. Thursday morning my dad calls me and says to me, that when they called for the reference, she was rude to them and she said she doesn't have time for it. So I asked one of the doctors as I needed that ASAP.

I feel betrayed by this, some of my colleagues have said this is a slap in the face, considering all I have done for her and for her to do that to me... What has she not done to some of the other receptionists that have left? I have asked my dad to find out if she ever did do that reference, because if she hasn't done it... I am going to report her, as this is my future she's jeopardising. Besides all this she still has the nerve to ask me to stay till next year as she has earmarked me for another position. And when I asked what it may be, she told me it would be hers. Now I do not want hers as I don't want the shit she has to put up with.

Okay enough rambling. Here's the art. I started with two coats of Tip Top Grape Dance on my pinky, middle and thumb. Grape Dance is a purple jelly or at least it seems jellyish to me. On my ring and index fingers I did one careful coat of Sinful Colors Snow me White. Used some striping tape and one of my new dotting tools, went to town on my index fingers with some dots and lines on my ring fingers.

When that was dry I added some pretty flower decals from BPS.

So what do you guys think?

2014

And so another year has come to an end... A lot of people has been saying they've had a lot of ups and downs, highs and lows. That's life though...

For me, I can't really think of anything that stands out. I've met some amazing new people, won some awesome competitions, been more active on my blog, hit 800 views within 10 days of hitting 700! You people are absolutely awesome. BF being in the car accident and having it being written off. But other than that though, I'm still here and still healthy, so what more do I need?

I have been thinking of doing a post with all the Christmas gifts I got, but I just decided to show the nail related items... So first on the list is... My brand new laptop from BF. I've been doing all my posting from work or from my phone, so finally I can do it from home!! Next is an Ulta3 advent calender that I got from BF's mom.

They are all minis, but still totally cool. Also, one of my colleagues got me a Clicks voucher, for me to use on nail polish. Awesome!

Anyway, I did do a mani for NYE, it's not much and I'm not too happy with it, but BF thinks it looks nice.

At the moment I'm using the treatment that I ordered from Omega as a base, trying to save the last of my MR. I also used one of the new polishes I got from Tip Top. It's called Sparkle Queen.

It's a black jelly filled with awesome big and small holo hexagons and glitter. To me it seems like Black Forest and Rocky Road had a love affair. And this is the illegitimate child they had. It is completely awesome though. I'm wearing two coats. Over that I attempted to stamp with Armourplate. I have a new stamper and I'm still getting used to it. It's very sticky... Any advice?

I got most of the image on my index finger, properly aligned too. The rest is just all wrong, although the longer I look at it, the nicer it seems. What more do you need for NYE? It's got black and glitter and silver. Seems perfectly right to me.

Well I hope everyone is safe out there tonight and you will see me in the New Year. Have a good one.

Omega Nails South Africa winner

Omega Nails South Africa, My Manicure Madness and Do My Nails hosted a competition on their FaceBook pages for glitter pots that was sponsored by Omega Nails. As I mentioned on my facebook page, I was lucky enough to be one of the winners, as there was one winner per page.

I contacted the lovely Gael from Omega to organise delivery and while I was doing that I ordered two of the Omega treatments, Omega Labs Ultimate Growth2, one for me and one for my mother with whom I would have to share the glitter pots.

Gael was kind enough to send my mom a little something something... And she was even more kind by sending me some samples. I was also very impressed with the way everything was packaged. It was made up nicely and you could really tell that effort was put in to it. And that made it even more special.

I've said this to some people and I'll say it again. The people I've met in the nail art community are some of the kindest and most generous people I know. I mean where have you seen people randomly sending you things without even knowing who the hell you are?

I had just started following Michelle and she kept mentioning using this thing called "striping tape", I was like wtf is striping tape?? So I sent her a message on Facebook and she explained to me what it is and then offered to send me some! Like huh? Send me some? Suuuure! Obviously not gonna say no to free stuff (saying that tongue in cheek, knowing she might read this).

But that's not where it ended... It is where it started though and I completely fell in love with this community and it still manages to astound me. I just hope that one day I would be able to give some things away to somebody that just starts out. And be able to show the same amount of generosity that was shown to me. The kind part I'm not too sure about.... I'm a bitch after all :p (LoL)

Anyway, I will be posting on the treatment and see if it works for me. So keep a look out for that. Also if you want to order anything from Omega you can visit the website www.glamore.co.za or you can email Gael on gael67@telkomsa.net.