Sunday 14 April 2013

Week 2 of Blue Nails for Autism

This April I am painting my nails blue every single day for Autism Awareness. You can follow my progress on Instagram - @radjecca. Or if you would like to join in you can request to join the Facebook Group.

There are many amazing manis on there as well as silent Auctions on custom made one-of-a-kind nail polishes! All of the profits from these sales will be going to ASPEC Australia! To see some of the polishes that have been made so far head over to Paint It Blue 2013 blog!



Monday 8th.
First up this week I decided I needed to use some holo! I used Layla Ocean Rush. I love this polish, I have had it for ages and it is by far my most used and possible favourite polish so far!

Tuesday 9th.
How could I not use Essence - Blue Addicted over Essence - Hard to Resist. I love Blue Addicted sooooo much, I still can not believe that they discontinued it! (lucky I have 6 bottles hehe)

Wednesday 10th.
Dots! Polishes used in this mani were Essence - Walk on Air (dark) and Essence - Let's Get Lost (Light) Let's Get Lost stained my nails and I had to buff them out, nothing else was going to work. I was not happy with this mani but I did have a killer of a headache when I did it.

Thursday 11th.
My first Splatter mani! I had so much fun with this! I tried using PVA glue on my skin instead of tape for easier clean up and it worked a treat! It was much easier! I used Sinful Colors - Snow Me White for the base then Splattered Essence - Walk on Air, Essence - Let's Get lost and a bit more white to create this look.


Friday 12th.
I was in a mega rush on Friday but my bottle of Essence - BBC Orange Sunset from the Sun Club Trend Edition happened to be sitting next to my bottle of Australis - Blue Tiger and I though they would go really well together! They're OK I guess, not a huge fan and I left my camera at home so iPhone was the only option if I wanted to catch these in daylight :(
April 13th.
Another sunny day and another great opportunity to wear something holo! This is Sinful Colors - Endless Blue topped with OPI - Servin' up Sparkle, The glitter is much more holo and pretty IRL.

April 14th.
Last but not least is my personal favourite of the week. This is Essence - Nude Glam in Iced Latte with yet again, another appearance from Layla - Ocean Rush. I could not stop staring at these all day!!! Plus I was pretty impressed with how my dotting is getting better! I am very pleased with how my nails are looking now, this is the best they have ever look (health wise). I also jumped the guns here and did it for ANM tomorrow as the theme is polka dots!

Well, thanks again for reading! Hopefully I might have another post this time before my next weekly instalment  (Please don't hold it to me though :P)

Happy Sunday Everyone! xx




Saturday 6 April 2013

This April I am painting my nails blue every single day for Autism Awareness. You can follow my progress on Instagram - @radjecca. Or if you would like to join in you can request to join the Facebook group.

There are many amazing manis on there as well as silent Auctions on custom made one-of-a-kind nail polishes that will be sold in silent auctions! All of the profits from these sales will be going to ASPEC Australia! To see some of the polishes that have been made so far head over to the Paint It Blue 2013 blog!

So here are my manis so far this week...

Monday April 1st.
Today was not only the first Paint It Blue day, but also Aussie Nails Monday. This weeks theme was Inspired By Clothing. I chose to imitate the beautiful blue gradient of my favourite dress.
I started off with 3 coats of Sinful Colors - Snow Me White then using a sponge I added China Glaze - For Audrey and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Blue Me Away. 
This was my first time having a go at gradient nails. I am very pleased how they turned out!

Tuesday April 2nd.
April 2nd is the official Autism Awareness Day and Light It Up Blue, so I had a crack at some nail art to resemble some of the logos I have seen while reading about the cause.
I started off with 3 coats of Sinful Colors - Snow Me White, then added the blue which is Sinful Colors - Endless Blue. I used Endless Blue on my accent nails and drew the light bulb logo with Essence - French Manicure & Pedicure Pen.
I was very pleased with these and had trouble bringing myself to remove them for the next days mani.

Wednesday April 3rd.
Today I was in a bit of a rush so I just did a quick mani with Sinful Colors - Blue By You. I am in love with this colour, it has much more of a Teal-ish shimmer rather than light blue that shows in the pic.

Thursday April 4th.
Today I used my favourite blue that I own, L'oreal - Mystic Blue and added some silver holo glitter that Emma sent me in my Secret Santa package last year!

Friday April 5th.
I finally found some tape! So I decided to do the famous chevron mani using Essence - Hard to Resist topped with Kleancolor - Holo Blue. The girls at school loved this one and asked if I could bring some polishes and do their nails for them, so I asked the principal and he said yes!!!

Saturday April 6th.
I was feeling very uninspired and just in a bad mood in general so I went with a simple gradient using Sinful Colors - Snow Me White (On thumb, not shown), Maybelline Mini Colorama - Party Blue, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Blue Me Away, Sinful Colors - Endless Blue, L'oreal - Mystic Blue all toppped with Essence - Prince Charming from the Snow White Special Effect Topper Collection.

Sunday 7th April.
I tried to do water marble nails but I couldn't get the temperature of the water right and the polish just wouldn't spread out. After about an hour of fiddling with the temp, tyring different polishes and swearing I was in no mood so went for quick and easy French Tips using Essence - Underwater Love from the Show Me Your Toes Collection. I'm not sure why but this collection says that it is "toenail polish" I don't know what the difference would be, meh, works on fingernails too! I topped this off with an unnamed Satin blue glitter.

So that was my week of blue nails. Tomorrow is Aussie Nails Monday and the theme is Candy, I'm off to think of some blue candy I can try to interpret into nail art!!!

Happy Sunday Everyone xx






Indie Wish List

Here is my Indie Wish List so far:

Alanna Renee:
 - Purple Addiction
 - Pacific
 - Horcrux
 - Hedwig
 - Draught of Peace
 - Dementor
 - Chocolate Frog
 - Ablaze
 - Avada Kedavra
 - Fawkes
 - Stupefy

Femme Fatale:
 - Abyssal Reflections
 - Coldwraith
 - Crimson Acolyte
 - Ebon Roses
 - Fatal Attraction
 - Gilded Rose
 - Hydraxia
 - Lucent Ametrine
 - Mana Ruby
 - Miasma
 - Noble Garden
 - Spring Fling
 - Tricky Treats
 - Winter Hyacinth

Glam Polish:
 - Indigo
 - Jem
 - Nebula
 - Lilas
 - I.Q.
 - Lucky
 - Nite Sprite

Loony Lacquer:
 - Cinderella's Slippers

Love Thy Polish
 - Miss Bossy Pants
 - Girly Girl
 - Touch of Paradise
 - Royalty

Sayuri Nail Lacquer:
 - Fairy Kei

Gloss 'n Sparkle:
 - Hearts Afflutter
 - Sleepy Head
 - Purpetual Darkness
 - Sweet Charity
 - Fruit Tingle
 - Passion Pop
 - Blue Monday
 - Strawberry Jive
 - Retrovertigo
 - Cuticle Oil

Cirque:
 - Cape Liz
 - Curiosity
 - Cypress
 - Dark Horse
 - French Roast
 - Hellebone
 - Lapis
 - Never Nude
 - Ophelia
 - Planet Caravan
 - Tibetan Nights

Crows Toes
 - Bone Daddy
 - Cheshire
 - Heartless
 - Triple Black Diamond

Emily de Molly:
 - Ruby Soho
 - Blue Print
 - Cosmic Forces
 - Somber Pantry
 - Girls Best Friend
 - A Beautiful Mistake
 - It's Just a Phase
 - Sweet As
 - Harmony
 - Regal Beginnings
 - A Certain Shade of Green
 - Dark Depths
 - When Planets Collide
 - Stuck on Blue
 - It's Complicated
 - Cuticle Oil

Enchanted Polish:
 - Hot Chocolate
 - Freeze Machine

Girly Bits:
 - Boo-berry
 - Arctic Sunrise
 - Cosmic Ocean
 - Daddy's Little Girl
 - Eggnogoholic
 - Fathomless
 - Hot Shot
 - Magically Delicious
 - Purple Potion
 - Razzle Dazzle
 - Rogue

HARE Polish:
 - A Positive
 - Afterglow
 - Asteroid Turf
 - Atolla
 - Cast in Bronze
 - Hooky at the Hamlet
 - Midsummers Midnight
 - Pegasus
 - The Sky Was Pink
 - The Teen Queen
 - Why so Igneous?

Rainbow Honey:
 - A Little Kindness
 - Kawako
 - Kitsune
 - Cuticle Balm

Smitten Polish:
 - Candy Kisses
 - Confection
 - Hocus Pocus
 - Nerds Redux
 - Pink Goes Good With Green
 - Pink Lemonade II
 - Who Steal's a Dead Woman's Shoes??
 - Winter is Coming
 - Travelling By Bubble

I know it is lots, I am hoping now that I am working I can start to make a dent in this list. If you have any of these polishes on a blog sale etc., or if you know someone who does please let me know!

Wednesday 3 April 2013

My First Blog.


This is my first blog… Ever. So I guess I will start off with a little bit about me.

My name is Jess Curnow. I am 23 years old. I am a self diagnosed nail polish addict.
In January 2013 I moved from my home state of South Australia to a remote indigenous community in Western Australia called Jameson (Mantamaru) with my boyfriend, James. Jameson is located approx. 900kms south west of Alice Springs, NT.
Great Central Road, WA/NT Border
I work here at the Jameson Remote Community School as an EA (Education Assistant). My work mainly involves helping the teachers with the children. There are two classes in the school. “Little Kids” and “Big Kids”. The “Little Kids” class has students from pre-primary up to year 4 and the “Big Kids” class is year 5 up to year 12.
It may seem that such a wide age group and learning stages in one class is a real handful and not very beneficial to the children, however we are lucky to have a maximum of 18 children in the school at one time. The average attendance of the children means there is around 5-6 kids in each class on a normal day, sometimes less or none at all. There is always one teacher and either myself or the IEA (Indigenous Education Assistant) in each class, so the children get a lot of one on one teaching. Because of their non attendance the children are very behind with their learning, keeping in mind that we teach in English and their first language is Ngaanyatjarra and most of them start school with little or no English. So its fair to say our school works differently than “mainstream” schools. I find it is really challenging and keeps my brain active all the time. I love it.
I have been addicted to polish since Christmas 2011 when James paid for me to have acrylics put on as a gift and I wasn't happy with the finish they had on them so I painted them… And then it begun, I couldn't have enough polish and I still can’t! I am not an advanced polish-aholic like some of the girls I have met and grown to love, however my nail art is slowly becoming better and more creative and my swatches neater. I no longer have my acrylics on, thanks to the support and suggestions from the AN community my nails are starting to flourish and look the best they ever have! What better time to start a blog about them then?
On this blog I plan to post about my nails and the polish I use on them. I am going to mix it up a bit and blog about my life here in Jameson. I think it could make for an interesting read!
While I have your attention I would just like to ask that you please be patient with me. As I mentioned and as the title states, this is my first ever blog and to be honest, I have no idea what I am doing. I have discovered some very helpful “blogging for beginners” websites that I am going to sit down and study over the weekend and slowly I will get the hang of it.
Thanks for reading!