Go Pink Wednesday and a self exam tutorial!!!

Good morning ladies!  It is Wednesday again and we have two more Breast Cancer Awareness inspired manicures for you as well as some important information on how to do a self breast exam.

In last week's Go Pink post we stressed the importance of self-breast checks as a front line defense in the early detection of breast cancer. Although breast cancer presents itself more prominently in women over 40, there is still just under 7% of new cases found in younger women. Check your breasts ladies!  Get out your calendars and pick a day each month to follow these steps taken from breastcancer.org.

Step 1: Begin by looking at your breasts in the mirror with your shoulders straight and your arms on your hips.

Here's what you should look for:

• Breasts that are their usual size, shape, and color
• Breasts that are evenly shaped without visible distortion or swelling

If you see any of the following changes, bring them to your doctor's attention:

• Dimpling, puckering, or bulging of the skin
• A nipple that has changed position or an inverted nipple (pushed inward instead of sticking out)
• Redness, soreness, rash, or swelling

Step 2: Now, raise your arms and look for the same changes.

Step 3: While you're at the mirror, look for any signs of fluid coming out of one or both nipples (this could be a watery, milky, or yellow fluid or blood).

Step 4: Next, feel your breasts while lying down, using your right hand to feel your left breast and then your left hand to feel your right breast. Use a firm, smooth touch with the first few finger pads of your hand, keeping the fingers flat and together. Use a circular motion, about the size of a quarter.

Cover the entire breast from top to bottom, side to side — from your collarbone to the top of your abdomen, and from your armpit to your cleavage.

Follow a pattern to be sure that you cover the whole breast. You can begin at the nipple, moving in larger and larger circles until you reach the outer edge of the breast. You can also move your fingers up and down vertically, in rows, as if you were mowing a lawn. This up-and-down approach seems to work best for most women. Be sure to feel all the tissue from the front to the back of your breasts: for the skin and tissue just beneath, use light pressure; use medium pressure for tissue in the middle of your breasts; use firm pressure for the deep tissue in the back. When you've reached the deep tissue, you should be able to feel down to your ribcage.

Step 5: Finally, feel your breasts while you are standing or sitting. Many women find that the easiest way to feel their breasts is when their skin is wet and slippery, so they like to do this step in the shower. Cover your entire breast, using the same hand movements described in Step 4.

Image taken from http://drugline.org/ail/pathography/793/

Image taken from http://drugline.org/ail/pathography/793/

Now that we have all the fun out of the way let's see some nails, shall we?  For Dom's mani this week she used Orly Artificial Sweetener and did a mermaid tail accent nail.  The polishes Dom used for the accent nail were W'n'W  Candy-licious, Sally Hansen Hard to Get, W'n'W Sparked and China Glaze Strawberry Fields. Lastly, Northern Lights holographic top coat was applied to all nails.  

w/ flash

w/o flash

SUNSHINE!!!!

Since we're fast approaching the best holiday of the year, E wanted her pink wednesday mani to be tinted with the holiday... the best idea? DRIP NAILS!!!!

For this mani E used Essie Cascade Cool as the base and butter LONDON Primrose Hill Picnic for the drips. This mani was easier to do than it appears, so check back soon for a tutorial!!

outside in natural, overcast, light

outside in the shade

inside under an Ottlite

We hope you enjoyed the second week in our Breast Cancer Awareness, Go Pink Wednesday mani series!

xo,

 & 

butter London: Come To Bed Red... an ode to my perfect red

When I took advantage of the butter London sale a little while back (3 for $30usd!) I had no idea that I was picking up a color that might change my life....

butter London - Come To Bed Red w/Seche Vite top coat

Maybe a tad dramatic? I think not and you might not think so either when I explain.

I will preface this ode with the fact that I am a red snob. I only like certain shades of reds and not just "because I think they're pretty". I look at the actual tone and undertone of the hue. Red is such a powerful color but so many companies bastardize it by not paying attention to those two things.

To go a step further, about.com's definition for tone is this: (noun) - Tone is a quality of color. It has to do with whether or not a color is warm or cold, bright or dull, light or dim and pure or "otherwise"(not wishing to slap the perceived moral judgement of impure on a hapless color). You've most likely heard the phrase "Tone it down". In art, this means to make a color, or an overall color scheme, less vibrant. Conversely, "toning it up" can cause colors to pop out of a piece, sometimes to a rather startling extent.

For me, loving red is a "thing". It is something that I am passionate about. There are SO MANY beautiful shades that it is nearly impossible for me to really ever feel satisfied with how many "red" polishes I own, yet it is probably my smallest color family next to my greens. My favorite color of polish though is usually a purple or blue. I love those two shades, but I am nowhere near as passionate about them from an artistic level as I am about red.

To give you more information to explain undertone, Dictionary.com defines Undertone as: (noun) 1. a low or subdued tone. 2. an unobtrusive or background sound. 3. an underlying quality or element; undercurrent. 4. a subdued color; a color modified by an underlying color.

Ok, now that I'm done with art lessons ;) I'll explain why this is all relevant in my ode to butter London's Come To Bed Red. In this polish the overall tone is bright and in your face, however it is not so bright that it is annoying. The undertone is pure and muted just enough that it still has POW but not overtly so. The artist that created this color payed attention in art class because this is a very pure red from which one could create other lovely shades. Something so perfect is bound for more greatness, it doesn't just BE great it becomes greater. Come To Bed Red is also a sort of chameleon. It looks deceivingly darker inside but not necessarily because of inside lighting, I think it has to do more with how light refracts off the undertone. Outside it becomes luminescent and almost glowing it is so bright and cheerful.

My last and final thoughts... and truly the reason I felt compelled at midnight to write this post was because of it's removal. Now, I have tried a lot of red polishes in my time. Most, if not all, have slightly stained the skin around my nail bed during removal. A lot of colors do that from time to time and sometimes it's because the polish is a substandard formula, sometimes it's due to the fact that it is so highly pigmented that it sort of bleeds when acetone hits it. Because red polish removal irritates me MORE than glitter removal I don't rush to wear a red mani lol.

 I know I don't make sense because I just went on about how I love red polish, but there it is. Well when I received Come To Bed Red I just HAD to put it on. I've been lusting after this red for some time and it was finally MINE. Loved it so much I put it on at 3am while I was literally falling asleep at the desk here. Once I was done with it I was shocked and awed. I took a quick cell phone picture and posted it in a facebook group to share. Well I wore this mani all week. I haven't done a solid color- no nail art- in about 6 months and on top of that to wear it for a WEEK?! Unheard of! Needless to say I just sat down a little bit ago to remove it and felt that old frustration boiling up.

The "ugh, I'm going to be pink for at least a day, this is going to suck" frustration. I almost said F it and didn't remove it lol. But here comes the earth shattering news... It removes cleanly. As in absolutely no skin staining! No bleeding, no streaks, no nothing. It removed so perfectly you'd never know I had red on before and quite honestly I am impressed with an "expensive" brand's formula. More often than not price does not equate quality.

No pink left behind from mani removal (excuse my nails they're still a bit jacked up)

Please excuse the shitty iPhone picture, I didn't do a great job of painting and I never intended to blog about this so I never took "good" photos either but I just couldn't hold it in! This is my new favorite red of all time...

xo,

Come To Bed Red can be purchased at various stores, I purchased mine directly from butter London's website. Their 3 Free Lacquers retail for $14ea.