Swatch: ILNP Brilliance over China Glaze Riveting (S)

Hi! Long time no blog. Last weekend I made excuses for myself to get all dressed up. I got this new dress from American Apparel ($28 on sale!!) and of course needed nails to match. I put down a base coat of China Glaze Riveting (still my fav polish) and added ILNP Brilliance on top in a flakie gradient. I know the bright orange underneath hides the effect a little bit but it matched fantastically with my outfit. This swatch is by no means representative of the polish, so look forward to a swatch over bright green sometime soon!

That last photo shows the shift really well (pink to green with gold in the middle) and in the bottle you can see it also goes right to blue on the edges.

CG Riveting matches Kat Von D Countess perfectly btw.

xx 'til next time!
Sharra

#PinkForLeelah (S&T)

Hi everyone. I'm sure anyone who care to follow this kind of news has heard by now of Leelah Alcorn, the 17 year old transgender girl who died by suicide at the end of last year. In her own suicide letter queued on her tumblr (now removed by tumblr staff at the demand of her tormentors but visible here) she cited her parents' adamant rejection and emotional torture as the reason.

Though she wanted her worldly possessions to be donated to organizations helping transgender youth, it is highly unlikely that her parents will honour that request and so if you have extra stuff you don't want anymore or can spare a little change this month, consider donating to the organizations such as TransOhio and the Kaleidoscope Youth Center. And honestly, if you're looking to destash some of your unloved nail polishes, these kinds of organizations would love to rehome your old stuff to people who will treasure it and you can find them locally with a bit of work.

If you need help, there are countless hot lines (listed at the end of this post) and if you are transgender, there are other transgender people willing to listen and talk with you at crisis lines like Trans LifeLine and they are also expanding service to Canada (US: 877-565-8860 / Canada: 877-330-6366) and also organizations like Ally Moms for those of you with shitty parents.

Despite public outcry, her parents lie, misgender and continue to disrespect Leelah in her death. Her mother's Facebook post also did not cite her daughter's correct age and attempted to lie about the cause of death. If nothing else, as a US citizen please exercise your right to elicit change in your laws and government by pressuring the president to ban conversion therapy that is so detrimental to vulnerable youth.

Sharra's Nails
Anyway, this is what I'm wearing. I used  China Glaze Fast Track and Wish on a Starfish. I didn't want anything to pull attention from that pink nail so I chose the most neutral thing I could while still maintaining coherence across my hands.

I attempted to subdue the shiny with NYC Matte Me Crazy topcoat but it didn't seem to work. Side note though, that brush is glorious.

My hope is, like the Transgender Day of Remembrance post I did in 2012, that this sparkle starts some conversations and results in some really good education.

Tiffany's Nails

 Hi guys, sorry I haven't been posting very much lately, my nails have been successively breaking one after another... ugh. The winter air is frying my hair, my skin and my nails. I haven't been wearing nail polish for a while, but I felt this was too important to not do something for. My heart breaks for this girl and I am especially, incredibly saddened by the actions of her parents (or lack there of). My mother actually said something that stuck with me today when I talked to her about it, "when people get married they make vows to always stick by one another through sickness and in health, for better and for worse, and yet when you have a child you make no such vows to stick with them." She's absolutely right. So I want to vow to my future children (should I be so lucky to have any) that no matter who they are, what gender they are or who they choose to love, I will never abandon them, disown them or stop loving them. Leelah, I really hope your story and the stories of others in the LGTBTQ+ community inspire people change their intolerant views, regardless of their personal sexual orientations, gender identities and religions. Let's love, not hate. <3

Ok so for the nail polish I did a gradient of OPI Alpine Snow and OPI Don't Burst My Bubble on all my nails, but the ring finger. The ring finger got 3 coats of OPI Teenage Dream. I topped everything with Rainbow Honey Papillion, which just seemed perfect to me with the butterflies all through it. Hope you guys like it. 

Final Message
If you intend to be a parent, make sure that you are prepared to love the child you get. If you believe in an omniscient, omnipotent and Perfect God, understand that He has made everyone perfectly.

International suicide hotlines

Hotlines For US Residents

Depression Hotline: 1-630-482-9696

Suicide Hotline: 1-800-784-8433

LifeLine: 1-800-273-8255

Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386

Sexuality Support: 1-800-246-7743

Eating Disorders Hotline: 1-847-831-3438

Rape and Sexual Assault: 1-800-656-4673

Grief Support: 1-650-321-5272

Runaway: 1-800-843-5200, 1-800-843-5678, 1-800-621-4000

Exhale: After Abortion Hotline/Pro-Voice: 1-866-4394253

Hotlines For UK Residents

Depression: (YoungMinds) 0808 802 5544

Young Suicide: (Papyrus) 0800 068 4141

Self Harm: (National Self-Harm Network) 0800 622 6000

Child Abuse: (Childline) 0800 1111

Domestic Violence: (Refuge) 0808 2000 247

Rape: (Rape Crisis) 0808 802 9999

Drugs: (FRANK) 0800 77 66 00

Bereavement: (Cruse Bereavement Care) 0844 477 9400

Bereavement by Suicide: (Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide)0844 561 6855

Eating Disorders: (BEAT) 0845 634 1414 Panic Attacks: 0800 138 8889

Runaway: (Homeless UK) 116 000

Pregnancy & Post-Abortion: (CareConfidential) 0300 4000 999

LGBT Support & Information: (LLGS) 0300 330 0630

Domestic Violence Against LGBT People: (Broken Rainbow) 0300 999 5428

(Source and self care links)

Christmas Nail Art!! (T&S)

Merry Christmas everyone!! Sharra and I both did some nail art for Christmas so we thought we'd do a joint post for today! Hope everyone has a wonderful day!!

Sharra:

Alright, so for the last week or so I've been wearing ILNP Gaia (glorious swatches coming soon!) so I decided to work with it and do Christmas trees! I picked out some Christmas-y colours, beginning with Elianto Red. I also used Essence Let's Get Lost and Zoya Solange, which I know to be opaque. Dot-dot-dot~

A tree isn't a tree without some tinsel. Gosh Holographic Hero :D

It looks great from a distance! Hopefully I've warmed you up for Tiffany's classiness now, haha.

Tiffany's nail art:

Hi guys! So I kind of cheated and didn't do any freehand art on my nails. It's the holidays! I was busy! Haha. So I used some water decals from the born pretty store that are gorgeous! LOVE them! 10/10. So I used China Glaze Cranberry Splash as the base for my decals (two coats). Its a glowy, shimmery, classic red polish. I think they release a dupe of this every year for Christmas. I covered it with a coat of Enchanted Polish Djinn in a Bottle (linear holo top coat) to add a bit of extra dazzle. For the ring finger I did two coats of OPI Alpine Snow and then water marbled Cranberry Splash and top coat (keeps it from looking too pink this way apparently). They got the same Djinn in a bottle to match the other fingers! This was a super duper easy mani for Christmas. And I think it ended up looking really nice and clean. 

Rare shot of my right hand!

Indoor shot

With flash to show the holo!

There you have it! What did you guys have on your nails? Link us below or show us on our Facebook Page.

Merry Christmas from Tiffany and Sharra at The Blahg

Tiff's Guest Post Series: Poppy Nail Art for Remembrance Day

Hi guys, so here in Canada we are celebrating Remembrance Day tomorrow and I wanted to do some nail art featuring poppies.

In case you don't know, we wear poppies because of the famous poem "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae. John McCrae was an artist, poet, surgeon and soldier in the First World War. And he was Canadian. According to popular folk lore,  McCrae wrote "In Flanders Fields" while sitting on the back of a medical field ambulance after presiding over his friend Lieutenant Alex Helmer's funeral. Poppies were abundant in the fields of Ypres. McCrae died of pneumonia in 1918 ten months before the end of the war.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow


Between the crosses, row on row,


That mark our place; and in the sky


The larks, still bravely singing, fly


Scarce heard amid the guns below.



We are the Dead. Short days ago


We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,


Loved and were loved, and now we lie


In Flanders fields.



Take up our quarrel with the foe:


To you from failing hands we throw


The torch; be yours to hold it high.


If ye break faith with us who die


We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

So I grew up hearing this poem read every year and I know the words almost by heart. I always get a little emotional reading it. If you're curious about John McCrae and his poem, all the information I wrote about was from Wikipedia and there is more there if you're interested.

Ok on to the nail art. I've seen a lot of poppy nail art before, but there was two really looked at as inspiration: Will Paint Nails for Food Freehand Poppies (here) and Set in Lacquer Popping Up With Poppies (here).

So I started with 3 coats of OPI My Vampire is Buff. This one has been a lemming of mine for a while now and I am really excited to finally get my hands on it. I will have it swatched alone sometime this week. I did the poppies using polish mixed with acetone to give it a water-coloured look. The poppies are primarily Sephora Cherry Popsicle (swatched here), with Sephora Dangerous (swatched here) as a shader. The stems and greenery was China Glaze Exotic Encounters. I used Essie's Matte About You as the matte top coat. There's a step by step at the end!!

Check out my new friend!!

Its actually a fly! Not a bee! You can tell because it has 2 wings, not 4
and the antenna are aristate (wrong shape for a bee) 

This is a poppy husk! Find one and shake it all over your garden
 and you'll have poppies galore the next spring!

1. Draw general poppy-ish shapes in red, water-colour with acetone for easy shading
2. Add stems to each poppy and then fill in gaps with grass and leaves
3. Add shading to each poppy using a darker red (try to make each unique!) and add oval black dots for centres
4. Add tiny white dots to black centres (1-2 each) to add shine and pop!

I hope you guys have a good Remembrance Day if you celebrate it, and take a minute to remember the people who have sacrificed for our countries.