Why hello there!
It’s been a long time! I had good intentions to keep blogging regularly but then something threw a spanner in the works: I got hand, foot and mouth disease. For anyone who has had this, you are probably cringing right now. HFM is easily the worst sickness I’ve ever had. It started out one Tuesday after a public holiday. I felt tired and achey and had a sore throat. By lunch time I was struggling so I went home. I tried to sleep but I couldn’t get warm. I ended up having to go steal my partner’s warmth because he was on night shift. I didn’t feel too bad after I woke up that afternoon so I was lulled into a false sense of security. That night I woke up every half hour to an hour either freezing cold or boiling hot. It was awful! I barely slept! The next day I went to the doctor’s who said I had “a virus”. Soon after that I started developing spots on my hands. By late that afternoon my hands were covered in large, angry red bumps. I barely slept that night because they were so itchy. The next day I went to the doctor’s again and showed him. I also showed him the ulcers that developed on the roof of my mouth. He said I had “an infection”. I knew he was wrong. From everything I’d read, I knew I had hand, foot and mouth disease. I also knew it was going around the small town I lived in and I work in a hospital soooooo… you do the math!!
Spots started popping up on my feet too, and my hands got so sore that I couldn’t even hold my toothbrush to brush my teeth. I couldn’t stand washing my hands. I couldn’t do anything!! The next day I tried to take a shower and my feet were so painful that I physically couldn’t stand on them while I tried to shower! I had to turn the taps on using a towel and it still hurt!! I lasted about 30 seconds in the shower and then gave up and left the shower half running because I couldn’t turn it off properly. I went back to bed for the day. I also got weird crusties around my nose which were painful, red and weeping. Over the next few days the pain got less and less and the rash started disappearing, apart from my poor nose. A week later, it was almost gone. “Great!”, I thought, “The worst is over!”.
WRONG! That’s when the peeling started. Oh, the peeling. Over the next week my skin peeled way too many layers off. The poor, new skin underneath was raw. It peeled right under the free edge of my nail and right up close to the sides of my nail bed. This was big, thick chunks (sorry!). It hurt and I looked like a leper. I was so self conscious of it and everyone asked me what was wrong with my skin. Everyone just assumed I had dermatitis. If that’s what dermatitis is like, I never want to experience it.
Anyway, it’s over two months later now and I’m still suffering from the lasting effects of HFM. My nails have peeled from the cuticle down towards the free edge. They form a white bubble on the surface of the nail first and then it starts peeling. It is revolting. It could be a lot worse – the whole nail could have lifted! But for someone who is so precious about their nails, it’s fairly cruel.
The whole point of this story was to explain why I am so delayed in sharing these beautiful polishes from Femme Fatale Cosmetics. I actually took these photos when I still had the remnants of the rash but it wasn’t sore anymore. Thanks to some strategic lighting and cropping, you can’t really see the rash. I’ve got loads of pics though, if anyone is interested 
Cirque Powwow
This is such a stunning Barbie pink holo with an added bonus of purple micro flakies. It is gorgeous! This was two easy coats and it lasted and lasted on my nails!
Liquid Sky Lacquer Spring Showers
In the interest of full disclosure and honesty, this polish wasn’t for me 
It was really, really sheer. This was four coats and I still had VNL. It’s supposed to be a thermal but I always have issues getting thermals to change colour. Maybe it’s because I’m so hot blooded It has a pretty, delicate pale blue, almost silver base. I think it would be great layered over a pale blue or even white, but I’m not really a layering kinda gal!
Rainbow Honey Ultimate Weapon
Oooohh this is bootiful! Such a deep, shimmery, shifty polish. A gorgeous deep blue/purple base with purple and blue shimmers. This was almost a one coater! Such easy application and so striking on the nail. I just loved this one.
Hope you enjoyed my babbling story about HFM and the pretty pics
Em
Hi Em, firstly it is so good to hear from you. For some reason this post didn't come in my email but I've been thinking about you recently and meaning to drop you a line. Oh I feel for you and understand because this sounds so much like a skin condition I developed a few years ago, Sweets disease, it's not sweet and not pretty, with the internal symptoms like yours, over the top night fevers, and the rash, oh, the itch and pain, insane itch but when you scratch it burns like the dickens. And the embarrassment, I stopped going out in summer because if I didn't wear long sleeves, people would think they would catch some dreadful disease from me. It took 2 years to get it under control, but it's only 'just' under control and I think I will have to be on the medication for life. In the pic with the Cirque, your hands have that raw look that I know only too well, all I can do is sympathise with you. I don't know anything about HFM, but the fact that you still have some symptoms is worrying isn't it. Is it something that lurks in your system and flares up during times of stress or a virus? And what sort of medication did they give you for it?
ReplyDeleteThe Rainbow Honey Ultimate Weapon is gorgeous!!!
I read on a blog that you were going to close your store, that made me sad, I wondered why, but I didn't want to pry, ooops, I didn't mean for that to rhyme. I'm always around if you want to shoot the shit, your in my thoughts, take care sweetheart xoxo aka mycrazynan
Oh girl...my friends had HFM because their child in day care got it. It was absolutely horrible for them -- they went into lock down mode because they didn't want to infect their friends or remotely infect them. I saw one of them during the peeling stage and O.o -- not pretty nor did it look very comfy!
ReplyDeleteGlad you're better and your swatches look lovely.