A trio of pretties from Femme Fatale Cosmetics + the evil Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease

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

Femme Fatale Cosmetics Sea Pony

This is the last of my products from Femme Fatale Cosmetics to review It’s one of Sophie’s very own, Sea Pony.

 

Sea Pony is a vibrant purple crelly base with a boat load of pink, yellow, red, purple and more glitters of all shapes and sizes.

 

This is two coats:

I really wanted to like this. I know a lot of people do! But it’s just not my thing. I don’t really ‘do’ chunky glitters.

BUT on the plus side, it did have an awesome formula. Two smooth coats, no dragging. There was a plethora of glitters that came out with each stroke so no fishing required at all. I was quite impressed!!!

I do really love the combination of colours. They contrast really well.

 

What do you think?

Em

Rainbow Honey Apple Kid and Sakuri Matsuri Cuticle Balm

I have another beauty from Femme Fatale Cosmetics to show you lovely ladies today. She recently sent me Apple Kid and a cuticle balm. I’ve got a cuticle balm already which I love, and I just knew I’d love Apple Kid too. It is the perfect shade for Summer!

 

Firstly, let’s talk about Rainbow Honey’s packaging. It is superb. Take a look at how my samples came:

 

The polish fit snugly in the little sleeve at the bottom. The cuticle balm was also shrink wrapped in plastic to ensure strict hygiene.

The time and effort put into this packaging really shines through. As I work in pre-press production and design at a newspaper and have my own polish brand, I really appreciate good branding and packaging. I also love the mini bottles Rainbow Honey use. A lot of minis have terrible, short brushes and are awkward to hold in photos. I’m happy to report that this bottle had none of those problems. The brush was great to use and the bottle is aesthetically pleasing.

 

Anyway, enough of my babble and onto the polish! This is Apple Kid:

Oh drool. I adore this. This was two easy coats. Application was flawless. Don’t you just love the shimmer through it? This is the type of colour that makes me happy! I’ve never actually used a Rainbow Honey polish before so I didn’t really know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised!

Then I tried the cuticle balm. I already have the Summer Juice scent which I love, and received the Sakuri Matsuri scent from Sophie at Femme Fatale. Rainbow Honey describes the scent as “Bright florals, exotic fruit, tea on Sunday afternoons, and just the right amount of sweetness reminiscent of my favorite lychee rice dumplings.” Spot on!

I took a photo of the balm on my cuticles to show you that it is moisturising, yet non-greasy.

See? I had only just put the balm on but it’s not overly shiny or greasy. It does absorb into the skin fairly quickly too so within five minutes my cuticles looked normal but hydrated.

One of my favourite things about the cuticle balm is, you guessed it, the packaging! It comes in a slimline tube which would fit in even the smallest of purses. I take my Summer Juice balm everywhere with me.

I can’t recommend these products enough! You can grab them both from Femme Fatale Cosmetics. Full sized (15mL – a generous size) polishes retail for AUD$11.85 and the cuticle balm is a measly AUD$5.50. Sophie ships internationally now too which is awesome!

 

Hope you’ve enjoyed my babblings, or at least gotten to the end of this post
Em

MUD Lavender Fever and Meet Minty with Delush Star Gazer

Hellooooo everyone!

Long time no blog! Life has been a little crazy so the poor blog has fallen by the wayside. Never fear, I am back I’m not self indulged enough to believe you all missed me, but I am glad to be back blogging!

What has kick started this, you ask? Well, I have some lovely little polishes from Femme Fatale Cosmetics to show you! I’ll just show you one today, but it’s a pretty one.

 

Firstly, I picked up a couple of the new MUDs in Woolies. They were on special for $1.50 each – you can’t beat that! The two I used as my base coats are Lavender Fever and Meet Minty. They are both gorgeous, summery colours. The weather is heating up here in the desert so it’s time I get out of the habit of wearing dark, vampy colours.

I got a mini of Delush Polish Star Gazer in my press kit from Femme Fatale. It’s a neon glitter topper. I hadn’t actually heard of Delush Polish before, let alone tried them, so it was good to get something different!

I admit, this isn’t my usual style of polish. When I got it I thought “It’s okay, I’ll just swatch it on four fingers and take it off straight away”. Then when I painted my nails using Lavender Fever and Meet Minty, I realised it was the perfect base colours to try Star Gazer on. So I decided to do a full mani with it!

This is using one coat of Star Gazer over the top of Lavender Fever and Meet Minty:

It’s pretty, huh!? It almost looks like two different polishes over the different base colours because over the purple, the neon yellows and greens really pop, but over the green, the pinks and purples jump out at you. I ended up really liking this polish What a pleasant surprise!

 

I added an extra coat just to see if it was worth doing:

As you can see, you do get a fair bit more glitter with your second coat.  I definitely think it’s worth the extra time! Being a glitter topper, this dried incredibly quickly and one coat of Seche Vite was all I needed to smooth it out.

 

Overall, I’m pretty chuffed that I got this polish for review because it is not something I would usually choose for myself, but I really enjoy wearing it!

 

You can get Delush Polish from Femme Fatale Cosmetics for AUD$12.00 each. Sophie now ships internationally, so that is great news! She has many other brands including Cirque, Emily de Molly, Gloss n Sparkle, Girly Bits, Enchanted Polish and, of course, my own brand Love Thy Polish!

 

What do you think? Is this a good look for summer?
Em