Ten half-inch nails

Did you know that the only difference between nail varnish and nail polish is your geographical location? Varnish in Europe, Polish in the US.

Whilst waiting for my nails to grow long enough (at least the healthy bits) so that I can start using some fun colours instead of nails that look sick and infected (which is why I can’t lacquer them regardless of word – I need to keep an eye on their growth and health) I decided to sort these small bottles of heaven. The non-onycholised parts of my nails are approximately half an inch but the healthy bits are half that…

I love my purples. I honestly didn’t think I had that many. On the other hand, ten bottles, ten nails, that should be fun to try out sometime!!! Both colour and quality. Hopefully I should be able to brighten up my day in a couple of weeks.

I am getting slightly impatient here. Impatient is never good.

Four blacks. The Barry M is actually an effect varnish. I love Barry M, British label, cruelty free since 1982, awesome varnishes! It makes a nice crackled effect. The other three I bought mostly because I was preparing for onycholisis. There are several things one can do to try to prevent it – whether they actually work (or why) is a completely different matter. Using nail strengthener, dark varnishes, ice baths whilst getting chemo are common suggestions. I didn’t try the ice bath (mostly cos I didn’t hear about it until it was too late) but I used nail strengthener, black as base coat, and a multitude of colours on top. Why be dull!

But I bought three because I’d forgotten I’d already bought one, and besides I’d put it in a really smart place so two of them vortexed into a different ‘verse. They resurfaced a couple of days ago.Barry M’s crackle varnish isn’t the only effect varnish available. Metallic and holographic lacquers are readily available and make your nails sparkle in the sun! You can even get lacquers with bits of sparkly confetti. My two issues with these is that the ratio varnish:sparkles is so off that you need at least 10 coats to make a difference – and those sparkly bits seem to be super-glued to your nails for eternity.Reds and pinks – I have several of these, too. Not that I use them a lot but sometimes one needs to think pink.

I haven’t forgotten about the gorgeous blueish fuchsia that I won from Tone Lise Akademiet‘s advent calendar! This is one I am truly looking forward to testing. It’s perfect for my gorgeous fuchsia wig!

These are the last of the lot. These are more for special occasions rather than fix your nails for the coming fortnight!

Manicure = surgical tape and gauze

One side effect of Taxotere is onycholysis – a fancy term for “the painless separation of the nail from the nail bed.” Not everyone does, there are a few things that may (or may not) help. I had great fun using fancy nail polish all the time – I still lost 8 nails on my toes and my finger nails are only just hanging on.

As I’ve been pretty much offline the past four months, most posts will start in the middle – which is why we’re now looking at my nails of today.

They are growing, slowly but surely, and I cannot wait to not have to deal with tape and gauze multiple times. Surgical tape sticks well (which is good cos – finger tips – major useage) which also means that the outer 5 cm of my fingers are permanently sticky.

Try handling small squares of gauze with very sticky fingers. It’s not easy.

Which is another reason I’ve not been writing much. When your fingertips are ten times their normal size, it’s difficult to type!

I am longing for healthy, long nails that don’t hurt when I trim them, and not having to use garden shears because they’re – hard as nails…