Today's swatches Celestial Cosmetics "Birth of a Star" and an update on the law suit

Hello all.
Well, I haven't blogged for a few days and I actually feel guilty- I guess having a routine really is helpful in terms of giving me a sense of purpose while I wait for my next surgery.

Unfortunately I've had a bit of a rough time- my lawyers don't think I have a case against the hospital for screwing up my hip and left leg, and that's quite a blow, especially when you consider how much I have lost since 2012.
But, the laws regarding medical negligence were changed years ago when Jeff Kennett was in power and, as a result, it is extremely difficult to prove negligence now, so what can you do?
I'm not gonna lie, it's really devastating news, but I don't know what I can do about it, so I guess I'll just have to accept the loss of my business and the loss of my physical health and try to make the best of a truly shitty situation.

Anyway, that's enough whinging...onto the swatches;

As you can see, Birth of a Star is a gorgeous grey leaning purple. It has a faint holo effect under normal lighting, but under downlights and with the flash the holo rainbow shines through;

Shiny holo goodness

 This was a very easy polish to apply- fully opaque after two coats, no bald spots or dragging and the formula was a good consistency, neither too thick or thin.

To be honest I wasn't sure if I would like this colour- dusty purples tend to wash me out and make my skin tone look dead, but this is surprisingly flattering on my nails. I think part of that is because it's a darker colour and the grey aspect helps to counter the washed out issue.

Birth of a Star was a freebie to celebrate Celestial Cosmetics birthday, so I'm not sure if it's available to buy in their online store.
Regardless, if this is a fair representation of their holo polishes I would not hesitate to buy another, as this really is a lovely polish that seems to be free of the issues that can make holo polishes difficult to use- I even put a coat of Seche Vite over the polish and there's been no dulling of the holographic aspect (at least, as far as I can tell).

And it just keeps going... WTF universe?!

Soooo, the surgery I was supposed to have had to promote my fractured pelvis to heal has been cancelled. The good news is there's been some bone growth, so the need fr a new bone graft with an internal electrical stimulator is no longer necessary.

However, my left leg still doesn't work properly and I am not scheduled for any further orthopedic surgery at all.

I am, however, still scheduled to have the herniated bladder fixed- an issue that is a direct result of my last surgery (the internal stitches gave way, so my bladder pushed out below the pubic mound... lovely, right?). As for when I'm having that surgery, well, only the god-like waiting list nurses know that one and I am currently completely in the dark.

Needless to say, I am preeeety pissed off right now. I feel as though I have been shoved into the "too hard" basket and have been left to simply struggle on with a dodgy hip indefinitely. Thanks a lot St Vincent's, you really fucked me over on this one... they really need to work on their public relations, because the way they operate (no pun intended) currently is fucking terrible.

In the meantime I'm keeping myself busy buying bottles of nail polish and expanding my etsy wishlist daily haha

I am getting better with my manicures and am starting to play around with using tape etc to create interesting designs, though I'm steady enough to draw the smile lines on my french manicures free-hand. I still love glitter the best though.

Ahhh glitter... I love glitter. Except for how bloody difficult it is to remove. I use the ol' aluminium and cotton balls soaked in acetone, but it's still a pain in the bum. So I've ordered some "peel off" undercoat that is supposed to work brilliantly with glitter polishes- I've ordered Innisfree, a Korean brand, as it was cheaper that the OPI version but should work just as well.

Also, did you know acetone eats through plastic? I didn't. Until I accidentally spilt nail glue all over my dining table (a beautiful antique table that needs to be re-sanded urgently lol). The glue also got on the bottom of my shiny Apple track pad and when I used acetone to try and remove it I ended up removing some of the track pad instead. Thankfully it's only cosmetic damage, and very minor at that (it's not noticeable unless you're looking at the underside of the track pad, and why would you do that?). So that was a bit of a nightmare to deal with- I swore pretty damn loud and long, that's for sure.

Speaking of polish, here's Nubar Star Sparkle and Violet Sparkle

And here's Emily De Molly's "Fashion Victim" with Nubar Star Sparkle on the accent nail;

And finally, Color Club's "Holiday Splendor" which, like the polishes above, is impossible to photograph properly because of my crappy camera phone's inability to capture the glittery goodness...

Nail Art and Other Coping Mechanisms

So, I've been spending a lot of time reading nail polish blogs and playing around with my nails because wtf else am I gonna do?

Here's some pics of the gorgeous nail polishes I have collected, and some that I want oh so bad (Australian Indie polishes are amazing btw);

This is Arcane Lacquer's "Festive Embrace", a gorgeous red jelly packed with gold, red and holo glitter. My pics do not do it justice.

Arcane Lacquer's "Little Quibble"
Such a pretty green (I have a thing for purple and green polishes- I think I only own 1 blue... IDK why greens make me so happy)

This is Emily De Molly's amazing "Cosmic Forces", one of the most amazing polishes I have ever seen. It's like looking through the Hubble Telescope... stunning.

Another Emily De Molly "Fashion Victim" (swatch is from her web site) This is much, much more intense and sparkly in real life, it's gorgeous.

Emily De Molly "Serenity" (swatch from her site). A very pretty turquoise colour with copper, lavender and blue glitter

Emily De Molly's "Oceanic Forces", another amazing jelly polish with fabulous depth and holo glitter (swatch from her site). Love it.

And finally Emily De Molly's "Absent Minded". TBH this is the only polish I've bought from her that didn't floor me, but it is still very pretty. It might just be that I have too many similar coloured purples as it is, so it needs to be pretty amazing to impress me(swatch from her site)

Speaking of AMAZING purple polishes, meet Arcane Lacquer's "The Power and the Passion"
This is on my "must have" list bc omg sparkles! Green and purple! Shiney!
(swatch from Harlow & Co)

I've also recently bought an LED light and Gelish soak off base and topcoat so I can start to do some gel manis from home. I might do the odd one for friends, but it's mainly another way to fill in time as I wait and recover from various surgeries.

I did do the cutest nail stamping mani the other day, which ended up looking like a tiger. So much fun and a really cheery mani too- cute hey?

Anyway, that's what I've been doing recently to keep myself occupied while sitting on my disabled arse all day.

My car's alternator repairs have cost $760, of which I have paid $400 and I am hurting very badly financially speaking.

My surgery has been pushed back a week to the 7th of April and I have to pay $1195 in rent on the 5th and then pay $265 car rego on the 10th, plus I still owe $90 to the vets for my cat's $1800 surgery... this is all going on while living on around $20,000 a year on a disability pension with an additional parenting payment.

And my rent alone is over 50% of my income, let alone utilities, food, petrol, medication, school fees, school uniforms, clothes for my kid, vet care for my cats... you get the picture

This is Smudge, our baby cat who fell asleep with his leg over his head because he's a silly billy. I got him a couple of months after our precious Big Cat died as I felt that Peanut was lonely. Smudge adores Peanut, it's too cute.

And this is poor old Peanut after his major surgery- a double femoral osteotomy after he broke both back legs along the growth plate where the thigh bone meets the hip socket. He's much slower since the surgery and certainly can't jump fences anymore. He's had a rough trot- he's been hit by a car, had a bad reaction to the anesthetic when he was spayed and then he broke both back legs... but he's a sweetheart of a cat and we love him lots.

And my daughter, who just turned 10, is growing up so fast! And gee, she's going to be a very lovely woman :)

Anyway, I don't mean to sound ungrateful, and I thank god for the pension as it allows me to survive. BUT, I live on the poverty line, raising my daughter and 2 cats (plus a psychotic bunny rabbit). So emergencies like a vet bill or car repairs totally decimate my bank account.

Seriously, when you live on the dole there is no such thing as a financial safety net, there is no extra couple of hundred set aside for emergencies... it's always all spent because there is so little.
My daughter has school photos next week and I don't know how I'm going to pay for it...

Shame I decided to spend money on polish literally a couple of weeks before my car died. Like, my timing is so shitty.

I had thought I could maybe make a bit of $$$ here and there doing the odd manicure, so it seemed like a good investment at the time and I do have people interested.

And it's viable too as I can do nails while seated, so unlike house painting my disability doesn't affect my ability to do this, and I can work around my depression and so on by simply not doing anything when my mind isn't working right.

I had even thought I could eventually start making my own line of polish as I have some fantastic ideas, and it's something I think I could be really good at, however it takes a fair bit in terms of start up costs. But it was a goal to work towards at least.

Honestly, it really did seem like a good idea at the time, until I got hit by this financial avalanche of disaster, which has screwed me so totally I don't even know when I'll have a spare $20, let alone hundreds.

 At least my surgery is now taking place on the 7th of April, which is the 1st day of the school holidays, so I don't need to worry about having someone getting Sophia to and from school while I'm in Melbourne, getting cut open yet again.

Fingers crossed they get it right this time around- 3rd time lucky, right?

Regardless, I'm still attempting fantastic, I've just had a couple of major obstacles to overcome in the meantime ;)