By the skin of my … red toenails!
OK – the branding is on hold, as is my follow-up to the fascinating art of fire iron application (eeeeekk) due to rain. Real rain. Wet, sodden, sodding rain. We cannot ever, ever complain about the rain – it has been so drought-stricken here for soooo long we are still pinching ourselves that FINALLY it has decided to open the heavens and rain. It’s gorgeous, it’s green, it’s amazing. And it means we cannot brand any more.
So we (ta da!) flashback…
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It was just before Christmas. We had a wedding to go to in the city (5 hours drive from Granite Glen). On December 23. Without the kids. Scary and fabulous at the same time. Scary cause I hate being away from Dash and the Little Woman. Fabulous because we had a couple of days on our own. Just us. I hardly knew what to do with myself. So I went and got a pedicure. My second ever real, honest-to-goodness pedicure.
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I always have white or nude nailpolish – toes and fingernails. Always. (OK OK …In the 80s I wore a shimmery bronze – please don’t tell anyone. I also wore matching brown velour tracksuits. Shudder.) But at the beauty shop, in the city, without kids, just me, with someone else doting on my poor neglected toes, I decided on red. For the posh wedding and just because. And it looked great. And it lasted, and lasted, and lasted. Finally after about 3 weeks, I couldn’t stand my fire engine red toes. The red had to go.
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I could only find my “sensitive skin” polish remover. So I sat with my sister on the couch, dabbed the cotton ball with the remover and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed. After about 10 cotton balls, and great frustration, I finally had it down to a faint horrible smeared pink. After about 15 balls, I could finally see my nails again. And my fingers tingled from the force of the rubbing. And I applied white – ahhhh, so much better!
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The next morning I wondered blearily whether I had left some polish on my finger tips. You know that weird, desensitised feeling? My sister mentioned her fingers, too, felt strange. Thinking nothing of it, we had breakky and went to clean our teeth (we’re very dentally hygenic!). As I washed my hands, I noticed a strange crackly feeling in my thumb, index and middle fingers. Checking more closely, I noticed a sensation like a burn.
…
That night the crackling had spread. The next morning…
Can’t see what I’m talking about?? OK, you asked for it! Gird your loins (or whatever)..
About three layers of skin lifted and peeled from my poor, nail-polish-removing (skin-removing) fingers. Need to see it again?
Mmmmm. This is what comes of self-indulgence. And red toes. It’s just not natural.
May your nails be nude (or white) and your remover friendly.
Bush Babe.
PS All fingers recovered after a couple of weeks. A letter is on its way to the manufacturer. I’ll keep you posted.
5 Comments
debby
EEEEEEEE-YOWWWW! My own fingernails curled in horror. Did your fingers hurt, like a burn?
jeanie
Oooh – you did get the shots!
This morning I took the red polish off ‘Salina’s fingernails (courtesy of a visit to the trainee beautician next door who gave her a treatment) with Black and Gold No Frills nail polish remover – and no problem (well, except getting high from the fumes).
Much nicer than that sensitive stuff!
ELIZABETH
Those photos made my teeth hurt.
I was in a waiting room today when a young boy, perhaps 6-7 got a little upset. He noticed the skin under his fingernails looked pink. His mom assured him that was the correct and nothing was wrong but he was sure ONLY girls could have pink fingernails.
How cute. I laughed … to myself of course.
BoufMom9
HOLY cow! That looks horrible! Now, THAT is why i never get manicures and pedicures. (thanks for the reminder)
Tracey
Ouch! There’s another good reason for me to add as to why I don’t bother with nail polish. Fingers or toes!