Save the Tatas: Breast Cancer Ribbon Manicure

October is a hard month for me deciding on manicures.  Do I go all Halloween, all the time (which is my natural instinct)?  Do I throw in a basic fall manicure?  Do I do anything brightly colored and pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month?  Well, this October, I figured hey – there’s more than one week in October, and did all three!  Today, we’ll talk about my awesome Breast Cancer Ribbon manicure.

I didn’t have any particular inspiration to do this manicure until perusing Instagram one day.  I follow Linda, the creator of NailVinyls, and happened to see when she posted her new Vinyls For A Cause.  They come in a variety of colors and $1 of each purchase gets donated to charity.  I was already thinking of buying her spider-web vinyls, so I decided to get both (never did use the spider webs this year – until next!).  I don’t wear a lot of pinks, so I was afraid that I’d have to possibly use Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Nail Color, Pink Satin, which I was not thrilled at the idea of, until I opened my Helmer and realized I got a perfect bubblegum pink opaque polish from Julep in either one of my Maven boxes or the one Mystery box I ordered (can’t recall which).

So here you can see it – Julep Reese with hot pink NailVinyls on top.  The very cool thing about NailVinyls is that the way they’re cut out on the sheet, you can either use the ribbon as an embellishment itself or use the little circle around it as a stencil!  I used the hot pink ribbons as simple additions figuring I can save the rest as stencils to use for any other cause in a different color.  A lot of bang for my buck.

I had bought some NailVinyls before – the lightning bolts and some varied size straight cuts – but still haven’t used them.  Haven’t had the proper inspiration yet.  So this was my first time using the vinyls.  I was super happy with how easy they were to apply and how flat they laid on my nails – a problem I usually have with the usual nail stickers.  I did go over the vinyls with a coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl Fast-Drying + Super Shiny top coat (my new go-to top coat) and I hoped that would protect the vinyls even more.  At the end of the week, the top coat was peeling off the surface of the vinyls and the little points of the ribbon tips were starting to lift.  So I don’t know if maybe the vinyls work better without a top coat over them or just that they’re not really meant to wear for long.

Either way, I’m super happy with how this simple, supportive manicure came out.  I support lots of friends who walk in Avon and Susan G. Komen walks, so this was my small way of both supporting them and doing what I can t0 remind people that one in eight women will be diagnosed with Breast Cancer in their lifetime.  And I’m sure you know this – but you don’t have to donate to the cause in October, you can do it anytime!

Do what you can to help women get tested, treated, and to help researchers find a cure.  Donate!

• The Breast Cancer Research Foundation
• National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc.
• Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc.

Or donate directly to friends of mine in their personal efforts:

• Liz Fogg from MyBlingPlace.com will be walking with Team Affiliate Marketers Give Back in the 2015 Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Santa Barbara.  Donate to her walk!
• Kacie Kersey from LashingOut.net is walking in the 2014 Susan G. Komen San Diego 3-Day in a couple of weeks.  Donate to her walk!