Merry Xmas Everyone!

I am away in my birth country Sweden for 3 weeks so there wont be much blogging as I dont have an internet connection in the holiday house. However I am in my parents flat at the moment so can take the time to share some nail polish stories.

Rimmel Play Fast "Camouflage" - I got this from the lovely Sanna at Makeupmylack :D Tack så mycket Sanna! :) I will be swatching this as soon as I can!

Hot Stuff Collection from Isadora - Got the whole collection "from Santa", was disappointed with Spellbound black, but I am not the only one. It has an awesome aqua shimmer in the bottle which becomes invisible on the nail :( Have two more from the collection to try and hope they are as good as shown in the bottle.

L'Oreal Star Magnets - these are available in my part of Sweden, I have seen them, but the red colour I wanted had sold out :( If I see them again I will buy one anyway and swatch :)

Viva la diva - nowhere can I find the high shine eye shadow palette, but I got two awesome polishes, no 56 and 71 :)

Anyway I must be off - I have to pick up my friend at the train station :D

HAPPY NEW NAIL POLISH YEAR EVERYONE!

NOTD - China Glaze "Emerald Sparkle"

I LOVE EMERALD SPARKLE!

I'm off to Sweden tomorrow for xmas, so I probably won't be blogging as much, but I am hoping for some nice manicures as I am bringing my Konad set and my rhinestones to share with everyone :)

Well it's been 5 mins since I painted my nails (all hail the mighty Poshe top coat!) so I'm off to pack my cowprint suitcase! :) Have a great weekend everyone!

REVIEW - LUSH BB Seaweed

This is one of the 9 fresh face masks from LUSH. However, my brother thought it was some kind of weird macrobiotic sandwich spread when he saw it in the fridge! :)

It has to be kept in the fridge to keep fresh and lasts for about 2 weeks. BB Seaweed smells lovely of roses and patchouli, and contains seaweed and kaolin clay. It dries quite crispy and is a bit flaky but it doesn't dry out my skin.

I am hooked on this face mask, and will definitely be buying it again :) 5 of 5 stars!

NOTD - Zoya "Richelle" with Konad

I don't know what to say about this manicure, I just know I love it :) This is the animal pattern from the M2 plate in China Glaze "Wagon Trail" over Zoya "Richelle".

I got some black Konad special polish with my kit, which I used for my very first try. Inspired by Sanna's blog I decided to try another polish to see how it worked. It worked perfectly. Obviously you will need to follow her recommendations for choosing a polish, but I think that if you find the right one they work just as well as special polish :)

REVIEW - LUSH Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter

I suffer from REALLY dry hands and feet, especially in the winter. I have read rave reviews about this cuticle softener on beauty blogs, so decided to try it. I waltzed into LUSH and asked for it. Only one tub left! Sweet :)

I have to say, I am not the biggest fan of the smell... Its lemony, sure, but too overpowering to be fresh. But the butter, OMG! It works miracles as a night treatment for dry hands and feet. I have problematic feet that peel and split and this seems to have tamed them!

For my rough feet, I am sticking to Lemony Flutter for the long haul. For my nails however it's too smelly, I am sticking to my long-term lover Solaroil. It really is the smell that puts me off. It's not nice, and it lingers. I give Lemony Flutter 3 of 5 stars.

Early Christmas - NOTD with Konad!

We celebrated an early Christmas as I will be going away to Sweden for Christmas again this year and I wanted to have a little celebration with my S-O. Anyway, my present from him was - Konad stamping nail art! :) After looking at videos and instructions on bloggs, I went to work.

I only got ONE nail right out of 10, haha :) Nevermind. Practice makes perfect!

The nail polish is Barry M's 284. It is actually more like China Glazes "Moonpool" than you'd think from the photo and it costs £2.99... I used Konad's special polish in Black for the designs, which are from image plate M4.

Friday Trivia!

In Scotland, we have a soft drink called Barr's Irn Bru. This soft drink is currently banned in America under FDA regulations :)

It's a bright orange, caffeine-laden sugar rush that is considered to the a National Drink in Scotland. And on a Friday afternoon, it is the required beverage to pep myself up for the weekend...

And yes it is pronounced "iron brew" and it does contain ferric citrate (a form of iron). Only in Scotland!

Nail Art Rhinestones - Tips and Tricks

I recently got myself some rhinestones for nail art and I am getting well into putting on the bling :) My old method was to use tweezers to apply the stones and just dropping them on. But then I watched the Konad video on nail art at www.konad.co.uk, and it says to use tooth pick dipped in clear top coat to pick up and put on the stones! Wow! Such a simple idea but it totally works! :)

I either stick my stones to the actual colour polish while its still wet, or I apply a little blob of top coat and stick the stone in there. Larger (2.5mm+ stones) need bigger blobs, and flowers and fimo will most likely need proper nail glue.

For rhinestones I also like to use two thick coats of Seche Vite/Poshe top coat as it secures the stones on the nail for at least 3 days. If you don't put on a thick clear top coat, your rhinestones are likely to come off within hours.

NOTD - China Glaze "Ruby Pumps"

I love "Ruby Pumps"! :) I keep forgetting just how gorgeously prismatic it is. My only gripe with this polish is that its messy to apply and a PITA to take off - it stains your hands something rotten. But its totally worth it.

This is base coat, 2 coats "Ruby Pumps" and 1 coat Poshe - but the polish eats the top coat so will put on another coat tonight.

True to my promise I have added some bling to this manicure too :)

Nail Bling!

In the wintertime I get more magpie-ish, I think it is cause of the lack of sunlight!

So I got myself some (2000pcs, hehe) of assorted nail art rhinestones from Hong Kong, and I will now make a point of putting bling on every polish I put on until my birthday :)

REVIEW - Tara Smith Big Baby Shampoo + Conditioner

According to the bottle, the Tara Smith range is organic and earth-friendly without parabens, phtalates and sodium laureth sulphates (the website is snazzy but uninformative). Sounds good to me :) My hair, like my skin, is very temperamental. It hates everything. Apart from Indian head massages, that is. And I swear it gets worse the older I get. Anyway. I currently use MOP's Pear Shampoo, which is lovely but pricey so looking for some savvy alternatives (also, I am a bit of a product whore and I like new stuff :) )

I spotted the Tara Smith range in Tesco supermarket at the weekend and decided to try it. It is quite pricey for the supermarket, £4.99 a bottle, on par with the professional ranges like John Frieda, but MOP is twice the price. I chose Big Baby which is for kids or sensitive scalps. No use in pretending anything else is going to be ok for my angry hair :)

The round bottles are attractive, and add to the "we're different but still cool" vibe of this brand.

So how was it for me? It has a mild astringent "herbal" smell, not very noticeable. I like that. The more organic/natural products I try the more I can't bear over-perfumed products. It cleans nicely, and leave a nice shine. Careful not to take too much product; the shampoo lathers a lot and the conditioner is very rich, so you only need a tiny bit. It didn't upset my scalp, no flyaways or static, and no tufty bits :) 4 of 5 stars for Tara Smith Big Baby!

NOTD - MAC "Rougemarie"

"Rougemarie" is part of the Red She Said MAC holiday collection. I saw this polish and knew I had to have it :) Usually I admire the MAC polishes from afar, but never buy them so when the sales assistant n Harvey Nichols in Edinburgh said that it might be out of stock I was heartbroken. But after a lengthy drawer search, she found it! :) "Rougemarie" is a glossy, vampy dark red.

The formula seems a little bit thick, but it presents no application issues and you get perfect coverage in 2 coats. This is Seche Clear base coat, 2 coats of "Rougemarie" and Poshe top coat.

Also, "Rougemarie" will go great with my MAC "Russian Red" Lipglass :) So top marks for "Rougemarie"!

Poshe v Seche Part 2

So, now for the Advanced Wear Test results :) It entailed a day of travelling and I ended up in the rain and so ended up being soaking wet for about 4 hours, which would have affected the results. I also did a lot of household chores and ended up breaking two more nails :( So now its back to proper ultra-short nails again...

Seche: Retained the glassy shine throughout. Tipwear not as pronounced as the Poshe hand, even though Seche was on my dominant hand. That stuff on my middle finger, thats makeup not cracks or wear :) Note the broken index finger nail :(

Poshe: Lost some of the really deep gloss by Sunday, so you would have to reapply every two days to keep the shine. Tipwear more noticeable than the Seche. Note again broken nail on index finger... :(

Final verdict? I think I need to test Poshe more. I have applied it to today's mani too to see how it performs on a creme. Then I will do another similar road test to this one and watch the results.

NOTD - China Glaze "Coconut Kiss"

I bought this polish because I had seen some lovely swatches of it. Then I had a thought perhaps it's a dupe for OPI "Purple with a purpose". However, that is not the case, "Coconut Kiss" has a glow inside it that "Purple with a purpose" doesn't have! It's that bluish glow that makes this polish so special :)

This is part of my experiment Poshe v Seche, so on this photo, you can see Poshe top coat luxurious shine.

Poshe v Seche Part 1

So I have finally got my hands on a Poshe fast-dry top coat. In the spirit of making informed decisions, Pretty Perfect Beauty has performed an advanced scientific test to compare the two highest ranking top coats; on my right hand I put Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat, left hand has Poshe Super-Fast Drying Top Coat. I have a Bachelor of Science, and I live for a good scientific experiment :) So here goes!

The Application and Drying Time Test:

Seche: Thick and self-levelling, dries to the touch in 1 min, dry nails in 6 mins 32 sec mins.

Poshe: Slightly thinner than Seche but still self-levelling, dries to touch in 1 min as promised, dry nails in 6 mins.

The Shine Test:

In lack of equipment measuring light reflection or the like, I have relied on my eyes :P

Seche: Glass-like shine

Poshe: Super-wet shine

Check back on Sunday for the Advanced Wear Test, including a whole day of travel, household chores, shopping and partying.

Other points to consider when choosing between the two:

• Seche is easier to find in the UK, some larger Boots stores even sell it, whereas I had to buy Poshe from the US
• Poshe is Big 3-free
• Seche has a more punguent smell, whereas Poshe doesn't really smell that much at all

NOTD - China Glaze "Ruby Pumps" with Nfu-Oh #44

This photo is the best of a rubbish bunch, you just can't capture the glowing intense heat of this polish! This is 1 coat RP, then 1 coat Nfu-Oh then 1 coat of Seche Vite. It's a shiny, glittery awesome red! :) It's like hot glowing lava...