Happy Halloween!

NOTD: GOSH "Bright Passion"

I apologise for the awful photo, I can't seem to get a proper photo of this polish. It's awesome. Truly amazing. I will try and get another photo tomorrow of this in the sunlight :) I am in love with this; it's 2 coats over 1 coat of Rimmel 60sec "Blackout" with Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat.

I don't know what else to say. It's another amazing polish from GOSH! :)

NOTD: L'Oreal "734 Black Red"

Wow, I am in love! L'Oreal has brought out some blackened polishes in their Resist & Shine Titanium range, and this is the most awesome of them - 734 Black Red. There is also a purple, mauve, gold glitter and turqoise.

This is ONE coat of polish over base coat, it's amazingly pigmented :) And it glows from within with a deep metallic red :) I put Sally Hansen MegaShine on and it glows even more! It's mesmerising. I don't have any other polishe like this one, and I would love if they did a hot pink/fuschia version of this!

Lina-Elvira Loves It Thiiiis Much:
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Helmer! :)

This has been a most busy week even though I was on holiday, and I've finally got to the point where I can sit down and share my Helmer with you all!! The above is drawers 1-6, top to bottom. I arranged them by brand as I think I would struggle to organise it all if they were arranged by colour group. Drawer 5 is all my treatments and Minx and colour wheels, all the other ones are polish. I had to do a huge cull however before I put them into the Helmer, or I would have struggled to put everything in... I've not actually got a lot of OPI, my most plentiful brands appears to be China Glaze, Rimmel and Barry M! I put IKEA plastic drawer liner in all the drawers to stop the bottles sliding around when you open the drawers.

Secondly, my NOTD - one of the top 10 of my nail polishes - Urban Decay "I.D." This is 3 coats over Sally Hansen Diamond Strength base coat and Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat. This is the only nail polish in my collection that has a backup bottle... I scored some old classic Urban Decay nail polish in Superdrug for a couple of pounds a couple of weeks ago, including my all-time lemming "Bruise". You can look forward to that one later in the week!

Happy 60th Birthday, Dad!

Today is my Dad's 60th birthday, so we gave him a killer cake - can you tell he's a keen sports fisherman?? Happy Birthday, Dad! :) A big thank you to the girl at Cake Magic for this awesome creation!

My NOTD is Depend #169 with diagonals of #173. This is 1 coat of charcoal grey creme #169 over Sally Hansen Diamond Strength base coat and then diagonals with the gunmetal grey glitter #173, topped with Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat. I love Depend nail polish, I wish they had bigger bottles :) I struggle to photograph as we have major rain storms here at the moment so I had to use my daylight lamp again.

We are off for to a nice local Mexican restaurant now for my Dad's birthday dinner, but hopefully I can give you the low-down on my new exciting Helmer tomorrow night!

Nail polish haul from Sweden!

Been a tad busy with my mum and dad coming over to stay for a week but I got a quick update for you with some Swedish Depend nail polish. This is from left; 69, 167, 34, 170, 169, 173 and 104.

I love Depend, they're sooooo cheap but still very good - and perfect for a quick fix :) Shame we don't get them in Britain and I have to rely on my myopic mum to try and read the numbers on the back :)

#173 is a really dark bottle green creme, sort of a really dark version of Illmasqua "Rampage".

I finally got to IKEA this week and I got myself a "Helmer" filing cabinet in white among other things, so I am off to assemble this thing now, then spend the rest of the day organising my nail polish :D

NOTD: Color Club "Fashion Addict"

I've been wanting this polish since I got "Revvvolution" but just couldn't justify spending money on shipping for it. Suppose that's what friends in other countries are for :) I tried sooooo hard to catch the lilac base colour of this polish but to no avail. It just looks like a greyish holo in whichever light I try to photograph it in... Hope you can forgive me.

I have grown tired of glitter (I think I just heard Zeke the evil beech shouting "Woohoo!!") as it is such a pain to remove.. Therefore I went for holo today, and probably will go for a creme tomorrow; an ancient Isadora polish, "09" (I am sure it also used to have a sticker on it saying it was called "09 Antique Rose"...) which is a close dupe for Essie "Angora Cardi" as it turns out! Unless my mother brings me Depend nail polish from Sweden tonight that is, in which case I may just have to put one of them on :D I got GLOSS magazine, a sort of nail trend mag from Scratch Magazine, and on the back is the advert for Essie's Cuddle with color collection, and "Angora Cardi" is nestled on top of some luxuriously furry angora yarn... I love that image :)

Anyway, back to "Fashion Addict". This is 2 coats over Seche Clear. I find you need a shiny base coat for holos as it seems to go flat with the textured ones like Nailtek II Foundation. I also don't put a top coat on holos as that too seems to flatten the rainbow effect.

As most of my holos it doesn't last very well, it sort of gets rubbed off the nail leaving little bare patches. But I enjoy it while it lasts! :) And it's not such a pain as glitter to remove!

NOTD: China Glaze "Fortune Teller"

I love this polish :) There really isn't much else to say. It's gritty and gloopy like a glitter but it's still totally cool!! This is a Sally Beauty exclusive Halloween polish, so not easily come by here in the UK.

This is 2 coats over Sally Hansen Diamond Strength and with Poshe top coat. Woohoo! It has various sizes and shapes of the glitter including some octagonal ones. Amazing. Why this is limited edition I do not know, this should be part of their core line!

Lina-Elvira Loves It Thiiiis Much:

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The Orange Challenge!

Maestra tagged me for a challenge to find and photograph 7 random things from a colour theme: ORANGE. Cool I thought, so I got to work! I thought about it all day too!

NOTD: Fortune Teller - totally rockin' black w orange glitter nail polish for Halloween!!

Orange Primark top - one of my favourite tops!

Flower brooch - so big, so bold, so me!

Crunchy Nut Cornflakes - Love these things in the morning!

An Orange - OK, I was running low on brain power by this point :)

Irn Bru - extremely orange, caffeine-laden and according to Wikipedia, unfit for human consumption and hence banned in the US?! A "compliant" version is sold overseas :)

BSBI Sedges of the British Isles - my boyfriends' book, the only one I can never ever learn anything from no matter how many times I read it!

So there we have it! :) Now all I have to do is tag 7 other people to take the challenge! I nominate:

Wixology

Bring on the bling

Makeupmylack

Lackoholic

Nails by Asami

Neglelakkmani

PolishPixie

..and your colour is... GRAY!

IN TODAY'S MAIL!

I haven't done a In Today's Mail for a while huh?! :) Not much to shout about lately though, mostly bills and legal deeds for the house...

Anyway I thought I would share today's mail bag contents with you all! These Crocs are the lovliest pairs of shoes I've had for a while! Super-toasty, super-comfy of the model Blitzen Polar, hopefully they will ease the pain in my right foot... I am hoping my mum finds some cool Jibbitz for them (hint hint). Please excuse the carpet - it's a legacy from previous owner of our house :)

Also I got China Glaze "Bad Kitty" and "Fortune Teller" and ColorClub "Fashion Addict". This is the first time I've got AMAZING polish like this in the mail but looked at my current manicure and thought "No, I think I will wait to change this manicure until tomorrow, it's too lovely to take off!"

If you still want to see "Fortune Teller" RIGHT NOW, stop by All Lacquered Up, and for some amazing swatches of, among others, "Bad Kitty" go to see Scrangie. Scrangie also has some rockin' swatches of ColorClub "Fashion Addict"... Also before you go; I know it's in Swedish but Lotta Lackoholic's swatches speak for themselves :)

See you all soon for some orange stuff... :P

NOTD: Zoya "Yasmeen"

So this one is for Zeke the evil beech - she requested eggplant/aubergine, but Zoya "Yasmeen" is as close as I get! This is a gorgeous polish, it is dark purple with a strong pink duochrome. Absolutely stunning in daylight, but here we will have to suffice with a daylight lamp as it's nearly dark already when I get home in the winter. Please excuse the slightly blurry photo, but it's the best way to illustrate the deep shimmery glow of this polish :)

This is 2 coats over Sally Hansen Diamond Strength with Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat. It's smooth to apply but slightly runny. This has got to be one of my top tens, it's just so glowy and pretty while still being totally unique! I've worn this before but I didn't take photos of it!

Lina-Elvira Loves It Thiiiis Much:
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

NOTD: MAC "Baby goth girl"

This weekend was a busy one - yesterday I got up at 4.20am to go and watch the pink-footed geese, and we had a great view of the simultaneous lift of thousands of birds! Amazing stuff! :) I then took the train to Edinburgh to meet my friend Weebie, and we cleaned out the last couple of bottles of "Baby goth girl" in the MAC counter in Harvey Nichols! Unfortunately, they didn't have the Mineralize Eye Shadow "Young Punk", so that is still on my Xmas wish list! I didn't get home til about 10pm, but it was a great day out! Today was spent tidying up the house and putting more stuff away, so I really needed a cool manicure for the Monday morning blues...

The formula is great, very smooth and opaque. This is two coats of "Baby goth girl" over Sally Hansen Diamond Strength base coat and Sally Hansen MegaShine. It's hard to capture in artificial light, so I will try and get a nice photo tomorrow if the sun is out. It has a black-purple base and a pink tinge with purple flakey bits. Sadly enough it's not as purple on the nail as it is in the bottle, but it's still cool. In some lights it looks just black, but in the sun it truly comes to life! I will try and get a better photo tomorrow.

NOTD: Sinful Color "Show me the way" with nail art

So I was feeling I needed some mossy green goodness for my weekend so I unpacked my entire stash and decided on this beauty - Sinful Color "Show me the way". It has got to me up there in my top ten of all time nail polishes :) Sorry for the crappy picture, for a more accurate show of the glimmer and colour of this polish see my old NOTD.

This is 3 coats over Sally Hansen Diamond Strength base coat and then the little gems (fairly irregular in size but I've got thousands of them so I can pick away the bad ones) and then Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat.

I'm off to bed as I am up in the crack of dawn to watch migrating geese, then I'm off for an afternoon of shopping to Edinburgh with my friend Weebie! Hopefully I will have some goodies to show you tomorrow!

WOW!

Just looking around for stuff that would help my (still) suffering foot, I came across these Crocs "Powder". OMG. I soooooo want a pair!!

ANNIVERSARY: My 300th Post!!

Hello 300 mark!

It only seems like yesterday I started blogging. Thank you to all the wonderful (and Zeke the evil beech too!) people who stop past and comment on my ramblings all the time, you guys rock! :)

So tonight I made an extra-special manicure for my 300th Post - China Glaze "Wagon Trail" with Nfu-Oh #49 over it. It has a real depth to it but unfortunately my special spot was not so useful for picking up the shimmer and shine.

Hope you enjoy the photo anyway and hopefully by tomorrow night I can finish sorting out my stuff in my new "home office/laboratory" and get back to writing for all of you!! I've some exciting stuff coming up!

NOTD: GOSH "Metallic Green"

It's been really stormy here at the weekend, with sunshine and gusts up to 55mph. I've taken this as an opportunity to be inside and frantically been trying to clear all my stuff from the move now that all the cupboards and wardrobes are operational. I decided to cheer myself up with a nice green manicure for tomorrow :)

This is part of GOSH's metallic polishes; I've got green, blue, lilac, gold and silver. I didn't manage to do a very good job of this, sorry about that. Also if you have less than perfect nails, metallic colours will be cruel in showing every flaw (mine took a serious hit a few months back when I broke four nails on my photogenic hand hence the horizontal ridge halfway across). However this is only one coat of polish over Sally Hansen Diamond Strength 2-in-1 base coat. Low maintenance nails if there ever were :) It dries in about ten-fifteen minutes, and don't be tempted with top coat - it will ruin the finish of metallic polishes. These polishes are all satiny, mirror-like in appearance and dry so quickly you won't need a speed-dry top coat. However the formula is a bit runny and makes for a bit of tricky application; the polish pools very easily and leaves some brush marks. "Metallic Green" is very similar to China Glaze "Cherish".

I think I've found my "spot" now for taking pictures of nail polish. This is a lot better than some recent photos (save the poor application and ridged nails!). I will need to carry out some shots of different finishes and see how it goes!

Lina-Elvira Loves It Thiiiis Much:

♥ ♥ ♥

NOTD: ModelsOwn "Pink Explosion"

This is the brightest polish I've seen in a while! It's a bit like Misa "Bikini with a martini" on crack - it's highlighter pen neon coral pink with gold (or it could be orange) glitter. WOW!!! But it was a pain in the neck to photograph!! It took me 3 days to get the right picture and it doesn't show off the gorgeous glitter in this polish. The closest match to the colour on the nail is looking at the bottle. The polish is a bit thin on the pinkie, this is what one coats look like. It's only chipping a bit today, 3 days on :) That's decent in my book - most chip in less than 2 days on me!

I've not used ModelsOwn before, this is my first. New brands are always exciting! It applies a big goopy but is opaque in two coats, if you gloop it on a bit. It is large glitter hence a bit gritty on the nail so you need a thick layer of Seche Vite or similar as top coat. I love this polish - it's hard to dress around so I've been wearing a lot of black this week! :)

I got this in our new River Island store, I am too voluptous for most of their clothing, but I go in there for the accessories; their shoes, bags and jewellery is to die for! This polish cost me £4.99, which is a decent high street price. They had mostly creme neonish colours which didn't appeal to me but "Peacock Green" caught my eye, but I have lots of peacock duochromes already so I saved my pennies for something else!

Lina-Elvira Loves It Thiiiis Much:
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

REVIEW: Tisserand Intensive Hand and Nail Cream

Due to my frantic DIY efforts, my hands have taken to becoming very dry and scaly. I use CND Almond Spa Hand Lotion at home, but it's a bit toolight right now - my hands are seriously dry! The skin around my fingertips are self-cracking and splitting causing bloodloss and pain :(

So there I was, looking for a nice makeup box, when I ventured into the newly snazzed up beauty department in my local John Lewis department store (more on this later). I picked up this hand cream as I liked the concept; essential oil rich, organic ingredients and no synthetic fragrances or parabens. As you knowI am very much into my natural organic beauty. It was quite pricey - £6.50. 'Better be all it promises and more', I thought.

One application and I was hooked. The natural essential oils are lovely, mostly it smells rosy like geranium. It seems to have the added benefit of making you relax and dream of a warm, sunny flower meadow in the summer... Because it is very rich, it needs a minute or so to sink into your skin, it leaves a nice velvety feel. The moisturising properties are fantastic. Scaly fingertips were thoroughly soothed and some of the cracks in the skin are already healing up after a couple of days. I am very impressed! Apparently it won the 'Pure Beauty' Bronze award in 2008. It certainly gets five of five stars from me!

Lina-Elvira Loves It Thiiiis Much:
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥