NOTD: Isadora "Poppy Red"

This is an old favourite of mine, I think it might actually be part of the core collection for Isadora. I get these beauties from my mother from Sweden, I wish Isadora would come to the UK, as it's a great brand and has so many innovative products! My very first nail polish was an Isadora, and it was a plummy gothic looking thing.... I think it's in the stash somewhere still.. Now what was it called... I'll dig it out one day.

This is two coats with a cute nail sticker from a set I found in Boots today over Sally Hansen Nail Quencher base coat and a healthy dose of Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat. I also finally broke and bought the Pulse Perfection mascara from Maybelline. You can look forward to a review of that at the weekend!

I love this polish. It's one of those glowy pinks that just is both girlie, sexy and punky at the same time. Conjures dreams of cocktails under a parasol on a hot beach... I wish. Scotland + November = Rain, storm winds and icy cold. Oh well, a girl can dream... :)

Oh and I think that Zeke the evil beech will HATE this one :) Here's to your xmas parcel being devoid of pink, Zeke!

NOTD: Zoya "Richelle" nail art

So I found myself craving a graphic pattern manicure after fixing my boyfriends computer. I broke out my old gold favourite Zoya "Richelle" and my fave black Rimmel 60sec "Blackout". And a dotting tool! I forget how much I adore "Richelle" :)

This is two coats of each polish over Sally Hansen Nail Quencher with Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat.

NOTD: Sinful "Nail Junkie" layering

I love the name of this supremely sparkly teal polish! :) It is a bit sheer so I decided to layer over GOSH "Blue Monday". However, "Blue Monday" was also quite sheer to my dismay; I had to work 2 thick coats of it under "Nail Junkie". "Nail Junkie" is one coat only. Anyway it's hard to capture the super-sparkly nature of this layered manicure! I must've take 50 pics of each stage, but only these 2 photos turned out OK! This is with Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat and Nail Quencher base coat.

Please excuse the dry cuticles, I am back doing DIY and painting so my hands are incredibly dry at the moment, and I have two broken nails on my right hand. Oh well. Soon I will have everything done! :)

Oh yeah I meant to say - Essie "Angora Cardi" was on and looked great until Saturday when I started the DIY. Thats 5 days, people. I *love* "Angora Cardi" :D

NOTD: Essie "Angora Cardi"

I gotta say, this is an unlikely love of mine. No glitter or anything, and such a muted sophisticated colour! I just love it. This is from Essies winter collection "Cuddle with color", which is full of deep, dusty, cosy colours :)

This is 3 coats (3rd coat to cover dodgy Konad stamping...) over Sally Hansen Nail Quencher. The formula is nice and opaque, smooth as butter to apply. It dries very quickly to the touch. I added my Sally Hansen MegaShine over it to speed dry it so I could have some Tosca cake...

I am hoping this lasts til Friday night, although I am dying to try one of the swap polishes I got, Hard Candy "Lava"... Or Sinful "Nail Junkie" over the dark navy sparkler GOSH "Blue Monday"...

Check out...

Check out Scrangie you guys, she has the China Glaze Ooh Ahz collection swatches up!!! In true Scrangie style, they are perfect and oh so desirable... I can't wait to get my hands on these!

But I can't help but think I've already got a dupe for "Good Witch?". Check out my Retro NOTD...

And I might faint but this review of the Orly Metallic Matte "Glam rock" has some amazing photos that makes me instantly want to get it!

NOTD: Zoya "Veruschka" with China Glaze "Emerald Sparkle"

I finally got this polish - it wasn't easy to wait so long :) My heart started beating as soon as I saw the comment on my post for Zoya "Posh". It's amazing!! :) I did have this idea of putting on diagonals of China Glaze "Emerald Sparkle" :)

I use base coat with mattes as I am paranoid about staining. I used Sally Hansen Nail Quencher here, I think any shiny base coat would work, but I've got a limited supply to try. I will probably get chipping tomorrow but I don't care, the end result is worth it.

This is 2 coats of "Veruschka" over Sally Hansen Nail Quencher with one layer of "Emerald Sparkle" on the diagonals topped with Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat on the diagonals. Please excuse the messy tips, matte polishes are so fast-drying that they tend to clump up the brush a bit which makes painting a bit of a pain.

I'm off to pick out something green from my wardrobe for tomorrow!! :)

HOW-TO: Glitter Nail Polish Removal

OK, I love glitter nail polish. But until recently I hated the removal of said glitter nail polish, until I went to All Lacquered Up that is ...

Guys, seriously. No-brainer. But I've never thought about it! I usually let the actual pad soak on the nail for dark colours and glitter, maybe for say, uhm 30 seconds?.. But I always ends up with rubbing.

So this time I tried Deborah Lippmanns technique when it was time to take off China Glaze "Bad Kitty". So, how did it go?

1) It's got to be acetone or acetone-based remover, or you'll be there til Kingdom come...

2) Re-apply drops of remover every sort of minute as the acetone evaporates quickly (which is why there is a cold sensation)

3) Leave it on. Seriously. For at least 3 minutes.

4) Jiggle the soaked cotton on the nail to loosen the polish before swiping it off.

5) Clean up residual glitter with a fresh cotton pad soaked with remover

It worked for me! My biggest problem was impatience - I kept taking the first ones off to look what was happening so they needed a re-soak... :) So don't be afraid to rock those glitters, just use this technique to soak it off in under ten minutes!

NOTD: China Glaze "Bad kitty"

Sometimes I really love a polish just for it's name. This is one of those polishes! But it's also a lovely polish! I used it over Rimmel LycraPRO "Urban Princess" as I still have some staining on the nails so I wanted to create a bright uniform background colour. Also if I apply glitters over a creme base colour the manicure seems to come off easier with nail polish remover. "Bad kitty" has a translucent coral-pink base colour which does well against "Urban Princess".

"Bad kitty" is part of the new Speciality nail polishes. "Bad kitty" has multi-coloured glitter, and it's also slightly irregularly shaped which I love. I couldn't get very good photos of this, the camera doesn't pick up the sparkle; I will have to try in daylight. It's super-sparkly, rest assured!

This is 1 coat of "Urban Princess" with 2 coats of "Bad kitty". I used it over Sally Hansen Nail Quencher base coat with Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat. You might need 2 coats of top coat to seal the glitter in properly.

Bling-tastic! :)

NOTD: No 7 "Cherry Tang"

Oh No 7, you are too good to me this Xmas :) First the awesome "Totally Teal", the I spot this today - and with a money-off voucher it was effectively £1.25! Sweet... There is also a gunmetal shimmery one, but it's too close to Revlon "Steel her heart" to make it into my collection.

This is a luscious jelly with glassfleck shimmer, the colour isn't cherry as I would describe it; more glacé cherry - the ones you get in tinned fruit salads. It's lustrous and lovely, and the camera hates it... I hope I caught some of the lustre for you!

This applied flawlessly. This is 3 coats, as a jelly it will need it but it's still lusciously translucent and lustrous. My new Holy Grail base and top coat combo is working incredibly well - I wore "Totally Teal" for 4 days without any chips :) I hope I can find another bottle of Sally Hansen Nail Quencher base coat when I need it, there are rumours they are discontinuing it. I also hope Sally Hansen doesn't discontinue MegaShine; after it's mini-revamp it's the ultimate speed dry top coat, and it doesn't go goopy half way through the bottle as Seche Vite does.

NOTD: No7 "Totally Teal"

In my last dip into No7 nail polish, I said that the colours in the collection usually don't really appeal to me. This one is different. Very different. It's dark and murky teal creme finish makes my knees weak. It's blackened, but in a soft way, looks amazing in the sunlight and only require 2 coats.

This one had a duff brush on it, which always kind of annoy me. I had to trip it with scissors. It's also incredibly hard to photograph. This is 2 coats of polish over Sally Hansen Nail Quencher with Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat.

I love it. I am not sure if there are many colours out there like this one! It's part of No7's Christmas collection, also featuring a slate grey sparkly polish. I predict a sellout item, so get it while it's in stock :)

NOTD: NYC "Downtown"

This is a fantastic colour!! I had a tiny bit of hardship photographing this, the colour doesn't react well to the daylight lamp, and other artificial light is not good enought to show the luscious purple-y dusty rose colour.

It's a very "normal" colour, but due to the dusky quality of it, it is also very different :) I am hoping to get some daylight shots of this to see how it turns out.

This is 2 coats of "Downtown" over my new fave base coat, Sally Hansen Nail Quencher and the new improved Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat! They spruced it up a bit and gave it a flatter brush! :) Way to go, Sally Hansen! :)

NOTD: No7 "Vivid Violet"

I had a money off voucher so I got myself this polish. I've never been able to put my finger (haha...) on why I don't have a lot of No7 polishes before - but I think I have the answer...

I just don't like any of their colours.

This colour I do like, but it takes 3 coats to get to the look of my photo. If I had long nails I would have to put on 4 to not have Visible Nail Line. And I am not a patient girl, as many of you know so 4 layers is painful...

This polish applies neatly though, and the brush is easy to handle. Dries fairly fast, I think the cork is bigger than it needs to be, and fool you into thinking that the bottle is same size as a China Glaze (which is 14ml, No7 has only 10ml...)

I also just started using Sally Hansen Nail Quencher base coat. I am hoping it will bring my nails back into shape a bit! I will give you a full review in a couple of weeks time :)