NOTD: Bloom "Bianca"

I've worn this one before, but I am going away for a few days so I was wanting something unique yet stylish and hard-wearing. "Bianca" is in my Top 10 of All Time, the formula is flawless (almost) and wears like iron on me. And of course, the colour is awesome!! If I was allowed nail polish when I went for my foot surgery, this would probably be it. I am looking at the old photo and thinking how great my nails were back then, now there is too much DIY, cleaning, typing and stuff for them to be able to grow successfully.

Nevermind! :) I am sipping julmust and wishing I was back in Sweden, I hear they've got loads of snow. We've got some left, but none on the trees and the temperature is fluctuating wildly from thawing out to icy cold.

Merry Xmas!

Santa was very good to me this year and brought me OPI "Merry Midnight"! Thank you Weebster! :) I got it as part of a gift set with a silver cuff and OPI "Sapphire in the snow". "Sapphire in the snow" looks lovely - from photos I thought it would be dark blue creme (already have that), but it's way better; sort of blueberry purple! Quite unlike any of my other colours.

Anyway back to my NOTD. "Merry Midnight" is a lovely amethyst based glitter and flakies, it's crazy sparkly and looks a bit lit from within with it's red flakes. The formula was weird; a bit sticky but runny, and the first coat was incredibly sheer. However this is two coats only, the second coat was very opaque.

Lovely! This may yet make it into my Products of the Year reveiw at the New Year... :) This is my first NOTD in daylight I think, I usually am at work all day. Nice to be off for two weeks. I am not sure the camera is picking up the lovely glow. I will retake some photos in my normal conditions tonight.

NOTD: Jessica "Bazaar"

Still snowy - had to walk to work this morning in -4C so was wise and put my skiwear on! I felt needed something deep, soft, sensual and creme for my manicure tonight. I wanted to do some Konad in gold over to make it more festive.

This is 2 coats of "Bazaar" over Sally hansen Nail Quencher base coat. This is my first and only Jessica polish. It's almost a dupe for MAC "Rougemarie", but I am not sure if I maybe prefer "Rougemarie" to "Bazaar". This polish goes on very smoothly. It's not showing up as dark as it is on the nail in the photo however.

Then I put on some flowery Konad plat M2 in "True Gold" by Isadora (another antique nail polish!). I finshed off with Sally Hansen MegaShine as usual. It came out quite dark so guessing I need to buy a proper Konad gold polish...

I can't wait for xmas break! Hopefully will have more time to do some things around the house. But now I have to prepare for tomorrow and lay out my skiwear :)

LAYERING: "MIdnight Sky"

This is my NOTD. I am loving the snow, and wanted to celebrate with a festive layering! I started off with 1 coat of Orly "Velvet Rope" over Sally Hansen Nail Quencher base coat. It is a nice dark purple with silver glitter. Due to getting engrossed in the "new" Star Trek movie I forgot to take photos, sorry. It is ultra-slow to dry however, that I noticed after scuffing one nail.

Then I slapped on two coats of the insanely lovely Pure Ice "Cheatin", a purple and red glitter. See bottom photo. Shame it didn't show through more! One day I will wear this as my NOTD over Bloom "Josephine", I have a feeling that would look awesome :)

I then put on 1 final coat of Nfu-Oh "#53". Man, I love those Nfu-Ohs flakey nail polishes, they're probably the awesomest nail polishes in the Universe :)

I call this "Midnight Sky". Not to be compared to the divine OPI "Merry Midnight", which I have asked Santa for :) I've been good most of the year so I am hoping he is listening...

Snow!!!!

It's FINALLY arrived and I am super-stoked about it :) No, not the parcel of nail polish from America, although that would be super-cool too. No, I am talking about snow! White, fluffy, silently swirling snowflakes, and there is a lot of it :) I live and park on a hill, so I am hoping my car will manage the hill... That's our Nissan Micra in the photo.

I love the snow, and miss it very much. When I grew up in Sweden metres as opposed to inches of snow was perfectly normal at this time of year. I am told that it was here too, about 10-15 yrs ago. Global warming for you!

Anyway, I am also super-stoked about The Body Shop is bringing back some retro stuff!! I went in there today, and there was Dewberry Bath & Shower Gel, Fuzzy Peach Bath & Shower Gel and Banana Shampoo!! I still have a Dewberry Eau de Toilette from days of yorn :) Must be at least 15yrs old. Anyway, I bought Dewberry Bath & Shower Gel as it brings back so many fond memories. Still got some Fuzzy Peach Shower Gel from last time they sold it about a year ago.

NOTD: OPI "Princesses rule!"

This polish should seriously offend Zeke the evil beech, hehe :) This super-prismatic sheer pink from the Princess Charming collection is my new love! I picked this up in my local Sally's, where there was no OPI Holiday Wishes in sight apart from the offensive "Ginger Bells". Browsing the mainly browns and French polishes OPI display my eye fell on "Bright Lights - Big Color". Mega-lemming, hello VAT free purchase! I snapped up the last bottle. Then... Hello. You look sparkly. I picked up the bottle, tilted it to check opacity. It looked very sheer. But soooo sparkly and icy pink... I hesitated, then decided to take it anyway, and layer it over pale pink creme Rimmel LycraPRO "Urban Princess".

And the more swatches I looked at online the more I was convinced I'd made the right choice :D This is 1 coat of "Urban Princess" and two coats of "Princesses rule!" with MegaShine top coat. Wow! I love how sparkly it is, and how the tone of the pink suits my skintone just fine, something tricky.

I am wearing this with a cutesy retro shirt and super-sparkly Rimmel lipgloss tomorrow, see second pic. Goodness me, I love those false nails :) It's gonna be a good Friday, then more DIY on Saturday - flooring the bathroom... Ugh...

NOTD: No7 "Salsa" and Zoya "Richelle"

I am getting well and truly into the Xmas spirit here! With just over a week to go, I decided that I wanted to emulate the bottle of the No7 polish I got for my Advent Calendar at work! It makes Secret Santa dead easy when everyone knows you love naill polish!

This is 2 coats of Zoya "Richelle" and 2 coats of No7 "Salsa" with Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat. Both polishes go on super-smooth! "Salsa" is a dupe for Nails Inc "Aspen", which is fighting it out as my all time fave red with China Glaze "Ruby Pumps".

Also kids, Lush's bath ballistic "Happy Pill" is amazing - I had a bit of a stressful day and when I got home I so wanted a nice bath... It smells lovely and sort of fruity, but not in a synthetic overpowering way. My skin is not dry like a raisin either, and trust me I was in the tub for a good half hour... Just break the tab in two - it fizzes and smells just as much and your £2.86 lasts twice as long!

NOTD: Pure Ice "Heartbreaker"

I tried layering it over a dark navy creme, which was nice, but I throught I should try over a turquoise. I chose Color Club "Bizerk Turq" to layer this and it looks fantastic - like "Heartbreaker" SHOULD look if it wasn't so sheer :) But it's impossible to photograph the damn thing!!! Look to the bottle colour if you want to see how my mani really looks like :)

This is 2 coats Color Club with 3 coats of "Heartbreaker". The darker one is 1 coat of Nails Inc "Hanover Street" with 2 coats "Heartbreaker".

Also this is the saffron buns I baked for St Lucy's Day on Sunday :) They're yum-my if I say so myself! Now I must get that Lush Butterball bath ballistic into the bath and chill out - it's been a rather long day... :)

NOTD: China Glaze "Ruby Pumps"

Yep, I still love this polish. I have two bottles. And even my mum bought "Ruby Pumps" after being bowled over by it when they were last here and I gave her a manicure with it. Can't go wrong with a red sparkler like this :) This is 3 coats, to get the glowing depths of this polish. My precioussss...

I am noticing that this take quite a while to dry nowadays, even with MegaShine speed dry top coat. I am not sure what that's about. Anyone else have this problem with "Ruby Pumps" or do I just have a duff batch?

Who cares anyway though, I've got a double bill of "Supernatural" to watch while it dries :) A spot of paranormal activity always soothes my wicked soul!

NOTD: Cèlè "Cobalt"

I got these polishes about a year ago and reviewed the one called "Cherry Liqueur". I swear I've worn "Horizon" as well but I'll be damned if I can find it on my blog!

"Cobalt" is a fine shimmer, lit-from-within, glowy dark blue. It's very smooth to apply and dry quickly. This is 2 coats over Sally Hansen Nail Quencher and MegaShine top coat. I think that these are not 3-free, it has a familiar old whiff to it :)

I think these are now discontinued, they were being sold incredibly cheaply on eBay for a while and I think some might still be there. I love these polishes, I think I might be cruising eBay a bit later to find other colours... But first, I must make a cream cake!

NOTD: Mavala "Gstaad"

Spent all day making my home look Christmassy :) While watching "Mega Shark vs. Giant Ocotopus", I painted today's NOTD. It's bubbly in places; this polish dries slowly and hence when you slap on MegaShine speed-dry top coat, it traps the evaporation solvents and you get bubbles... This is the second time I've done this with this polish. You'd think I'd learn. But no. I just can't wait for things to dry, even during such a riveting movie as "Mega Shar vs. Giant Octopus".. :)

This is 3 coats, you can see some of the bubbling on my middle finger. Ooops. Oh well :) I love the pale pink frost in this. Anyway, it's bed time!

NOTD: Sinful "Call you later" layering

This is 1 coat of Rimmel Play Fast "Camoflage" and then 2 coats of super-sparkly "Call you later" by Sinful. Very hard to capture on camera - it doesn't look very sparkly in this photo. It's actually insanely spangly and I've had so many good comments on this today!

I'm gearing up to decorate my house for Christmas tomorrow! I can't wait to sit next to the tree and look at the presents underneath it sipping mulled wine :)

Recent NOTDs

Been a bit busy lately, thought I'd just nip past and show you one of my oldest nail polishes Gallery Cosmetics "Sea Green". Still works great, no thinning. I love it :) This is 3 coats. It's a frosty seafoam green with microglitter, but it doesn't pick up very well in photos... Go by bottle colour and glitteriness for this one.

And for today's NOTD, my lovely Hard Candy Just Nails "Lava". This is so smooth, so glittery and so amazing! It is very aptly named! This is 3 coats, it doesn't need it, but I wanted some more depth. I had to put on 2 coats of Megashine, it's a bit of a top coat eater. I really love this, I think I will have to start fishing for a second bottle! :)