HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Hi guys, I woke up to a lovely winter's (yep, definitely winter now!) morning and got this super shot of the beauty that is "Zombie Zest" :) Apart from the awesome name, it's amazing; like a murkier, more glittery version of my old fave Sinful "Show me the way"! I can't wait to see how I feel about Orly "It's not rocket science". This has quickly made it into my Top 20!

Halloween NOTD: China Glaze "Zombie Zest"

When I first saw the swatches from the China Glaze Halloween 2010 collection called "Awakening" I knew I had to have them. I wore "Mummy May I" some time back and I've been loyal to the quick dry topcoat FastForward since I got this pack.

This is 3 coats of the swamp-water slimey green glitter that is "Zombie Zest". I really love this colour - it is so disgusting but thats what makes it amazing :) In the bottle it looks dead-on dupey to Orly "It's not rocket science" but I've been assured they are different... Oh and also see my new nubs - thanks to Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle, no more peeling nails! They do grow insanely quick now though (they grew quick before) - the tip growth you see is only 7 days of growth :O

My master computer is currently broken so I needed some serious cheering up so I am watching 'Fringe' while doing my nails. I can't wait for 'The Walking Dead' tv series to start next Friday! I am also currently enjoying watching 'V' the new series as well. It's gonna be a very good TV winter! I may just make myself some hot choc now and stick another episode of 'Fringe'...

Out of office...

Sent from Samsung mobile

NOTD: Topshop "Airplane"

I will make this brief as I am enjoying "The Towring Inferno" on the sofa. Not much to say - I love this polish. The formula is perfect, the colour is to die for and totally original and the price is right! :) This is 2 coats with China Glaze FastForward top coat. Love! The colour should been called Thundercloud as that is what it looks like :)

Also check out the knitted & felted handbag I finished today :) Awesome!!!

Tired cat...

It's a hard life being a cat :)

Lunchtime find

Look what I found at lunchtime :) it's more dusky than shown here, I have no colour like it. It's called Airplane, should have been called Thunder cloud! :)

Recent NOTDs

Struggling with light arrangements, I just can't seem to get right light in my house so I haven't posted lately, as I am not satisfied with the photos. But I decided to put the up anyway so here are my latest NOTDs; the awesome red glitter Sally Hansen Extreme Wear "Fireberry Red" and the sea-blue shimmer Icing "Roger That". This is 3 coats of each with China Glaze FastForward top coat. The formula on both of these was ok, and "Fireberry Red" was really easy to remove without staining :) Lets hope that goes for "Roger that" is the same...

The polishes are not as sheer or washed out as they look in these photos, it is all to do with crap lighting. I hope I can find somewhere with good light soon...

For Weebie

OPI Bubble bath is the one on the left, it will go perfectly with your wedding dress :)

I finally got a shot of my cool Claires with my jazzy new Galaxy S mobile phone :-)

NOTD: Claires Mood Polish "Happy/Earthy"

I got these super-cute polishes from a fave American lady of mine and I just only now got around to trying one on! Brings me right back to the sweet 80's (minus the crimped hair, parachute pants and incessant Wham!) and I love it!

This is 3 coats of "Happy/Earthy" with China Glaze FastForward top coat. I should have waited for the polish to react properly before I took the photos. But I took some more ones when it had come out proper however because of lighting the gradient effect is lost in my photos. Because my nails are so short the gradient is very small. Check out Asami's pix instead, they rock!

Fairly stringy to apply, and it dries matte-ish, which had completely passed me by in stuff I'd read about these... It's still a mega-cool polish! :)

Oh and here is my finished "Carpet Scarf", I made a matching headband too to keep warm now that the mornings are really chilly :) Anyway, I'm off to play some more with my new Samsung Galaxy S phone, maybe one day Google will make a Blogger app for Android and I can just use my Google powered mobile to blog. One day. Lets hope I've not retired by then and can't afford to download it...

National Knitting Week 2010

So I guess you didn't know that another one of my obsessions is hand knitting?.. :) well it is - here is one of my current projects and my little pom pom makers from Clover I will use to adorn the finished scarf with pom poms!

Today sees the start of National Knitting Week in the UK - I hope it will inspire more love for this lovely craft. Even though knitting has seen a resurgence in latter years, it is still up to us 'knit-wits' to continue the craft for future generations, so if you can, pass on your skills to someone else to continue the craft! :) This obviously also goes for your nail polish or makeup skills!

NOTD: Andrea Fulerton Trio "Rainfall"

I love the concept of the new Andrea Fulerton polishes, especially the Trio's as they are not the usual layering polish choices (see "Garden of Eden")! "Rainfall" is a beautiful combo of blues and greens and glitter. The base colour is perfect on it's own (if so I would use 3 coats); teal with slight green shimmer. The glitter colour is deep blue shimmer with green duochrome flaky glitter in the bottle which sadly does not translate in full on the nail...

These retail for £7.99, which is a lot for a drugstore polish. You would expect packaging to mirror that price, however, the brushes in my Trio polishes are all very thin and makes the polish pool on the nail if you're not careful. But look at the glitter brush for "Rainfall" - it really takes the piss. I mean WTF - I have NEVER seen such a shitty brush :( Thin and jaggedy, probably missing half of the hairs. It has made application a nightmare, and the thickness of the pooling have left me with bubbling... I am not impressed.

The glitter polish should only be applied in a single coat if you want a layering; it is opaque enough in 2 coats to wear on it's own. The formula on these is not quick-drying, it is advisable to wait 4-5min between each coat to avoid bubbling. This is 2 coats of each colour with China Glaze FastForward top coat. We shall see how well this wears!

Love the concept, but not sure that I will invest in another of these Trio polishes. I would urge anyone who considers buying one of these Trio polishes to make sure the brushes are ok before forking out...

Barry M Nail Effects

Wow! Barry M has launched a new product - Nail Effects. I discovered this at lunch time - shame it only comes in black but it's as close as we get to Isadora's cool Graffiti Nails concept in the UK :) Purses at the ready!

Back from holiday NOTD: OPI "Lucerne-tainly look marvellous!"

Phew that was a mega-busy holiday! :) After getting off to a bad start with delay after delay on our day of travel out, we finished with a day of punctual travel, barr strip searching at airport security due to me wearing a knee brace as I now have severely damaged the tendons in my knee walking up a mountain in deep snow... see photos...

We had -10C and half metre of snow at the start of the holiday while hiking in the Swedish highlands, and then gloriously sunny balmy weather that made the trees glow with golds and russets. Fantastic! :) I am sad to be back, but it's also nice to rummage through my own stuff and I look forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight!

I spotted this polish in the OPI stand at Schiphol airport tax free - it was just glittering so alluringly :) Decent price too! I have not been drawn to the Swiss collection at all but this was sooo lovely. I thought for some crazed reason maybe it would be close to "Baby it's coal outside" but it's not even close. Please excuse the extreme cuticles, my hands haven't even seen any hand cream for two weeks :O This is 3 coats (3rd coat deepens the steel-y colour) and a slick of China Glaze Fast Forward top coat. Speaking of the top coat; does anyone else use it? I think it is good, but the smell is horrible! Anyone have this problem?

Back to work tomorrow... hoping I will not fall asleep at my desk... zzzzz....