NOTD: MNY "669"

This is the other MNY polish I picked up from Asda! I was quite taken with the velvety finish so this is without MegaShine topcoat. It's a very cool colour; gunmetal grey with a hint of brown maybe?... This is 2 tricky coats - it applies like a matte polish so do not be tempted to go over the same area twice while wet or you will mess it up! The dry finish isn't entirely matte though, more satiny.

I am currently fairly preoccupied being on holiday and cat-sitting Mother-in-Laws cat who don't get on with my little furball and also keeping an eye on the little shrimp babies I got! It's not very restful so doing my nails was a treat today :)

NOTD: MNY "753"

First day of my 3-day holiday (I know, it's soooo extravagant). After taking delivery of my shrimp babies, I went to Asda for scotch pancakes. As I cruised past the Maybelline stand my eyes fixed on their daughter line MNY which was sneaking it's way onto the main Maybelline stand, and hello green nail polish! :) For £2.99 it's worth a try.

As expected, it's sheer. This is 3 coats, could've done with 4, but I had had enough nail polish fumes after spending the afternoon outside in the sun and fresh air! I put on a slick of MegaShine over the top.

The thought struck me it is similar to China Glaze "Moonpool". But "Moonpool" has a hidden depth of green with a golden flash but "753" is more a shimmery golden lime?.. It's more similar to Mavala "Electric Green".

I'm off to look at my shrimps again to watch them feed on the little algae wafer I put in for them!

NOTD: Nails Inc "Aspen"

It's hard for me not to think of the current events in Norway. My heart goes out to all who have been affected by the events, I can't imagine what it would be like...

This is an old favourite polish of mine as some of you may know. This fiery red shimmer never disappoints and seems to be getting aired every time I need something cheerful. This is two perfect coats with a slick of MegaShine top coat. This polish turns out beautifully every time. I may need to get a backup of it in case Nails Inc decide to discontinue this shade..

Iron Maiden!

I came home very late after a fantastic gig with Airbourne and Iron Maiden, after dining with one of the guitarists, kind of! :)

Ah, Swedish food...

Look what I found in Boots at lunchtime?! For those of you who do not know I am originally from the north-east of Sweden, now living in north-east Scotland for the past 11 years or so. I have to say that I don't miss living in Sweden, but I do miss the food! Therefor I was very excited when I found this sandwich (it's the little things, eh...) as I love polarkaka! :)

I hope they don't just do this as a limited edition sandwich, because it is very yummy!

NOTD: Minx "Pink Cheetah" with Rimmel 60sec "Funtime Fuchsia"

So I got tired of the wrinkly Kooky and removed it. Nothing wrong with the product, just my crappy application. I did however get a lot of 'wow, I love your nails!' today wherever I went. I guess it's the brightness of the gold that does it. Even nail 'muggles' love metallic nail wraps! The Dior guy even went and got his colleagues from the Chanel desk to show her my nails. She then mumbled 'I'm sorry but the A/W collection still isn't out yet' as she returned to her station (not that I am stalking the Chanel desk for "Peridot", or whatever, ahem...).

A tip for removing nail wraps such as Minx and Kooky: crank up the heat with your infrared lamp and be very slow peeling them off, or you will inevitably take off the top layer of the nail in places. Any sticky residue is quickly removed with some nail polish remover. But don't go so close to the bulb you feel it scalding...

I feel good about this manicure. The Minx definitely goes on easy, big, fat bandage on my thumb or not. I will change the nail polish for Thursday's Iron Maiden gig to Rimmel LycraPro "Urban Princess" as I think this polish will chip before Wednesday evening... Since I've rediscovered my stash of nail wraps I think I will start doing manis with a nail art ring finger for a while! I have some really cool ones I can't wait to try again.

Last but not least, here is some of this years potato crop! The white ones are "Rocket" and the pink ones are "Desiree". Yummy! :)

Finally, it's feeling like summer!

Nothing smells as sweeeet as sweet peas! These are finally starting to flower after not looking very well at the start of the season :)

NOTD: Kooky "Moon Purple & Gold"

Dear me, I struggled to put these on! Having my thumb still super-sore and icky and in bandaging didn't help! I have a strong C-curve in my nails so these took a couple of tries to put on right as you can see here... The trick is to heat them until completely 'floppy', then stretch and smooth more than you would when applying Minx, and this is tricky when you are applying on your own hands. With the wrinkles in these I don't think they would last long but we will see! At least I will know for next time how they differ to Minx during application. I apologise for the mess, but it's not so obvious further away :P

I love the gold and fuschia in these! The gold is so very bright and fresh. I hope it will last til Thursday when I am going to see Iron Maiden *rock ooooon!!* supported by Airbourne.

I'll keep you updated on these, and I will do a couple of reviews of other new things until I take these off next weekend!

Kooky Nail Fashionistas

I promised some cool new stuff and here it is - Kooky Nail Fashionistas! I've been doing Minx for a couple of years now but these were new to me until they arrived in the mail from a fellow nail technician! I checked out the website and did some Googling, there appears to be some really cool designs including a gold/silver lightning one!

My cuticle I spoke about is definitely not good - I have been prescribed antibiotics and Bactroban (topical antibiotic) and some seriously expensive dressings so here's hoping it clears up soon. It's still seriously sore to the point that I have to take painkillers and can't move my thumb or I cringe. I won't post any gross photos but just bear in mind if you get a swollen/inflamed cuticle, please see your doctor straight away. I was told I may have necrosis before it heals (gross!), scarring and possibly deformed nail at best and septicemia at worst so don't hesitate. So please excuse the crappy application - mobility is limited with a massive bandage on one's thumb...

The Kooky applies just like Minx - with infrared heat bulb. Don't faff about with hairdryers, you will get much better results with infrared. Make sure it is properly warmed and 'floppy' before you attach to the nail / remove from the nail. Prep of the nail is essential for extended wear, buff and smooth the nails and remove any odd bits of cuticle. It was so awkward to apply with the massive bandage while bending over so I decided to only put on the big toes. I will let you know how the wear goes! My Minx usually wears flawlessly on my feet until my nails grow out so much it looks ridiculous, so lets see how Kooky holds up!

This beauty is Spots Gold & Black #16611, the one behind it is Moon Purple & Gold #16625. I think I will put on the other one for Monday on my fingers and do a weeks wear-test! Spots Gold & Black reminds me of Droppen fishing lures I used to use to fish for perch when I was young! I used to love them and have been thinking of making them into earrings at Christmas when I go home :)

I am not entirely sure how you would order from the distributor as a non-trade person, but I intend to find out. If you're desperate, you can buy these from sellers on eBay but beware of illegal knock-offs, as with Minx and other big name brands.

Can't believe you made it all the way through that rant! :) As a bonus, now take a moment and check out Makeupmylack's awesome Half-Moon Mani!

Update on NOTD

I tried again to take a photo of Andrea Fulerton "Joanna" but it's still too red!! However, I found my review of Zoya "Gilda"; imagine a darker version of "Gilda" and you arrive at "Joanna". It has the same sparkly glassfleck finish as well!

I have something new and exciting planned for tomorrow, if the mailman delivers it to me today as he should. So check back over the weekend for something exciting!

And some bad news I have to moan about... I was helping out moving things from office to office when I trapped my right thumb between a PC base unit and a packing crate and pushed the cuticle right back. There was a split in the cuticle and a bit of blood but it looked ok. That was last Friday. It has progressively got more and more swollen and inflamed and today the cuticle is so tender and inflamed I've had to bandage the thumb up to prevent it being knocked... I hope it settles soon so I don't lose my nail :O

NOTD: Andrea Fulerton "Joanna"

I fancied something sparkly and bright and this fuschia glassfleck is just the ticket! :) I struggled to get the colour right with my camera; this looks too red. It's more pink than this. I will try and take a daylight photo tomorrow.

This is 2 coats with a slick of MegaShine top coat, the formula is excellent and dries fast. It is very sparkly even in indoor light. It has a slight duochrome-ish effect as the glassfleck is a much colder, almost lilac pink.

The Andrea Fulerton polishes are nice but £5.10 is a bit steep for a small 5.5mm bottle but I guess it's the celebrity nail technician touch that puts the price up. The formula on this polish is definitely professional and the finish makes it feel worth the money.

NOTD: GOSH Oh My "Apple Green"

I thought this had uploaded but it totally had'nt! Anyway, this is the mani I did on Tuesday night...

GOSH has launched a new line of nail polish called Oh My GOSH (clever..); I don't know if this will take over from their normal range, or be a 'current fashion shades' range. This is "Apple Green", similar to Essie "Going Incognito" and OPI "Jade Is The New Black". All the shades in this new line are cremes. All these are £2.99.

This had a lovely formula but just slightly slightly runny. This is two coats with MegaShine. I just love this kind of muted creme green :) I have a couple of thin patches of polish, I think I must have been too eager and not waited until it hat set and so dragged off the underlying layer when putting on the second layer. Can only see it up close though so it's fine! :)

I also found that BeautyUK are doing shatter polishes, also at the bargainista price of £2.99! And it's decent too! On my ring finger is a quick coat of "Glam Rock", the silver metallic shade, with MegaShine over it to gloss it up.

Hooray for cheap nail polish fixes! :D

NOTD: Essence JellyBaby "Cherry Juice"

It's been raining incessantly for a week now, so I needed something fiery to brighten up my Monday morning. I have had this polish for a while, but never got round to trying it.

I *love* jelly polishes, they always look so shiny and juicy. They work for me as I have cropped nails but if your nails are long and you hate VNL, don't go for jelly! You can even see a bit VNL in my photo, avert your eyes if you are sensitive... This was great to apply albeit a smidge runny. This is two coats and MegaShine top coat. It did take some time to dry however even with the speed dry top coat!

I have also become quite addicted to Yogalates, to the amusement of the The Man. I have made some Yogalates socks as well, as you can see in the bottom left corner! It looks so easy when they are doing it on the DVD, it's really not... It's definitely a fab workout though :) Seeing my feet on show however has made me realise I will have to give myself that thorough pedicure I have been meaning to do for ages as my feet are mega-dry!!

NOTD: Bourjois "18"

Don't you just hate when nail polish companies only uses numbers not names for their colours?? This gorgeous shade should have been called 'Storm Cloud' or something but no.

This polish is part of the new range of nail polish from Bourjois. I have to say the other colours are, well, boring. I love this colour however, it is a greyed navy blue with tiny green shimmer particles. It doesn't look shimmery though in inside light, just a nice navy creme with secret depth.

The coverage was fine, this is 2 coats. However the brush is awful; it has a slant to it for 'touching up chips'. However it is just crap! If I use this again I will have to trim the brush...

Anyway I'm off to demand that The Man put more aloe vera on my hideously 2nd degree sunburned neck!