Nails of my holidays: Gelish "Oocha Coocha.."

I've already worn this but as a pedicure with grand results, so for my week hiking, camping and generally just chilling out with The Man on the west coast, I decided to put it on as a matching mani and pedi :) This is an intensely sparkly teal glitter gel polish. I have a brief quide to gel polishes here. If you haven't tried gel polish, you should get yourself a gel polish manicure for your holiday or a special occasion - nothing beats the perfect lasting power!!

"Oocha Coocha.." is a bit sheer so you will need about 3-4 coats for it to be ok on longer nails where you will otherwise get VNL. But as each coat cures in 30sec in LED light, that's not really a problem :) No VNL for me as my nails are cut right back to make it easier for while I am rock pooling, fossil hunting and plant surveying! But there is a slightly sheer patch on the ring finger. Whilst doing my mani, Elvis the cat decided to jump on the table so I mucked up one layer of it trying to get him down and forgot to fix it in my haste to get ready so excuse the sloppy application on the middle and ring fingers...

I will hopefully be able to post some cool 'on location' photos of my Gelish mani and pedi whilst I am on holiday as there is free wi-fi at the campsite :P

NOTD: Misa "Dirty, Sexy, Money"

Oh how I love this colour :) I don't really know why but this is one of my all-time favourite polishes. By know it feels like this kind of dusty, dirty, vintage teal has been done to death, but "Dirty, Sexy, Money" it remains a king among polishes in my world. It has that special something that many of it's copies don't have. It could be the flawless coverage, this is 2 coats, or the way it shines even without a top coat, or just the fact that when it came out, it was completely unique. Which ever it is, I have two bottles - I never want to be without "Dirty, Sexy, Money"! :)

Please excuse the dry looking cuticles, I haven't been keeping up the hand cream lately as I've been flitting between jobs at work and at home. Cleaning and gardening doesn't help either... But I have now put my hands in almond oil and stuck on a pair of cotton gloves for the night, so I hope I wake up to hydrated mitts!

NOTD: Revlon "Fierce"

I picked this up for a quid in Poundland, they seemed to be getting rid of all the leftovers of the 'Edgy Elegance' collection! This polish will really offend Zeke The Evil Beech but she just has to put up with it, she is getting a parcel of goodies from me this week :)

This is 1 coat and a slick of MegaShine, and I am ok with the rather stringy formula due to the high opacity :) But it can be messy if you're not careful. I might go back for a few more of the colours if they still have some left!

So I've been rather busy wedding planning lately, and I just wanted to show you where I am getting my bridal bouquet from - Jamball Creations. I will be able to fully customise my bouquet according to my dress, so I am really excited :) I am not a fan of cut flowers as they are so wasteful, so this is ideal for me (originally I wasn't having a bouquet at all). My Other Half will have a matching boutonniere as well :) I will definitely be showing you the photos when it's finished!

NOTD: Sinful Color "All Mighty"

I was in Poundland looking for cheap thrills and saw this beauty! For £1 you can't go wrong so I picked up this and a Revlon polish. I had a horrible feeling it would be super-sheer and disappointing but not so! This is 3 thin coats but you could get away with 2 thicker coats! :) It has a gorgeous shimmer to it, and a slight turquoise depth. I love it! Totally worth £1! Normally we can't get Sinful Color polishes in the UK so I feel it's even better. This is worthy of it's name - this has probably become one of my favourite blues, "All Mighty" indeed! The brush on this polish was weird; short and really hard, but it was easy enough to apply anyway with some care. But I made a bit of mess on some fingers anyway ahem, I do apologise. This is 3 coats with MegaShine top coat.

NOTD: China Glaze "Gussied-Up Green"

I found this old gem in my Helmer and needed to wear it! But I'd forgotten how weird the formula is... Thick but kinda runny and messy... But hey it's ok, that glowy green is gorgeous :) This is 2 coats with MegaShine top coat.

This dries really slowly even with speed dry top coat for some reason. I loved the whole "Rodeo Diva" collection from China Glaze - it was one of my first nail polish loves when I started to blog :)

Look what happened to my cuticle AGAIN!! It was again a tiny little cuticle bit and got caught on my apron as I made dinner and peeled off :( Very sore and unattractive, I do apologise...You can just see it oozing clear liquid now so I guess it'll be bruised like the other side tomorrow.

NOTD: Rimmel "Pear Drop"

This is a brand spanking new colour from Rimmel and of course I had to have it! It is a frosty mint green with a penchant for streaking but hey, it's still pretty cool. You can't see the streakiness from afar anyway it just looks frosty! Pear drops are one of my fave sweeties, especially the ones from Marks & Spencer, so I think I may have bought this polish for it's name as well :)

This is 2 coats with MegaShine top coat. It's a bit thick to apply and make sure the coats dry inbetween or you will get bald patches. Please excuse the horrible looking pinkie - I had a tiny bit of dry cuticle, then when I got undressed last night it caught and ripped off a huge bit of skin :O It was so stinging and oozing clear liquid, and this morning it had dried to this unsightly thing...

NOTD: Barry M "Chameleon Pink"

Barry M has brought out 3 new colour-changing polishes! This is the pink one, there is also a lilac and a blue version. The formula is thick and very opaque, but surprisingly non-brushstrokey. This is just 1 coat of "Chameleon Pink". I added MegaShine dots and lines. The colour-change goes darker the thicker the top coat goes on. I did a whole nail on the other hand, which wasn't as nice; I think I didn't put enough top coat on in the first try and did some 'dry strokes' which managed to smudge the polish underneath.

I love this polish! :)

NOTD: LCN "No.331 Free Your Mind"

I got this polish in the March 2012 Joliebox. I've just not been in the mood for it so far. It is a shimmery icy white polish from the 2012 LCN collection with the same name. The formula is a bit thin, yet thick, and prone to streaking. But I kind of expected that with a white polish! This is 2 coats with Megashine top coat. I probably should have put on a 3rd coat but I wasn't sure how that would work, it felt the manicure was getting a bit thick even with the 2 coats. All in all, this polish is ok and it will do for tomorrow :) Although I am not sure white is really a good look on me...

NOTD: Isadora Magnetic Nails "Opposites Attract"

Sorry for the pause in blogging, AGAIN I've been really ill, not sure what it is this time, the Dr thinks its tonsillitis but as it goes deeper into my chest by the day I'm not so sure :( Anyway it's made me cough like crazy and that didn't go very well with nail polish fumes so...


This is 1 coat of polish. I then stick on a coat of MegaShine on one nail at a time and do the magnet. If you put top coat and have already done the magnet, the effect fades as the polish underneath is re-wetted, so I came up with doing the magnet after top coat and it works every time! This is by far the 'greenest' magnetic polish I've seen so far (and I've seen a lot!), more green than "Ego Green" by the Saturdays, which I thought was fairly green! I am in love with this polish, must try it again with a star magnet, as this chevron pattern is too hard to line up nicely on my teeny-weenie nails...

Anyway, here is a polish that promised so much and totally disappointed - Isadora "Marzipan". I hate when that happens. How does that lovely polish in the bottle go from that gorgeous micro-shimmer look to the streaky, thick mess (3 coats here) on the nails that's like green Tippex to apply??? I cry over you, "Marzipan". Well, only cause I was coughing to death putting on all those coats, but still...

While I was awake coughing in the middle of the night, sitting on the sofa trying to sleep as couldn't lie down, I crocheted a few granny squares and made a little blanket for Elvis the Cat to lie on to spare my chair covers :) I probably should have made another row of squares but hey...