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....

NOTD: Isadora Graffiti Nails "Swedish Flag"

My goodness time flies! Been so busy on holiday climbing snowy peaks and visiting places :) An update on "Space Cadet" - it may be the loveliest colour ever but my mani had seriously flaked off by the end of Wed night (not even 2 days of wear!). However I am sure I can cope with that as the colour is amazing ;)

Anyway here is the first of few Graffiti nail manis - I can't believe Isadora is not sold in UK, their stuff is always awesome! My dear mum bought these for me, and she was thrilled to see it worked as it says on the can - she was convinced it would be bogus :)

This is 2 coats of Isadora "Gold Sparkles" (it looks sheer, but it's not) and a thick slap of "Spraycan Blue" on top. The trick with these is to overload the brush slightly and slap it on in one quick-as-hell stroke or you get smears. I added a layer of China Glaze Fast Forward top coat.

Many of you may not know I am also an avid knitter and I am off to the local knitting Mecca - Garntjanst today to browse yarn etc so gotta dash but I will be back tonight with some cool photos of snowy peaks, reindeers and dinosaur bones :)

1st Holiday NOTD: Orly "Space Cadet"

Wow.

Nail polish of the Year?

This is 4 coats (worth every damn coat!!) and China Glaze FastForward top coat. It is super-sparkly and shifts colour like a, eh, cuttle-fish?... This is a sheer polish but I feel it has to be as sheer as it is or it wouldn't have that super-sparkle. I can't wait to try the green "It's not rocket science" from the same collection I swapped for with a fab American lady! :)

I am hoping my 2 week holiday in Sweden will break my recent addiction to 'South Park'. And I am hoping it will land me some sweet nail polishes, some cool clothes, some fresh air and some super cuddles with my family and cats :)

NOTD China Glaze "Mummy May I"

A lovely lady from America sent me the gorgeous Orly "It's not rocket science" and a mass of other to die for nail polishes so here's hoping I can show these all off in the next few weeks! I got the new China Glaze Awakening set for Halloween 2010, and here is my first choice - "Mummy May I". It is a blackened plum base with hot fuschia glitter. The glitter isn't as obvious as I would like it but it's still a very cool polish! This is 3 coats with 2 coats of China Glaze FastForward top coat. The formula on this was thick and unpleasant but it did dry very quickly even without speed dry top coat.

I also managed to get my mitts on one of the new Andrea Fulerton Nail Boutique Nail Trio's! This is "Garden of Eden". What a lovely name! :D I thought from photos on Superdrug website that it was a dark green/orangey sheer glitter combo but it's better than that!! I wasn't sure how the layering would look but OMG it's awesome (nail on far right)! :D I also bought the nail polish remover from this range; it comes in a professional pump bottle and supposedly smells of spearmint??? I will review this when I try and remove this glitter tomorrow! :)

I am finally on holiday for 2 1/2 weeks and I will be returning to Sweden for my vacay; there is confirmed rumours my sweet Mother has got me some of the cool new Isadora Graffiti nail polishes! :) I should get plenty of time to catch up on my blogging...

Anyway I am just dashing off to see Pirahna 3D in the cinema, so see you all tomorrow!!

NOTD: Beauty UK "Smokey lilac"

I am very disappointed I couldn't catch this colour on camera. It looks all grey, not the lilac-grey it is in real life :( it is a spectacularly unusual colour!

Very cheap and cheerful, this is 3 coats with Megashine. I think this polish retails for £1.99 or something like that. The polish formula is ok, it easily becomes streaky if you're not careful. If you have ridged nails, put on a ridge-filling base coat!

I am eagerly awaiting a special polish in the post however I don't think it will be here before I go on holiday in a weeks time but I should have plenty time on holiday to showcase my new Isadora Grafitti Nail polishes my mum has very lovingly bought me :D

Anyway I am off to knit a special present to a dear pal of mine!