NOTDs from Nailbarone

After a successful time shopping for all manners of lovely stuff such as Culpeper soaps, exclusive cat toys and luxurious knitting yarn from Noro in York, we arrived at walk-in nail bar Nailbarone on Swinegate. After amusing ourselves for about ten minutes watching the 'assembly line' style nail service and perving on the shelves of OPI, Essie and China Glaze polishes on sale, it was time for our shape and polish. I chose the dark dusty seafoam green beauty "Going Incognito" and my pal Rachy went for the blood-red killer creme "Up's".

After washing our hands, the hands were smothered with luxuries hand cream and any old nail polish was removed. The nails were then shaped by filing. After that a coat of Nailtiques base coat went on, then the coats of polish was meticulously applied (no clean-up required!!) and it was sealed with a generous slick of Seche Vite top coat. We love these manis! I fell for "Going Incognito" so badly, I came home with a bottle for my stash...

In a sort of assembly line up to six clients was serviced at the same time by 3 nail technicians! I was very impressed with the super-neat and speedy service, and for less than £10 per person! We have been admiring our super-shiny nails while having a home-made curry and playing "Residen Evil" on the Wii with red wine! :) And tomorrow we are off to IKEA! Woohoo! But now I have to drink my coffee and cuddle Rachy's white kitty and watch some TV before bed!

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NOTD: Color Club "Magic Elf"

Yep, I was swayed by it's green beauty (no surprises there..) and I decided to put it on instead of "Snowflakes" for my 3-day weekend which has jus started! This is 3 thin layers with China Glaze FastForward top coat. Awesome! :D

I am just popping in to show you this beauty, I have a long day of Christmas shopping before me tomorrow so I won't linger.

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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!

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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'...

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NOTD: Revlon Matte "Emerald City"

I saw this polish a couple of weeks ago and bagged it immediately. After swatching it on a nail when I got home, I decided however I didn't like it much. But as I sadly removed my glorious OPI Designer Series "Ruby" tonight, I knew whatever I put on would not be as glorious so I took this one out of my Helmer.

Let me start by saying it is not a dupe for Zoya "Veruschka". And it is not a true matte.

I would say this is a dark green satin. These photos are taken when the polish is fully dry. None of my other mattes are this shiny. I contemplated putting my Rimmel or TopShop matte top coats but couldn't be bothered finding them. This is 2 coats over Nailgrowth Miracle.

What do you think?...

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Latest NOTDs

Wow! All I can say about my latest green love! This is from the s/s 2010 collection from Mavala called "Swinging Colours". This is 2 coats with a slick of Megashine - it needs it as the polish in itself isn't very shiny. But it glows green almost like "Moonpool"! :) Excellent for £3.95!

Due to being busy lately I never posted Mon+Tues mani so here it is! I felt like something bright on Sunday night, so I settled for the bright magenta creme! This photos is very weird, it's like my camera can't capture the purply-pink of this polish :(

This is 2 perfect coats of "Swizzles" with a slick of Megashine. Yes I am back on the Megashine topcoat, as I finally found my lost bottle! I have to say that I was incredibly disappointed to wake up after doing my "Wagon Trail" manicure to find dents and sheet marks on it the next morning. What a rip off. Don't buy the massively overpriced Nailshine Miracle. The only miracle is how they get away with selling it for £9.45 when it doesn't deliver on ANY of it's promises...

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NOTD: H&M "Green"

Finally back to some kind of normality! Phew! I painted my nails in my fave colour green to celebrate. This is a lovely glowy bluey-green shimmer from a nail kit with 4 mini polishes called Summer Nails I found in H&M. Lovely and very unique colour, crappy name - I hate it when whoever comes up with the colour can't even be bothered to give it a catchy name.... This is 2 coats of "Green". Please excuse some dents etc in this manicure, I was frenetically unpacking from house sitting so had to fish camera out of a bag before my mani was even dry....

I hope to be back to posting more often again now been so busy lately and we will be moving back home (finally!) at the end of the month but before then I am hoping I can get lots of NOTDs for you all!! I am eagerly awaiting some rare Rimmel's in the post, so I am hoping that come the weekend they will have arrived :)

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NOTD: Avon ColorTrend "Refreshing Pear"

This is one of the new Ice Sheer nail polishes from Avon. I didn't realise these were scented until I was casually examining the box between coats! These are not as strongly scented as the Revlons from last year but it has a very nice subtle fruit scent! I am a sucker for scented nail polish; brings me right back to the late 80s when I got some of my first ever polishes (and I still have and use most of the today!).

This is 3 coats, unsurprising considering the name! No top coat, it dried fairly quick anyway (I was preparing strawberries within 20 mins).

That reminds me; I also bought the whole Footworks Cherry Ice foot care collection from Avon recently , and it's lovely! :) First I soaked my feet in hot water, then I scrubbed them with the Exfoliating Scrub, soaked them some more til the water was lukewarm. I dried off and massaged in the Moisturising Lotion and finished with a spritz of the Cooling Foot Spray. It made my neglected little tootsies smooth and soft and it smells divine!

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NOTD: Collection 2000 Hot Looks "Bongo Beat"

I am just back from a glorious mini-holiday in Grantown-on-Spey in the Cairngorm National Park; warm (23 degrees Celsius), humid and sunny! For once! I was there for the Big BioBuzz day and saw some amazing moths, hence my compadres here; the eyed Emperor Moth Saturnia pavionia, and my white friend Puss Moth Cerura vinula. Both are huge and very impressive!

Today's NOTD is one of the new Collection 2000 nail polishes for summer, "Bongo Beat". It's a mermaidish, blue/green duochrome, not unlike Orly's "It's up to blue", but more tropical green mixed in, which is hard to capture on camera. Absolutely lovely! This is 2 coats with Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat.

I will be trying to post more this week, I've been so busy lately!

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400th Post!

*pops champagne*

Another milestone - 400th post! Thank you all for keeping on reading and commenting! :) To celebrate, I have a cool NOTD for you all - Topshop "Carry on camping", on it's own and with the new Topshop Matte Top coat.

I used the Matte Top Coat on half of a nail when I wore No7 "Beanie", it stayed chip-free and matte until I took the manicure off, despite oiling my cuticles and using hand cream! :)

This is 2 coats of "Carry on camping", no top coat, then with a slick of Matte Top Coat.

And also I found some new nail polish in Asda today. Not the George one's that everyone else seems to find, just plain old Asda brand polish. Some nice colours, can't wait to try them, but I got a few Topshop polishes to get through first!

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NOTD: Makeup Academy Shade no 13

I love to find new cheap nail polishes. Makeup Academy (MUA) is a range of budget makeup that Superdrug has just recently brought out; it has some great nail polish colours including this one and a mint green one. I also bought a nice minty green eye shadow with a matching metallic-y eyeliner and they both performed superbly on top of my lovely new bareMinerals Eye Primer.

This is hard to capture; I will need to get another photo tomorrow in daylight if I can. This is 2 coats with Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat. It annoys me when companies can't even be bothered making up names for their colours. This is simply No 13. With it's soft warm green shimmer that applies beautifully it should be called something like "Green Velvet" or something...

This is not bad for £1! I love it, I may splurge on a couple of more shades at lunchtime tomorrow!

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NOTD: Maybelline "Electric Apple"

So I am still on a green high, and moving into my summer block colours. I love the nudes and pastels but somehow I start craving bright Crayola colours as we move into summer. Today I found a new top in Next - one of those "How pissed off will I be if I don't buy this and spend the rest of my life yearning for" tops. It's just, so me. I will wear this with a black maxidress tomorrow for work.

I obviously had to find a colour in my stash to match the bright bobbles on my top. And I found Maybelline Express Finish "Electric Apple". This is some years old and discontinued as far as I know. I *love* this polish. It's one of my fave greens albeit a very acid green.

This is 3 coats and Sally Hansen Mega Shine top coat. You could get away with 2 coats but it doesn't pop that intense lime colour until you do 3. Also you may find you need to be extra careful to avoid brush strokes. Formula is probably an old non-3-free and it's very lovely... Plz excuse my peeling nail...

Anyway I am off to read my new Instyle magazine and have one of the last Creme-Eggs of the year!

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NOTD: Zoya "Ivanka"

This is not an entirely accurate photo - "Ivanka" is amazingly sparkly and foil-y! This is 3 coats without top coat; I learned my lesson after "Mimi" and quick-dry top coat...

There is not much else to say, apart from I will need to get a better photo of this beauty :)

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NOTD comparisons

So I said I would compare the two versions of Rimmel 60sec "Camouflage", so here it is. My middle finger is the new formula, my ring finger is the original formula. The new formula is slightly less gold-y and less deep than the original. Still very nice green, as the come! :) This is 2 coats over Nailtek II base coat and a slick of Sally Hansen MegaShine.

I am watching the Brit Awards while doing more important things, such as internet banking and soaking my slightly infected foot sutures in salt water to kill the bacteria. Back to the GP's office tomorrow, I think...

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Valentine's NOTD: L'Oreal "330"

This is one of my old time favourite nail polishes, I am wearing it to show my love for it this Valentine's Day! It's a touch warmer pink (but not as coral as the photo makes it look) and a whole lot sparklier than it's nearest cousin OPI "Arose by dawn, broke by noon". It's glitter is almost like OPI "Princesses Rule!" but I wouldn't say it's a glassfleck sparkle. Dang hard to photograph though!!! This is 2 coats with Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat. Man, I love this polish so much!!

So I finally got a bottle of the new formula of Rimmel "Camouflage". I was hoping that the two would be identical - this is NOT the case! Not even that close actually. Still a lovely colour, but I prefer the old formula; it's much more golden, sparkly and warmer. I will do a proper comparison this week so you can see the difference on nails next to each other. I will need to buy myself another old style "Camouflage" I think while there is still time... Also another weird thing - UK bottles of 60 sec Rimmels are only 8ml, the US releases are 12ml, but the brush is the same. As far as I am aware, "Camouflage" was never released in the UK.

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you, dear readers!

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NOTD: OPI "Jade is the new black"

I re-did this mani twice with different base coats, both times with disastrous balding patches (see the top left of the pinkie...) where it has dragged off the previous coat of colour. I am not happy. This is the first time in a long time I actually feel that I loathe a particular nail polish due to application issues alone. The colour is very unusual blue-based green, and I own nothing like it. But I can't stand the application :( This love thing is so hard. OPI, I know we haven't always got along great, and although you really wowed me with "Absolutely Alice", I don't think I love you anymore. In fact, I am not taking you out for Valentine's Day.

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Recent NOTDs!

Wow I can barely keep up with my blogging, I'm changing nail polish so often :P I actually pre-ordered my Chanel "Particuliere" today. I must be crazy. But it just looks soooooo lovely - just look at Neglelakkmani's pix!

Anyway, from the top is the lovely new Nails Inc "Seven dials" (I don't get the name... If someone does, please let me know). Usual Nails Inc dream formula, smooth and opaque. And a colour not to be missed - see how it compares to some I thought might be similar but really aren't. Wow, just love this colour :) Bottles from left to right: Orly "Mint Mojito", Nails Inc "Seven dials", Misa "Dirty sexy money" and Barry M "Mint Green".

Second from the top is one of last weeks NOTD; OPI "Bright light big color", a nice and sparkly orange that got me in the mood for spring! This is 3 coats and top coat. Wore like iron, I had it on from Wednesday til Sunday, it's only marginally cracked and that was on my bad peeling nails.

Then last but not least is No7 "Twinkles", this is a nude similar to China Glaze "Innocence" but with multiglitter! Woohoo! :) I majorly smudged this mani however so I had to take it off and do another one, also note the remains of the Suede FX lacquer... Ooops. Not my best moment, so to speak...

Anyway I am off to pen my reviews for this weekend for the Soap&Glory stuff I am addicted to right now - I am having my foot operation on Thursday morning so I am getting verrrrry nervous... Anyhow, see ya'll soon!

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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.

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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 :)

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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! :)

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