NOTD: Zoya Matte "Posh"

I've had this on before but I really wanted something that didn't smell too bad and dried quickly, and this was what I fancied! :) This is 1 coat without top coat.

Also this is the bag I knitted over the weekend :) I love the pom-pom yarn, its soooo soft and squidgy. Perfect when you really need a handbag noone else has!

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NOTD: Bloom "Molly" + Zoya Richelle" French Manicure

So I am continuing my Bloom cavalcade, this this its the retina-burning pink neon "Molly" with a French tip in Zoya "Richelle". This is two coats of each with MegaShine top coat. The camera is struggling with the intensity of "Molly"; it looks more 'normal pink' with a warm touch here. But it is actually a cool, in-your-face pink neon. This neon is very slow to dry, even with quick-dry top coat.... Great, non-chalky, non-streaky finish though! I had some trouble with the French tip as I was not very steady due to my fibromyalgia...

I love crazy French manis - the Angela Fulerton range has some cool combos, but you can easy make up a crazy combination yourself. My fave ever French is my Holographic French, it was done with proper extensions so it's really a proper, long-nailed French :)

What's your perfect French??

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NOTD: Zoya "Richelle"

So I have done 5 manis with "Richelle" before, however I still marvel at how bling and sparkly it really is! A must-have gold polish for me! I have done a matching manicure and pedicure with "Richelle" for a wedding reception I am going to tomorrow night, it will go perfectly with my chiffon maxi dress; lets just hope I don't spill some sauce or something down my front during dinner! This is two coats of "Richelle" with MegaShine top coat.

Anyway I had a day off today to do a course on invertebrates so here is a microscope shot of a springtail for you! Very funky wee beasties, one of the oldests invertebrates known.

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NOTD: Zoya "Charla"

Another lovely polish from the new summer collection Sparkle from Zoya! This is 3 thin coats and no top coat. Insane duochrome sparkle, sooo hard to catch on camera! So far I am absolutely in love with the polishes from the Sparkle collection. I love the glass-fleck finish, so sparkly but totally smooth!

Watching Jamie does Stockholm and am quite surprised that Essex-boy Jamie has actually eaten surströmming without spewing! Respect! Haha, the smell of that stuff is so anti-social, and I really hate it.

Moving on. I am about to try a bunch of new stuff including Make Believe self tan, so keep an eye on the blog over the May Day weekend to find out what is cookin'!

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NOTD: Zoya "Gilda"

My Zoya Sparkle collection arrived today, and I was exstatic when I opened the parcel. It is just amazing! :) This is my very first collection I have bought in whole! Totally worth it! Sparkle is the summer collection from Zoya and was released on 1st April 2010.

This is 3 coats of "Gilda" with Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat. It is glassfleck polish as opposed to glitter polish; it has a smooth finish.

This is "Gilda", which is a bright Barbie-pink glassfleck polish. I was torn which one to try first, and despite being smitten with green "Ivanka" and blue-turquoise "Charla" I decided on this one. And it's gonna go very well with a new dress I have :)

I tried to take a late afternoon light photo but it's very dim as the sun isn't really out. However it seems to work a bit better than all my indoor light which is too dim.

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NOTD: Zoya "Kotori"

Sometimes you think "Hey what can I do to cheer myself up?". Put on "Zombieland" or "Evolution" DVD. Have a good dig into my nail polish stash and fish out a polish I've not used yet, such as "Kotori". Have a minty foot bath and a face mask... And voila - I feel better! Oh and there was some eating of Carte D'Or Crema di Mascarpone icecream involved...

So here is "Kotori". It is very sheer for such a dark polish, this is 4 thin coats, with Sally Hansen MegaShine. The formula is a bit runny and messy. Its nice and sparkly though, a teal-y indigo shimmer in a black base. Doesn't dry very well though, and MegaShine made it more dull for some reason... I have to work on this base / top coat combo, it's just not working for me right now. Then again Zoya doesn't dry very well on me normally. No matter. Still a lovable manicure!

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Couple of recent NOTDs!

Cover you eyes, Zeke! :)

Friday was my birthday, so I wore Zoya's (aptly named) Ultra Glitter "Astra" (top photo). It's so gorgeous, and by far my fave pink glitter ever I think! It wore like iron despite packing crates of rescued possessions all weekend. It is a sheer-ish glitter in a transparent tinted base so this is 3 coats. It needs the translucent base however to achieve the super-sparkle, and it dries quickly so no complaints from me!

Today I was going to put on a navy shimmer paired with a silver I got for my birthday but I was looking through my Helmer and saw Bloom "Josephine" (bottom photo) and I was compelled to put it on. This blueberry-purple shimmer is so deep and lovely and totally soothes my mood right now :)

Anyways, I am still waiting to get a more permanent place to stay after the flooding so I will be passing by when I can! More soon I hope! :)

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NOTD: No7 "Salsa" and Zoya "Richelle"

I am getting well and truly into the Xmas spirit here! With just over a week to go, I decided that I wanted to emulate the bottle of the No7 polish I got for my Advent Calendar at work! It makes Secret Santa dead easy when everyone knows you love naill polish!

This is 2 coats of Zoya "Richelle" and 2 coats of No7 "Salsa" with Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat. Both polishes go on super-smooth! "Salsa" is a dupe for Nails Inc "Aspen", which is fighting it out as my all time fave red with China Glaze "Ruby Pumps".

Also kids, Lush's bath ballistic "Happy Pill" is amazing - I had a bit of a stressful day and when I got home I so wanted a nice bath... It smells lovely and sort of fruity, but not in a synthetic overpowering way. My skin is not dry like a raisin either, and trust me I was in the tub for a good half hour... Just break the tab in two - it fizzes and smells just as much and your £2.86 lasts twice as long!

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NOTD: Zoya "Veruschka" with China Glaze "Emerald Sparkle"

I finally got this polish - it wasn't easy to wait so long :) My heart started beating as soon as I saw the comment on my post for Zoya "Posh". It's amazing!! :) I did have this idea of putting on diagonals of China Glaze "Emerald Sparkle" :)

I use base coat with mattes as I am paranoid about staining. I used Sally Hansen Nail Quencher here, I think any shiny base coat would work, but I've got a limited supply to try. I will probably get chipping tomorrow but I don't care, the end result is worth it.

This is 2 coats of "Veruschka" over Sally Hansen Nail Quencher with one layer of "Emerald Sparkle" on the diagonals topped with Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat on the diagonals. Please excuse the messy tips, matte polishes are so fast-drying that they tend to clump up the brush a bit which makes painting a bit of a pain.

I'm off to pick out something green from my wardrobe for tomorrow!! :)

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NOTD: Zoya "Yasmeen"

So this one is for Zeke the evil beech - she requested eggplant/aubergine, but Zoya "Yasmeen" is as close as I get! This is a gorgeous polish, it is dark purple with a strong pink duochrome. Absolutely stunning in daylight, but here we will have to suffice with a daylight lamp as it's nearly dark already when I get home in the winter. Please excuse the slightly blurry photo, but it's the best way to illustrate the deep shimmery glow of this polish :)

This is 2 coats over Sally Hansen Diamond Strength with Sally Hansen MegaShine top coat. It's smooth to apply but slightly runny. This has got to be one of my top tens, it's just so glowy and pretty while still being totally unique! I've worn this before but I didn't take photos of it!

Lina-Elvira Loves It Thiiiis Much:
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

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NOTD: Zoya "Posh"

Told you I had something cool to show you! I've waited what seems like forever for the autumn mattes to come out, I also have OPI La Paz-itively Hot Matte coming. This polish is like heavy velvet drapes, rich and luxurious. I'd kill for a dark emerald version of "Posh" (hear hear Zoya!) It's hard to photograph the lovely texture of this polish. I added some Artclub black striper polish to make a glossy accent (it wouldn't be "me" without the crazy details!).

"Posh" goes on in an intensely super-shimmery way, so I might have to do this again but with a top coat to bring out the shimmer. The application is super-smooth. It dries really quick.

This is 1 coat (yes, one!) of "Posh". This is without a base or top coat, as instructed by Zoya. It also says to avoid oils and lotions so I am not anticipating this manicure to live past tomorrow :) But who cares? The whole manicure including drying time took 10 minutes!

Lina-Elvira Loves It Thiiiis Much:

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ +

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Nail Polish Layering

I am still loving Zoya "Jo" but that hasn't stopped me playing about with nail polish. On the left is 2 coats of Zoya "Colbie" and then 1 coat of China Glaze "Ruby Pumps". On the right is 2 coats of Revlon "Steel her heart" topped with 1 coat of China Glaze "Tinsel". Sparkle-tastic! :)

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NOTD: Zoya "Jo"

"Jo" is part of Zoya's Spring collection Twist. It's blue lies somewhere between cornflower and periwinkle with a muted tone. There are no dupes to this colour in my nail polish stash, none come even close to the dainty blue of "Jo". It is lusciously shimmery in the sunlight and more subtle glowing in artificial light. It is hard to photograph this colour, my camera doesn't seem to handle the colour of this polish very well. This is the best photo of many.

Unfortunately this polish suffers from 3-free syndrome in being gloopy and thick but runny at the same time. This is 3 coats and Poshe top coat. It requires patience to apply but the end result is totally worth it!

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NOTD - Zoya "Richelle" with Konad

I don't know what to say about this manicure, I just know I love it :) This is the animal pattern from the M2 plate in China Glaze "Wagon Trail" over Zoya "Richelle".

I got some black Konad special polish with my kit, which I used for my very first try. Inspired by Sanna's blog I decided to try another polish to see how it worked. It worked perfectly. Obviously you will need to follow her recommendations for choosing a polish, but I think that if you find the right one they work just as well as special polish :)

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NOTD - Zoya "Mieko"

"Mieko" is my second favourite from the Flourish winter 2008 collection. However I think this would be more of a summer sandal toes polish than a winter one? But then again, maybe it's meant to be like the "cruise collection" for nail polish :)

"Mieko" was less opaque than "Richelle" in two coats, I should have put on 3. But its goes on smoothly and dries fairly quickly so it's not really a problem. And I really like the colour - it is a juicy raspberry pink with gold micro-glitter, very nice :)

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NOTD - Zoya "Richelle"

"Richelle" is from the Zoya winter collection Flourish for 2008, and it seems every other nail blogger have already posted some really great photos of these collections. However I believe in making informed consumer choices, especially in these "credit crunch" days, so here is my opinion and my swatches as well :)

Richelle is a sparkly, warm golden bronze. I can't take my eyes off this colour. I have never coveted gold polishes (hence why I didn't go nuts for Chanel's Gold Fiction) but Richelle really excites me!

The formula is very smooth and non-gritty for such a fiercly micro-glittery polish. It was opaque in 2 coats. It dries fairly quickly to a high shine. The photo shows base coat, 2 coats of "Richelle" and 1 coat of Seche Vite.

What can I say? "Richelle" is my Christmas polish crush :) I did however sabotage one of my nails while taking photos so I think that tonight it will come off and make way for "Shivon" or "Mieko" from the same collection, so stay tuned :)

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NOTD: Zoya "Colbie"

This is a naughty blackened deep blood red shimmer. Just the thing you need for the dark autumn days :) It has a good opaque coverage in 2 coats.

However, I had a dodgy brush on this one. I've got quite a few Zoya polishes but on this one the brush is a splayed and overloads with polish.

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NOTD - Zoya "Irene"

I *love* this polish! Its' a shimmery mossy green colour. Reminds me of chilly autumn days in the forest where you'd get your hands wet and cold on the glistening, dew-laden moss while picking chanterelle mushrooms :)

The application is OK, but the formula is on the sheer and thin side so it tends to streak if you're not careful. But like with "Juicy" the end result is totally worth the hassle. This is 3 coats of polish and Seche Vite on top. My nails are in a state at the moment and peeling a lot so thats why it may look a bit uneven in places.

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NOTD - Zoya "Juicy"

I caved in to my urge to get Zoya "Juicy" even though I had decided not to after Scrangie's review. I just had to have it. The colour I eventually got was a super-shiny jelly magenta. The photo doesn't do it justice.

But be warned, "Juicy" is a royal PITA to apply. I had to use 5 coats to get it to an acceptable opaque finish, and even then in the photo you can still see the nail in places because it drags away the previous layer of colour if you're not careful! I finished with a thick layer of Seche Vite. I am currently using Sally Hansen Miracle Cure as a base coat (more on that later on in the week), but I am not sure this is the cause of the application problems.

Appplication issues and all, I am glad I bought it. With a bit of preserverence, the end result is awesome! I also bought Zoya's "Irene" and "Kotori" but I have yet to try these on so I don't know if their application is any better.

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