Happy Easter!

Let me introduce the latest member of our family, Voldemort!

Named by its creator Harriet who sometimes displays a quirky sense of humour :-)

Happy Easter everyone! I believe there will be a nail related post later today but I might be wrong about that.

Happy New Year!

Even if my blog is quiet at the moment my polish habit is still going strong. The last few days I have been able to set aside some time just for me. I used the time to finally start my swatching project.

What you see is 308 "swatch sticks". They are from 3 Swedish brands, H&M, Depend and Isadora. Like flowers, right? :-)

Actually, the painting gave me some really nice surprises. Very many of the polishes showed great quality, good pigmentation and easy handled brushes. Sometimes I forget that all good polish doesn't come from the major salon brands we polish junkies often concentrate our interest to. 

Sometimes, happiness is close to home!

Please let me wish You All a fabulous 2012, shock full of nail polish and other nice things!

The Guessing Game

I've been MIA the last couple of weeks. Very very busy. I came home from a business trip the other night, leaving for a new one tomorrow.

So where have I been? What polish am I wearing? The polish is a clue to the city and the city is a clue to the polish :-D

Of course I took some time off to haul a few pretties. I promise to show them to you as soon as I can. I'll do a proper post of the mystery polish as well, but this will have to do for now.

Crackle Winner

Thanks to all who entered my giveaway! I had a total of 129 entries.

After writing everyone down in a note book, I used my own random chaos maker (Harriet) to cut all the entries into small slips. I then placed all of them in a fancy fruit basket. And shaked. And shaked again.

The first one to fall out of the basket was Kvacka. Congratulations! I have sent you a note. If I don't hear from you in a week I will draw another winner.

A Scary Manicure Story

So, last night I went to bed on an empty stomach. I had fed the kids early and by the time they were in bed I was whipped. Before I went to bed I unpacked a recent internet haul, including Sally Hansen Night Lights and Cover Girl City Lights. I thought briefly that both these polishes could work for layering over my current notd, Deborah Lippman Waking Up In Vegas.

This morning, I didn't wake up in Vegas at all, but in my bed as usual. The nails on my right hand felt a little gritty.

This is one (I presume) coat of CG City Lights on my pinky and one coat of SH Night Lights on the rest of my fingers. Layered on top of Lippman Waking Up in Vegas. I know this is a terrible looking manicure and it shows one day heavy work tip wear as well, since I didn't have time to do anything about it this morning, I just had to roll with it.

Ladies, I did this with my non dominant left hand in my sleep! That is a little scary, right? God knows what I will do the next time I sleep-walk, paint the house red?

Let me tell you, I'm never going hungry to bed again!

A Sparkling Award!

I received such a sweet award today, from Biba's Beauty corner

The rules are very simple:
- Answer one question: What do you like the most about your own blog?
- Pass this award on.

What I like most about my blog is that I managed to keep it guilt free. I blog for my pleasure, sometimes almost daily, sometimes no more than once in a fortnight. Before I started this adventure, I thought long and hard about it. I didn't want to create a monster that would feed me guilt and feelings of stress when I didn't have the time it required.

Well, there is no monster, just a great hobby and an opportunity to connect to the nicest internet community ever.. Thank you for reading and letting me be a part of all this!

I pass this award on to:
Sminkan
Never Ending Obsession
Mon coin à moua
Alizarine Claws

Warning, feet ahead!

I'm sorry for the lack of updates lately. I went on a short family vacation last week and when I returned home, my internet connection was down. Not only mine, but the whole village was without access to broadband for almost a week.

It is really crazy how dependent I have grown of 24/7 access to the net. What's on TV? The weather tomorrow? Pay the monthly bills or find out what's left in your bank account? Keep in touch with friends and family?
Everything is done on the internet. Great when it works, but I think the society has grown much more vulnerable because of our dependency. You don't notice until it is gone..

Anyway, I'm rambling. Let's move on to the feet and hands which are my daughters mani-pedis for the trip. No clean up and a bit of wrestling pre-photo (between the girls, mummy not involved :p)

This is H&M Blue My Mind and Red Nail, only one coat. L.A. Nail Art striper in white. The H&M polishes are really good in pigmentation (and I'm not saying that because I'm swedish).

You didn't think I'd be cruel enough to expose you to my feet, did you? ;-)

Mid Summer Greetings

Here in Sweden, we celebrate Mid Summer this weekend. We raise a maypole covered with flowers and leaves and dance around it, singing traditional songs and listening to traditional music played with fiddles and accordion.

Some of us may celebrate by opening very cute parcels from France (se last post :-D)

Look at all these shiny, glorious flakes and glitters! I'm in Glitter heaven for the holiday, and I don't know if I want to come back at all.
Thank you Marie, what a great giveaway you held!

Pure Luxury

There is not much updating going on on my blog right now, but a lot of updating going on in my life. I hope I will be able to post a little more frequent in the months to come, this spring has been a rough ride for me.

When life's tough, you need to indulge yourself and that is just what I have done.
Nobody really needs a cuticle oil like this one, but it called out to me like a lure. Now it is sitting on my desk, making me feel luxurious and and a little more content in my corner of the world.

This is Nail Food by Scratch, a swedish salon brand that makes polish as well.

My Big Haul!

Remember my 65 bottle haul? Here it is!

Sadly missing in action is Color Club Pardon My French, where one bottle had made havoc with the whole collection. I'll tell you about that business in time..

All the other beauties are present and counted for. Here is OPI, Misa, China Glace and Color Club. Here is both the Foil FX and the Sweet collection from Orly. Here is CND.

Happy, happy!!

All Safety Aboard! (to no avail)

This was originally just an answer to a comment of my last post, but I needed to make it a separate post..

Mighty Lambchop,
Thank you! About bridal nails, your comment brought a really bitter-sweet smile to my face..
I agree with you, this manicure will fit any bride. As for myself, I have married two times, to the same man (1990 and 1999). I know, I'm not Liz Taylor anyway, but still, maybe a bit unusual :-p

The sad part of it is that we are likely in the midst of divorcing again. Our current marriage brought us two lovely kids, daughters now almost 5 and 7 years old, and I have so very, very, very much tried to hold this marriage together because of them. Alas, I can not do so any longer and their daddy is moving out in the first part of June (as of his choice - not mine).
So, I will try to swap my precious bottle of Orly Opal Hope to any aspiring bride out there..
Bring me Something Tall and Strong instead, I will need it.
I would suggest Wife Goes On or A Woman On The Verge, but I already have those in my stash. Maybe I need to be Revved Up & Red-y?

Mmm, Candy For Me!

Yay, I'm a real blogger now! :-D
For the first time, I have received a product for evaluation. It is a cuticle oil called Cuticle Candy, made by Paradise Potions. I received it from the truly awesome Kim at Overall Beauty, the e-tailer who sells me all my beautiful BB Couture polish. If You ever want to get some BB couture, go to Overall Beauty!

So, what do I think about Cuticle Candy? After using it daily for about two weeks, I must say I am really pleased. It smells very nice, just like mint candy, and I found myself longing for it during the day (I use it every evening)..

It absorbs quite fast, and my cuticles feels soft and nourished. Of course, for lasting effect I need to try it for a much longer period, but since it has pushed all my other cuticle oils and treatments out of the competition, I think it was time to tell you about it. I am positive I will order some more of this when my bottle runs out. As you can see, it will take many weeks of use until that happens, and that makes me happy too!

Help! I'm transforming..!

I keep changing shape lately, getting smaller, more scrawny, with big yellow eyes and a sallow greenish skin tone.

Yes, you've got it right, I am slowly changing into Gollum *ssss*

And the last week or so, after the kids went to bed, I caught myself sitting and looking at the polish on my desk..

"sssss my preciousss ssss"

Ahem! Well I can't wear any of these beauties right now, but I certainly can hold the bottles out in the light and whisper to them... *ssss*

Do you see the first rows? It is an australian brand called Glitter Gal, and it is 19 holographic polishes! (because I couldn't choose - of course :-p)

My precioussss... indeed!

The other bottles are wonderful BB Couture, the Disco Collection, the Butterfly Collection, some of the BB for men, some other single ones I wanted for a long time.
Not the last, not the least, a unique bottle of Bassins Bleu 2, a polish given to the customers who bought the Hands Of Hope collection to help with the Haitian catastrophe.

I love my BB Coutures too! *ssss*

OMG!

What did I do?

I just ordered 65 wonderful polishes from an e-tailer, that's what I did!
I tell you, those flat rate shipping deals will be the end of me, I swear...
I will show you the loot when it gets here, for now I just want you to say it is all right to splurge when you've got the chance..