Tuesday 30 April 2019

Zoya Lyric

Happy post Game of Thrones day!

Wowza, I've watched episode three twice now and I'm still whoa!

Today on the blog I have a very unusual polish

A Zoya a Day
Name - Lyric
Year - 2007
Number - ZP401
Coats - 2
Finish - Shimmer
Collection - Serendipity 
Colour - Golden Nude
Topcoat - None

Lyric is a discontinued polish on the USA Zoya site but I managed to pick her up on the UK Zoya site.  The description they give is as follows:-

Lyric can be best described as a warm peach with orange and terracotta undertones and soft gold and champagne shimmer, which I was say is correct but as is typical with Zoya this polish falls into several different colour categories, I could put her with my nudes, my peaches or my golds.

Lyric came from the spring 2007 collection from which I also own Diem, Nevaeh = heaven backwards and Marilyn

The formula on this was perfection, no running or pooling and opaque in 2 coats, also this was impossible to get a colour accurate pic! The most realistic is the third pic and my fingers on the right, not sure how Zoya manage it but some of their polishes refuse to photograph colour accurately, looking at you Miss Stella and Miss Jack. the last pic shows up the gold shimmer beautifully though :).












Friday 26 April 2019

Zoya UK Haul

Happy Friday!

Thank feck its the weekend and a race weekend at that, Formula 1 and Formula E :)

Over Easter Zoya UK had a 40% off code so, how could I resist, well I couldnt and I picked up 8.

I am still searching for the ultimate manicure hands polish, Zoya Sally came close but not quite.

From left to right we have the following

Ginger
Rica*
Evangeline
Deidra
Amminah
Lyric
Quinn*
Colette 


The violet shimmer in Amminah is stunning and I am hoping it translates to the nail!

Most of these are not available on the Zoya US website, the UK has quite a lot of older polishes that are discontinued, *are still available on the US site.

First pic is under my LED light and second is under natural indirect light.



Thursday 25 April 2019

Zoya Evette

Happy Thursday

Today on the blog I have a stunning red toned purple for you and its a one coat wonder as well!

I give you Evette, second picture is taken in natural indirect light and third picture was taken under my LED light, the swatch comparisons are in direct sunlight and the bottle shots are in the same order as the swatch sticks.

This is a gorgeous purple, very red leaning, perfect formula, no running or pooling and totally opaque in one sweet coat. If you love purples like I do then you need this lady in your collection.  She also stamps!

A Zoya a Day
Name - Evette
Year - 2019
Number - ZP980
Coats - 1
Finish - Creme
Collection - Innocence
Colour - Purple
Topcoat - None









Wednesday 24 April 2019

Prism Polish Mani featuring Dry January and Trip the Light Prismatic

Today on the blog I have the stunning pairing of Dry January a tri-thermal with Trip the Light Prismatic a pastel multi-chrome.

I started with my usual base which is Zoya Anchor and 2 coats of that.

Then I did two coats of Dry January, I then added Trip the Light Prismatic over my middle fingers and thumbs, the formula on both of these is top notch, no running no pooling.

Dry January goes from a dark purple to a lilac to a light green, this transitions really well, you wont need a hairdryer to see the warm or hot states of this.

I also love that you can see through Trip the Light but you still get that multi-chrome goodness.





Easter Bunny Mani

Today on the blog I have some bunnies.

I've been struggling with nail inspiration lately, so thank goodness for instagram challenges!

Todays was bunnies! Every time I say bunnies I hear the Buffy the Vampire song I'll got a Feeling.

I started with a base of Pretty Serious Little Duckling :) love the colour and the name! It was opaque in two coats, no running or pooling, I then grabbed three Virago Varnish that spoke spring to me and they were Cannon Ball, She Cries Everyday and Bug Bites, my go to basecoat of Zoya Anchor was my starting point, I dont use anything else as my base unless I'm going to wear a glitter and in that case its Unt Ready for Takeoff peel off basecoat.

I then stamped using the Viragos, I used my Clear Jelly Stamper Big Bling and Born Pretty plate BP-60 plus Maniology plate BM-H10 I then topcoated with Barry M Plumpy topcoat.




Instagram Challenge from Claws for a Cause

Happy Wednesday

Today on the blog I have an Instagram Challenge for you from the lovely Claws For a Cause.

https://www.instagram.com/claws_for_a_cause/

April is stress awareness month and Tia wanted us to show stress on our nails, well that stumped a lot of us, me included, in my post I showed you the beautiful Zoya Cana, however, unknown to me naughty Cana stains! So I ended up accidentally with the perfect stressful thing on my nails.

Now I'll bet youre saying whats so stressful about that if you wear polish all the time, well sometimes I dont wear polish, I'll go a couple of days with only basecoat on. But I cant do that if my nails are still stained bright pink, I mean look at them. This picture doesnt do the colour justice either, they literally still looked like they had a polish on. So after this I put a white polish on without basecoat as that can help draw the stain out, I wore that for 24 hours and it did help a bit.


Monday 22 April 2019

TENS machine

Good morning and happy Easter Monday

Today on the blog I have a TENS machine for you.

Tens stands for Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and its used to treat pain symptoms, You attach the pads directly to your skin. When the machine is switched on, small electrical impulses are delivered to the affected area of your body, which you feel as a tingling sensation.
The electrical impulses can reduce the pain signals going to the spinal cord and brain, which may help relieve pain and relax muscles. They may also stimulate the production of endorphins, which are the body's natural painkillers, I have to say this last part really works for me, I suffer from arthritis in my hips, knees and left foot.
I purchased mine from amazon and here's the link -
It comes with 4 large and 4 small sticky electrodes, instructions, charger etc.
Very easy to set up and use, I put all the large electrodes and all the small electrodes together but you can put them in any combo you like as they are a snap on atachment.
There are 16 modes and 8 levels with the one I purchased, I really like mode 4 and 16 the best. Its really helped back the arthritis pain off, I've used it on my lower back and hips, shoulders and on my left foot. The timer mode means you can have it on as little as 10 minutes or as long as an hour, its batter powered, I used mine every day since purchase on the 12th April and it still has 2 out of 3 bars lit.  If you have any kind of pain issue this will be good, although I'm not sure how fibromyalgia suffers would get along with this, but at only £20 its worth a try.  This unit is also very small, think of your old MP3 player from the 90's or a bar phone from then, in fact my hubs seriously thought theyd used old MP3 player cases. The cables for the electrodes are nice and long as well.
This is the best thing I've bought for my arthritis ever, forget your copper bracelet or wheat bag.
One note in the last picture I have not shown the USB plug that came with it, mainly because I have several of those being used for various phones and tablets so didnt need another when I can just unplug a cable. It really does come with everything you need!






Saturday 20 April 2019

Zoya Cana

Today on the blog I have a stunning hot pink for you :)

This gorgeous Cana from Zoya

A Zoya a Day
Name - Cana
Year - 2016
Number - ZP865
Coats - 3
Finish - Neon Matte
Collection - Ultrabrites
Colour - Pink
Topcoat - None

I switched out Zoya's normal precision brush for the Z-wide brush to give a better application, Cana is one of Zoya's safe neon's in that it doesnt have a lot of nasty chemicals in it.  I love that Zoya have now gone 10 free in their polishes, they are my absolute favourite brand and I always buy their whole collections from.

This was my first time using this polish so I had to do three coats and it could have used a forth but I draw the line at three.  This dried really fast as its neon so the coats were not a pain tin the ass to apply and it didnt run or pool either.

I'm taking part in an Instagram challenge and one of the prompts was feathers so I stamped over Cana with Sally Hansen white on and a two bundle monster aka Hello Maniology plates BM-XL209 & BM-XL212, top coating with the only top coat I use for stamping which is Barry M Plumpy Topcoat. If you own Zoya Ali she is a hair brighter with a bluer undertone.

Please be advised this little madam stains! so double up or triple up on your basecoat!






Friday 12 April 2019

Migraine, depression, Game of Thrones

Hey guys

Long time no blog, I've been struggling a bit with some depression, I had my eyes tested at the beginning of April and my contact lenses reading is now minus 19.25 and my glasses are now minus 24, specsavers want to charge me over £400 for my glasses lenses which I cannot afford, so now I have to ask specsavers to write a letter to the hospital and hope that they take me on and provide me with glasses.  So sick of fighting for help. My migraines have been a bit dodgy as well, think it took a bit for the March botox to finally kick in as well.


Anyway, really I should be happy, I've been managing to walk 2 miles on my treadmill in under an hour which is bloody fantastic given I couldnt walk half a mile at the start of January. I've also lost 4kgs in weight with the walking and watching what I eat.

Today I am wearing the stunning Flowie, its like I dipped my nails in toffee!

A Zoya a Day
Name - Flowie
Year - 2000
Number - ZP139
Coats - 2
Finish - Creme
Collection - Classic
Colour - Brown
Topcoat - None




Miss Rosie is really enjoying the conservatory now as its getting more and more sun and is very warm, which she loves!



Because I've been struggling with my eyes and had moved my chair even closer to our 65 inch tv my hubby went and got a projector and 106 inch screen, we got it set up last weekend and I have been marathoning Game of Thrones on the giant screen, the battles have been epic! I cant wait for April 15th for season 8. We did remove those hideous ceiling lights.