Nails of the week: purple and blue

This week I went back to a design I really loved: the vintage inspired heart tip. But with with the twist of less vintage-y colours.

I selected the stunning OPI Purple-iscious, which is a special edition polish to celebrate the 20th birthday of QVC – purple is the brand colour!

This is a metallic purple, shimmery with extremely fine glitter. It has a very subtle orangey-reddish pearlescence; it doesn’t colour-shift but gives this polish an amazing dimension. However, in essence, Purple-iscious is a fabulous (and delicious) purple. Application was great, as with any OPI polish and durability was also ace. Happy birthday QVC and thank you for bringing this gem of a polish out!

The blue at the tip is L’Oréal’s colour riche in Rebel Blue, an amazing royal blue with a fantastic sheen to it.

I followed the same process as on the nude and red manicure I did before and achieved the same results.

I really like it, although I don’t think it beats the nude and red one… As for the purple, I will definitely use it alone! It is gorgeous!

You can get the amazing Purple-iscious celebrating QVC’s 20th birthday at the QVC website; it comes in a special kit with the amazing Nail Envy base coat and it costs £20.16 plus P&P.

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This post contains PR samples. This review, however, is based on my own true experience with the products and reflects my honest opinion on them.

Nails of the week: Gold, green and blue colour shifting

This week I rekindled my relationship with colour shifting polishes. Once a favourite of mine, they gave way to some dabbling with nail art.

When I found the beautiful Specialittá Hits Marimoon Cool sitting at the bottom of my polish box, I knew this was the time.

And this beauty delivered an amazing colour, shifting from an old gold into a deep dark green and then a teal-ish blue, with impeccable metallic finish.

Application was great; I used two coats. This polish is really pigmented and for a metallic like this, sets with very little brush strokes. Durability was fantastic; I actually wore this for two whole weeks and chips just appeared around day 10 (and still only where I bit the skin on the side of the nail!).

This certainly brought back my love for colour-shifting polishes!

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Nails of the week: Red and nude

Yes, you are right. I cannot stay away from the red and nude combo for too long. I just love it on my nails. I wanted to do a half moon plus French tip for quite sometime and I finally got round to it.

I used L’Oréal Color Riche in Macaron Noisette (the most beautiful nude ever to grace my talons) as a base – two coats are sufficient. When dry, I used a hole re-enforcer as a guide for the half moon and French manicure guides for the tips, splashing them red with the beautiful Brilliant Red from Lola. This red is fantastic. It is sheer but almost cream and the coverage is excellent – so pigmented. The colour is great – a deep, vivid blood red. I love it and will certainly be using is on its own.

This was the first time I used nail polish from Lola and was really impressed. Application was smooth, the polish quality is very good, which translated into great durability of seven days with no chips – all bearing in mind it was tip only!

I am pleased with this mani; maybe I should have had the French tips slightly thinner (which I always do and think maybe I should have had it slightly thicker… oh well). Overall, I think it lacked a bit of oomph. Should’ve used the Lola red alone!

As for the Lola Make-up by Perse polish, I loved it – and you can find their range at M&S, in-store or on the website!

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(for the mani)

(for the Lola polish)

Product review: Salon System Nail Lux Erase Cuticle Remover

I do my own manicures. Since moving to London, it has been a weekly ritual. This week, for the first time, I cnahged a little bit my routine and used the Salon System Nail Lux Erase Cuticle Remover.

I usually use some normal moisturiser around the cuticles, soak the nails in a bowl or put a small bit of cotton wool on each nail, wet it and leave for a few minutes, before pushing the cuticles and cutting them.

This cream contains AHA’s to gently soften and erase unwanted cuticles from the nail plate, is thick in consistency and has a very light lemony smell. It makes the cuticle grooming process a little shorter. I added to all nails, left it for about three minutes and started pushing. The cuticle came off well, with little need to scrape. The nails felt very oily and moisturised afterwards, which is very nice. I washed my hands, as recommended, before continuing with my manicure.

Overall, a good product; saved me a bit of time and seems to hydrate my nails, cuticles and skin around it – it’s being incorporated into my weekly routine!

You can get this cream and many other products online from various stockists listed on the Salon System website.

Nails of the week: Rainbow gradient

It is no news I love a gradient on my talons, so this week I went a bit further – a four colour rainbow gradient.

The last one I did was a long time ago, and this was due. After seeing a rainbow gradient on some Brazilian nail polish Facebook page, I decided that was going to be the next one.

The technique is the very same I used before: sponging, and I found it a bit more challenging with four colours to make sure all nails had about the same amount of each and that the transition was smooth. But it happened in the end!

I used Colorama’s 40 Graus (red), L’Oréal Banana Pop (yellow), Kiko 385 (blue) and 343 (green), applied a stripe of each to a wet make-up sponge and stamped to previously painted white nails. I went round three times! I then added the magical Electric lane holographic topcoat from Nails Inc and a clear topcoat(Seche VIte) to seal it all.

To be honest, before I did it, I thought it was going to be a bit too much. It turns out I love it and don’t want to take it off. At all. Seven days have gone by and it still looks perfect and I am struggling with the idea of removing it and moving on to the next mani…

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Nails of the week: colourful leopard print

You probably know by now I obsess about things. After loving last week’s leopard print soooooo much, I decided to do another one, of course. I went for a lovely white/gold base and my leopard spots were very colourful!

First, I am going to say how much I love the OPI Ski Slope Sweetie, which I picked up at Olympia Beauty. It is part of OPI’s winter collection and the colour is just amazing – a metallic white base with some colour shifting from a shimmery gold with a tiny little spark of green and red sometimes to a colder white, almost silver. Stunning. Seriously, rarely do I fall in love with a light coloured polish, but this got me. I sense it being used more – it is and amazing base for art: non intrusive but so not boring! It applies alright, there were no bush marks – the OPI brush is great, but this polish is a bit on the thick side.

After applying two coats of SSS and letting it dry for about 15 minutes, I drew the spots with a fine nail brush and normal nail polish – I first did all blue (Kiko 385) spots, then purple (L’Oréal Flashing Lilac), green (L’Oréal Wasabi Hint), yellow (L’Oréal Banana Pop) and pink (L’Oréal Acid Watermelon), making sure they were well distributed and no nail had the exactly same pattern!

After that, I used Barry M’s Nail art pen (seriously, how did I have this at home for soooo long and never used? Love this thing!) to add the irregular black outlines and random flecks to the spots.

I finished it off with a topcoat (Seche Vite) and I am absolutely in love with it. Sooo pretty!!!

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Nails of the week: red with leopard print

If you know me, you will know I have more than a soft spot for animal print. I just can’t stay away from it. Finally, I braved into doing something I wanted to do on my nails for a very long time: leopard print spots.

I am very surprised it took me this long. I thought it would be very difficult so always gave up before starting. Little did I know it was going to be quite easy and I would be very pleased with the results of my first attempt – amazingly with no huge mistakes!!!

Red nail polish is my first and true nail colour passion. For me, there is no better colour on my talons. So I used one of my favourite reds, Colorama’s 40 Graus, a vivacious and shiny orangey red. I applied two coats and let it dry for about an hour.

I then used Barry M Foil Effects nail polish in gold (another favourite of mine!) with a fine brush to create the spots in only half of each nail and finalised with Barry M’s nail art pen in black. This pen is great, fine, precise, fiving just the right amount of polish, so making the dark marks around and between the spots was a breeze. Applying with the left hand was a bit more challenging, but it worked well! I am thrilled with the result. After I let it dry for a few minutes, I applied a topcoat.

Truly in love, I feel these nails are really me.

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Nails of the week: vintage inspired nude and red heart tips

For a very long time I wanted to try this lovely manicure. But I ALWAYS had square shaped nails, since I can remember. And this “heart” tips don’t really look good on a square nail, after all, no hearts have a square bottom, right?

Not sure why but I woke up one morning really feeling like changing the shape of my nails and I took the plunge and filed them on to this oval-pointy shape. Have to admit the first 24 hours were quite odd, and I still feel they are more fragile than before….

I used the beautiful (probably one of the prettiest nudes ever) L’Oréal Paris Color Riche Macaron Noisette nude as a base and after two coats used Spicy Orange, a very orangey red (or reddish orange?!) to create the effect.

I did a bit of practicing the days before on naked nails and found the easiest way for me. First, with a nail art brush, I marked with a small line the middle of each nail on the tip and then using the polish brush itself, touched the end of the brush away from the centre on both sides of the tip, as if drawing a V with sticks, creating the shape. It does help that the L’Oréal brush is rounded at the end, so perfect for this design – it really cut out my work and It was actually much easier than I thought.

I am thrilled with the final result, love it and the shape is actually growing on me, although I feel sometimes I have claws!

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Product review: L’Oréal Nails à Porter stick-on nails

One of the fabulous new products unveiled at the L’Oréal Paris Nail Art Masterclass was Nails à Porter – their spin on stick-on (or false) nails.

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Nails à porter in Neo Couture

Nails à porter in Femme Fatale

Nails à porter in Drama Queen

Nails à porter in French Touch

Nails à porter in Killer Nude

First of all, the designs are lush! They have classics such as red (Femme Fatale) and French manicure (French Touch), as well as some lovely designs: geo grey and minty green (Neo Couture), black and gold (Drama Queen – my fave!) and black an nude (Killer Nude), all very lovely.

You have twelve sizes to choose from, to match your nails shape. What I really love about them is that they are VERY flexible and feel quite natural!

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They come with sticky gel pads to be applied on the nail and a little file to smooth the edges.

Sadly, my natural nails are too long for them (and somehow, I am gutted!!!) so to try these beauties I have recruited two lovely volunteers from my office, designers Charlotte and Claire.

loreal nails a porter femme fatale - somanylovelythings

Charlotte unleashes the Femme Fatale

Charlotte had never applied or used any false nails before. I sent her off with the set and she applied them on a Saturday. She tells me she managed to do so quite easily – and she did a fantastic job, they looked great on her hands!

She had a birthday to attend and went wearing the red Femme Fatale Nails à Porter on her talons. She reported losing two on Sunday, but used remaining sticky pads from the pack to stick them back on.

She thought wearing them was a bit weird, and that she was very aware of them, feeling the need to be very careful all the time, which is natural for the first time you wear something false – I was like that with nails, lashes and hair! She liked the way they looked and removed them without problems after three days. She also mentioned some finger nails looked better – more natural shape-wise – than others.

Personally, I think they looked great in her hands, but it seems the false nails just bothered her, and I don’t think she will be wearing them again – this brand or any other!

loreal nails a porter - somanylovelythings

Claire goes funky with Neo Couture

Claire has used various brands of false nails before, usually resorting to them for special occasions. She used Neo Couture and says they were easy to apply – in a matter of minutes.

For this particular design, as there are different patterns, Claire didn’t manage to make her ring finger the accent, which she’d liked to, as no size match was possible.

She also mentioned the sticky pad appears to be stickier than other brands she has used; the nails themselves are fairly flexible and don’t appear to be a hard plastic. They file really nicely (this is a big issue for Claire, as she wears contact lenses and needs to file one index finger nail shorter than the others – with long nails she can’t get then out). She also added that the paint didn’t chip or flake when filed down, other brands have always disappointed at this stage as they have chipped or flaked after filing.

She did lose two nails, but in all fairness she put them through the ultimate testing – packing up boxes for moving house. She actually caught one nail in-between a draw and a rail and it marked the nail but after a few minutes the line it created lessened and you could hardly see it!

She buffed the natural nails where she had the two losses then stuck the pad on to see if this made a difference, re-applying the lost nails. Claire tells me she has naturally oily nails and glued or stick-on nails never last the lengthy the box says.

She noticed that after 3 days of wear they started to wear a little on the paint, but they don’t appear to have chipped at all but have worn a little. Removal was very easy and clean; nails feel fine afterwards.

At the end of her trial, she tells me she would definitely buy Nails à Porter to wear for a dinner and dance party or wedding types of occasion. She actually took French Touch from my hands too!

I think I am sold. Next nail chop, I will be all over Drama Queen.

Nails à Porter is available from retailers nationwide from September and the RRP is £7.99.

You will also be able to get more info at the L’oréal Paris website when the product launches!

Nails of the week: black and berry colours marble

I decided to use a dark colour as a base for marbling this week. I do prefer the lighter colours, as the contrast is better, but wanted something a little bit different.

Using a whole lot of L’Oréal Paris Color Riche shades ranging from very light milky pink to bordeaux, I went for a black base and and ombre effect for the marble – seems like there is a lot going on but was actually quite simple.

I used Black Swan and from pinky to thumb, Rose Paradis, Dating Coral, Spicy Orange, Shocking Pink and Addictive Plum, as well as L’Oréal 7 in 1 Saviour as base coat and 2-in-1 Protect as topcoat – all from the L’Oréal Nail masterclass Pick n’ Mix!