Nails of the week – teal/purple duochrome

Petrol in water - Andrea Fulerton - Dani DutraPetrol in the water. Weird name, eh? Well, it is, but I can guarantee there is nothing weird about this nail colour.

After being very impressed with the durability of the Andrea Fulerton Trio nail varnish I wore a few weeks back (it didn’t chip, it survived the potato peeler and after seven days, it still looked so beautiful I felt bad to be removing it!), I decided to go crazy and bought three (!!!) other combinations.

I am, or course, wearing the aptly named Petrol in Water, and I cannot even describe how pretty it looks – three people, in one evening asked me what it was. It consists of a double ended polish with a dark metallic brown shade and an iridescent top coat.

I am truly in love – it will be very hard for any polish to beat this colour. The pictures don’t really do it any justice; with flash, the colour comes out as a dirty green-ish blue, but as the nails catch natural and  indoors light, they come alive and really remind me of that one drop of petrol in the water that triggers a multitude of shades…

This teal/purple duochrome with subtle green undertones looks stunning,  and depending on the light, it will be anything from peacock green/teal/indigo blue to purple. It has the most amazing colours, and it is very sparkly, without having glitter on it, so no rough texture.

Petrol in water by Andrea Fulerton - Dani Dutra

Now, I wasn’t that keen on the application, as this was a similar experience to that with my other trio, Rainfall – still find the double ended brush a bit clunky, not wide enough, the darker colour is a bit thin, so coverage is not great and the drying time was a bit too long. Normally, this would put me off right away, but for this shade it was well worth it!

I really cannot wait to try the other two, but I think it will be very hard for a polish to top this one… Beautiful!

Another weekend and another nail varnish binge – I acquired another three… now have them, together with another good half a dozen, lined up for the next weeks. I really must organise myself, as I am going away for a month over Christmas, will have to take the fabulous shades to be applied while on holidays!

Nails of the week – holographic

About a month ago, I was quite upset to find out (two years too late!) I completely missed Gosh’s holographic nail polish, so I went on a quest to source it. After seeing it going on eBay for quite a lot of money (some in excess of £20 with p&p), I decided to look for an alternative.

I found Color Club Worth the Risque, which seemed very lovely and with good reviews, and that’s what I am wearing this week. This polish is a silver holographic, with amazing rainbow shine, and plenty of sparkle.

Having never used a holo nail polish before, only a topcoat; I was very surprised at the coverage. This varnish is quite thick, so just one coat would definitely be ok, but I opted for two.

The colour is stunning and solid; a pretty muted silver indoors (sometimes you can see the rainbow effect, but not always), medium to fine grain glitter but smooth, however, the beauty of this polish lays when it catches the light, it is truly mesmerising, with amazing depth. It seems to be chip resistant, but it has two minor cons: it seems to scratch quite easily, and it hasn’t got a fast drying time, making it quite easy for you to mess up after application.

Apart from that, I am very pleased with it. It doesn’t seem to be as pretty as some pictures of the Gosh one I have seen around the internet, but I really like it! I was a bit worried as I tend not to wear light shades on my nails, but this is rather beautiful!

Have you tries holographic nail varnish before? What are your favourites?

Once again I went crazy on nail polishes, buying a couple from Sephora last weekend in Paris and three (you heard it – THREE) Andrea Fulerton Trios, which I will be trying on soon!

Nails of the week – magnetic red

Magnetic metallic red nailsI fell in love with magnetic polishes after trying the Nails Inc. version, and as it is so pretty and an easy way to achieve a different effect on your nails, I decided to try other brands, and see how they fare.

This week, I am wearing the Saturdays Magnetism Nail Lacquer by Fashionista: Rochelle, stocked by Superdrug.  This is the only brand I could find that offers a red hue, and I could not wait to try it.

It was quite hard to find, I visited three or four branches with no success. I decided to buy online, and was very happy to find out  Superdrug offers free delivery!

My relationship with the polish started badly, when I found out it doesn’t come with a magnet. Surely, if it is a magnetic polish, it needs a magnet, but for this one, you are expected to fork out an extra £3 on top of the £6 retail price to achieve the effect. Not impressed. If they had many different patterns, I would maybe consider buying one, but the only magnet on the site is the “wave pattern” – incidentally, the one all the other brands give with each bottle of their polish, so as I bought the Nails Inc. and the Boots 17 varnishes,  I just re-used one of the magnets on this polish.

Application wasn’t great. The polish is quite thick, so coverage is good. But you need a lot, I mean an *awful lot* of varnish on the second coat for the effect to work well.  I had to re-apply six of my ten nails, which never happened to me before, not even with white nail polish. If I didn’t lather it on, the waves were weak, either failing to appear, with gaps and irregular, just messy. I also noticed i had to move the magnet from side to side, so the effect would happen on the whole nail and not just the centre. Got there in the end, and I must confess I *love* the colour, and of course, the effect. It has average drying time, and it sets smooth and shiny.

And that is pretty much what I liked about his polish. It chips badly, and quickly. After two days, there were numerous chips on several nails. I had to remove and re-apply on FIVE nails, only three days after applying, as they were so bad I couldn’t bear looking at them. This never happened to me before, even with the cheapest of nail polishes.

Overall, I am quite disappointed, and I will not be buying any more Fashionista nail polishes in the future, Saturdays range or not. It seems that the celebrity endorsement is once again an excuse for a less than satisfactory product, and I am actually paying for the Saturday’s faces on the box. Nothing personal against them, but no thanks.

I am still to try to Boots 17 Magnetized Nail Polish, but a friend of mine who bought the green one told me it lasts well. Fingers crossed!

Nails of the week – blue/green metallic

I came across the Andrea Fullerton range at Superdrug, on the same day I bought the Studio eye pencil set. I had never heard or seen them before, and they looked very attractive – from the packaging to the variety of products. The colours were particularly exciting, the combos looked great, it really had that “nail art” at home things going.

I was immediately drawn to the Trio Colour Layering System nail polishes, and fell in love with Rain Fall. The idea is that you can wear each colours individually or  layer both for different effects. At 7.99, I decided it was worth a go, as the colour in the bottle was mesmerising – a metallic teal solid colour and a sheer iridescent blue/purple, shimmery and with green soft glitter flakes.

Application was ok. The teal nail polish is very thin, so coverage wasn’t great. I decided against applying two coats, as I would end up with more than my usual two or three (maximum – I hate thick polish!) coats in total. The sheer varnish was also easy to apply, and quite smooth considering the flakes. One coat didn’t impress me, so I applied a second one. I dried quite smooth, despite the flakes, and drying time wasn’t too bad.

The polish also seem to be chip and scratch resistant, as I was peeling potatoes (oh, the glamour!) and the peeler hit my nail straight on, with quite a lot of force, and even though I expected the worse, the nail polish was practically intact – so points for that – let’s see how it fares in the week!

As it is a double-ended polish,  and the two small bottles are joined by the double-sided brush, it was quite uncomfortable to hold while applying the polish, as the bottle you were not using was still attached to the end of the “brush”. It felt quite heavy and clumsy, but not impossible.

Of course, the colour on my nails wasn’t the colour on the bottle. This doesn’t mean I am not pleased with it – I am, it is exquisite, and it varies quite a bit, depending on the light and angle. Most of the times, it is blue with green flecks. On bright, direct light (such as photography flash), it looks dark blue. On not so bright, natural light, it looks Egyptian blue; tilt it a bit, and you can see green flecks – not only glimmering but almost giving it some depth and texture. On darker light, indoors, it looks almost forest green with lighter green flecks. If you look at your nails sideways, you can best spot the plethora of shades this polish offers: you can almost see the teal coming through the shiny green flecks, and the blue/purple sheen as the nail curves. Beautiful.  I thought the polish was aptly named, as it indeed reminds me of a tropical forest rain fall – or a mermaid magical seaweed (yes, you heard it, in my head’s fantasy land!)

Overall, quite pleased, the effect is really pretty, and the colour, although as not as much as in the bottle, mesmerising nevertheless. The quality of the solid colour polish could be better, as I would need a good three coats to use it solo, and the brush easier to manage. Not sure if I will buy more, there are some truly amazing colour combinations, but I had very high expectations for this one, and it fell a little bit short.

I have also bought other two magnetic nail polishes from different brands and colours, and cannot wait to try those! I will, of course, post all about them in the next few weeks!

Nails of the week – blue holographic glitter

When I made the trip to Nails Inc to get the magnetic nail polish I wore last week, something else caught my attention: the Electric Lane holographic glitter topcoat.

Lately, I have been obsessing over glitter, but I must confess that I am usually not one for glittery nails (or shoes for that matter, and I am now eating my words, as explained on this post). Another late obsession of mine has been holographic nail polish, and I was crushed when I realised I missed Gosh’s limited edition one, which cost a bargainous £5, and is now going on Ebay for £20+!!! Add “limited edition” to a glittery holo nail polish and it comes to no surprise I succumbed to this £12 topcoat.

Because it is a topcoat, it obviously requires a nail varnish to be applied under, and I chose the lovely deep blue “Blue my mind”, from Collection 2000, which I wore for the first time a few weeks back, as I thought it would look very pretty, just like a starry night. And I wasn’t too wrong – while calling it a starry night might be a bit of a stretch, it does look lovely on cobalt blue.

I found it very easy to apply, the consistency is good and the coverage is impressive for a clear glitter polish, I just used one coat (with a second added as a touch up, 5 days after first application). My only issue is with the texture once dry: the main reason I haven’t been a huge wearer of glitter nail varnish is the “rough”, bumpy-ish finish. At least this one, being medium to fine grain, doesn’t look bumpy at all, but it feels slightly rough. To minimise that,  I applied an extra clear topcoat, so my nails feel smoother to the touch. Worth noting that this observation does not apply to this varnish in particular, every glitter polish I ever tried made me slightly uncomfortable in that department – some more than others.

The holographic element is quite good, it looks like a little explosion of colours, with some depth to it,  specially when it catches the light. However, under intense direct light it can look plain grey glitter. The pictures do not make justice to this fabulous polish at all, it was quite hard to photograph it, so I took a slightly out of focus picture which captures the multi-coloured light reflection I noticed many times when moving my hands around.

Overall, I am very happy with it, got a few compliments on the colour and I am looking forward to trying it with other colours underneath – black and white are suggested, but I think it would look good with bright pink, dark grey or green.

I have been going nail varnish crazy, so have *lots* of new ones to try on, which will keep me going for a few weeks – watch this space!

Nails of the week – gold foil

gold nailsSuper excited about my nail colour this week. Bought almost two weeks ago, I’ve been burning to try it on, so I am very happy that I finally gave the Barry M Instant Nail effect – Foil varnish a go. Being sceptical about the “true metal” look offered by many nail polishes, I wasn’t disappointed. Plus, I found it to be good value, at £3.99 from Superdrug.

I am now sporting “foiled” gold talons. I didn’t have a great experience with several gold nail polish in the past (they were either glittery or just metallic with no real golden pigment), and this one, even though it is not as if you applied liquid metal to you nails, it has got the shine of the inside of a foil sheet, slightly muted. It reflects light well, and it looks great! I think they got it right calling it “foil”, as I could relate the colour with the inside of foil sheets (if you ever encountered gold foil in your life, that is).

Gold nails

Still, I am very pleased with the result, as it is quite rare to find metallics that have such a good coverage. Application was, and I am not going to lie, not that easy. It was ok, but the polish is a bit thick, it kind of requires that you apply quite a bit for a uniform coverage and even though I was super careful, taking probably double the time it usually takes me to apply nail varnish, I can see slight brush marks and tiny bubbles on one nail.

Despite of the fact that the way it sets is not perfect (I am quite pedantic with the finish of my manicure, I HATE marks, bubbles, bumps, even if of microscopical proportion), I might re-apply for next weekend, as it would go great with the outfit I am planning for a big night out.

I also bought some nail foils, which I have never worn before, and I am really looking forward to trying them on! I have been on a very experimental mood lately, so watch this space!

Nails of the week

20111010-203224.jpgI haven’t posted the “nails of the week” for a while (about ten days since I should’ve);  but the clue is in the name and I apologise.

The delay is justified (well, these are my excuses, anyway!): I wore the purple nail polish for a record ten days as I was on holidays – it HAD to last – and considering my two trips to the spa and a few nibbles from a very nervous girlfriend waiting for her injured boyfriend to complete a marathon, I must say it held off really well! Also, I decided to let my nails breathe and went varnish free for three days, clearly another record for me.

dani

The red nails in action

This week, the situation dictated my nail colour: I had a circus themed birthday party and by my costume demand, the only colour to go for was red, which is no sacrifice for a big fan of scarlet talons like myself.

I relied on a good old Colorama mix: super bright red 40 Graus with light metallic and slightly darker red Vermelho Ardente on top. This is an old favourite combo, which a manicurist used on my nails a few years back in Brazil and I loved so much that I bought the colours to replicate at home!

My “nail schedule” is now restored to normality and I will have a manicure in a few days. For the first time, I have already decided, in advance, what colour to wear, and I am *very* excited about it! To be honest, I cannot wait… but you are going to have to, until my next post!!!

 

 

Nails of the week

Purple metallic nailsVenturing into blue last week was great, but somehow spoiled this week’s choice a little, as I expected to be blown away by every new colour (I know, too high expectations…) and this wasn’t the case this week. Don’t get me wrong, this metallic purple is lovely, but that blue had oomph – and lots of it.

This week I am wearing Purple Rain, another nail polish from Collection 2000’s Lasting Colour line. I found it a bit thin, the first coat was really see through, but the colour really showed on the second coat.  I wore the blue one for eight days last week, and it looked great until the end (I did apply an extra coat six days after my manicure just to give it a refresh), and the overall durability was great, it didn’t lose shine!

Differently from the previous purple I wore, this one is darker and it is not as glittery as the Colorama one I have.  It also has some iridescence about it, a blue undertone that comes up best in sunlight. Apart from the blue-ish undertone, the colour is rather similar to a MAC lipstick I bought recently, Odyssey. Overall good, but it is no blue, or green!

Might have to go back to them soon!

Nails of the week

Cobalt blue nails

Blue!!! Yes, this week I painted my nails blue, finally – and I am absolutely loving it!

Wearing green last week opened up a whole new world of colour for my talons. I had so far resisted the colder shades, sticking faithfully to reds or pinks – warmer hues in general – but this really changed my manicure life. I know, a bit dramatic, but I do feel there are so many more colours to be discovered – plus, I’ve had really bad flu for a few days now, and this really cheered me up!

Following the my experience with the super inexpensive Collection 2000 green Bongo Beats, with its reasonable durability (it lasted seven days, with a couple re-touches), and great colour and price, I decided to give the brand another go: I chose the aptly named Blue my mind, from their Lasting Colour line (which promises colour up to 10 days – I will probably never know, as I usually change after seven, but I am hoping to have impeccable nails for the week!).

This is a deep metallic cobalt blue with amazing shine, that looks even more stunning in daylight. It costs £2.99 a bottle – a bargain, especially if it lasts as long as it promises! Delightful!

I am very excited to think about what colour is coming next!!!

Nails of the week

JAde green nails

I am very proud of myself for finally dabbling into the colder colours for my nails – I am wearing green this week.

I am truly loving this colour, and it made me realise my problem might not be with cold, but light colours  on my nails – I failed to keep the pastel green, and never got close to the pastel blue, even though I quite like it. I only just managed to keep the lilac for a week.  As long as they are cold and dark, I think I will be ok. I cannot wait to buy some cobalt and midnight blues!

Keeping up with the A/W 11-12 jewel colours trend, I really feel as if my nails have been jewelled – it is like having 10 little gems on my fingertips!

Bongo Beats, from Collection 2000’s Hot Looks Fast Dry range, is a lovely metallic jade green nail polish which has very subtle gold underlying pigments and  has quickly became a favourite of mine.

I have only recently branched out into really inexpensive nail varnish, as I am petrified of chips, so this one might still disappoint me – poor duration has caused me to fall out of love with many – so far, so good, though. And at £1,79 (and an amazing £2 for two bottles!), there isn’t, so far, a bad thing I can say about it!