Tag Archives: Nails Inc

Getting over the fear of light colours on my nails

Posted in Accessories, Beauty, Shoes by

The lovely pastel colours KG shoes I bought are helping me put my fear of light colours on my nails behind me, I think – or at least they contributed to the very first step!

I came across this lovely set from Nails Inc called “The Candy Shop” with the most charming pastel shades plus a lime nail polish. I cannot believe it was half price (£12.50 for four bottles) as the colours in it are very hot for this spring! And they all go really well with my new shoes, and outfits I will put together with it. The blue is really cute, and although I couldn’t bring myself to wear mint green last year, I am confident I will make it this time around. But the star for me has to be the lime shade. Love it!

At the moment, I am obsessed with lime green (or yellow? ummm…) and been looking for some items of clothing to buy. As my outfits always start with the shoes, I do blame KG for all this. Talking about that, I found the cutest super skinny lime belt in Topshop, which has tiny silver studs, and I think it is perfect for my new shoes!

I cannot wait for spring, not only because I am very excited about putting together a fresh wardrobe, but also because I am really looking forward to the warming weather and the beautiful flowers everywhere. Always a comforting thought, when you are still wrapped in your fur coat!

 

Nails of the week – magnetic blue

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17 Magnetic Nail polish in blue - Dani Dutra

Click to enlarge

I got over my disillusion with the Saturday’s magnetic nail varnish and decided to give the 17 Magnetized Nail polish a go. I  bought a few as gifts to friends in Brazil, and I intended to give them all away, but when I cast my eyes on the blue one, I found it so beautiful that I couldn’t let go.

Its colour is a pretty indigo blue and it differs from the other magnetic polishes because the dark colour that ripples has a little tinge of purple. This is very subtle and only visible sometimes. Still, I really liked it.

The brush is of satisfactory width and the polish has a good consistency, but can get a bit thick; you do need a generous second coat for the effect to look good.  Application was alright, not as good as the Nails Inc one, but not as bad as the Saturdays varnish – this really sums up this nail polish; something between the Nails Inc and the Fashionista one (although quite a way away from it, as the quality is much better!)

As per durability, it is quite good; it doesn’t chip easily, and this is a very important point for me.

Overall, I am quite happy with this; priced at £5.99 and coming with its own magnet, I believe it’s a good deal. And it is available in blue, purple, green and gunmetal. Pretty!

Check all the “Nails of the week” posts and find out the star rating for this and other polishes.

Nails of the week – magnetic red

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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 holographic glitter

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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 – magnetic

Nails in purple

In sunlight

*Lots* of excitement with this week’s nail polish. After battling with my common sense about paying £13 for a bottle of varnish, I made a trip to Nails Inc. and bought myself the Magnetic Effect Nail Polish in Houses of Parliament – a lovely purple with some grey undertones.

Had never used Nails Inc. before and I am very impressed and quite happy to have paid the steep £13 for the bottle. I also like that they name all their polishes after London streets or landmarks. Cute.

Although magnetic nail polishes are nothing new in the market, this seems to be causing a buzz at the moment. Nails Inc. have the magnetic polish in three colours (purple, gunmetal and gold), and the attendant recommended the purple or gunmetal, as the effect is more striking. Call me impressionable, but I instantly fell in love with it when I saw the attendant trying it on for me to see – nothing quite like seeing the pattern “magically” appear, in 10 seconds,transforming an ordinary colour into and exciting design.

Indoors

Application was easy; the polish is of a good consistency, the brush offers even application, and it dries quickly and thinly. I had the impression it would look quite thick or uneven, but it dries smooth and glossy. The bottle has two caps – one with the magnet on top and the second one with the brush. After a base coat, I applied a coat on all ten fingers, and the colour was a greyish purple. Then, for the second coat, you do finger by finger applying the polish and holding the magnet above the nail for 10-15 seconds, and voilá! I did touch the magnet on two nails, even though they have a clever little “stand” to aid you, so had to remove and re-apply, but you stop doing it once you get used to it.

The final result is exquisite; the wave-like pattern reacts to light very well, the shadowing shifting slightly when you move, it has great depth – it reminds me of an almost kaleidoscopic action. The purple that shows through is much nicer than what you see before , and the darker parts of the pattern are very close to black.

I am in love with this. I also found out that a more affordable version is available at Boots, on their 17 cosmetics range, and the price is £4.99 (usually £5.99) and it comes in four colours.

The effect is really unbelievable for the effort it takes (close to none) and it really looks like the nails have been done professionally. I think this is the beginning of a long attraction to magnetic nail varnishes!

I also succumbed to another super exciting shade when at the Nails Inc. shop, but, as usual, you will have to wait and see!