Spring has sprung!

Well, now its officially spring in the UK, I decided to update my nails in to more of a spring look. I really like how simple this mani is, it took me about 10 minutes to do and it looks so pretty!

I used Revlon - Lime Basil (which the Boots website says has been discontinuted, but I know for sure is still in stores?!) as a base, and then created flowers using the Barry M Nail Art Pen in White, which you can purchase here. I then used my Orly Dotter Duo and Barry M Silver to do a small dot in the middle of the flowers. I, of course, used Sally Hansens Double Duty bottom coat as this is by far the best one I have found. And I finished the look off with Seche Vite.

Do you have any favourite bottom or top coats that I should try? 

Sally Hansen - Girl Flower!

Sally Hansen's nail products have only recently been introduced to the Boot's store near me, so I've had very little experience with anything other than the polish remover. I'd heard many a good thing about Sally Hansen's products and as I'd never tried any sort of nail polish strip before, I decided to buy a packet.

I went for the floral pattern, called Girl Flower, as all the others were a bit too OTT for me. I had no idea what to expect and would have liked to have used two strips as a way to accentuate two nails on my hand, however the strips come in two packets, with 8 in each packet, and the unused strips have to be thrown away as they are real nail polish and will dry out once the packaging is opened.

Packaging of the strips

Instructions come in the packet and, following these, application is fairly straightforward. The instructions say you can stretch each nail polish strip to fit your nail, however this can and does stretch the pattern, giving white hairlines through the design. You then have to choose which end of the nail strip would fit best on your nail and holding the strip in the middle, place on the nail and stretch to fit. I found that there were good matches for all my nails and I wasn't required to do too much stretching!

The product claims to last up to 10 days. I applied the nails on Thursday night and by Monday night I was ready to take them off due to peeling, fading and chipping, which was particularly disappointing as I don't feel I put any real stress on the product.

For the £7.99 I paid for them I was very underwhelmed considering they lasted half the time they were advertised to. I would, however, buy these for a special occasion as they do look beautiful upon application and not like they have just been stuck on.

How do you feel about nail polish strips? Ever tried them?