Essie - Full Steam Ahead

Essie's Summer range was beautiful this year, and I have already reviewed one colour, Rock the Boat, which can be found here. Full Steam Ahead is a stunning lilac colour with a 'pearlescent punch'.

The colour applied smoothly for me and with two coats was completely opaque, a third coat really deepens the colour. I always start with a thin coat of colour, and then add a thicker. The brush is the perfect size for my nails and the formula, I found, was not sticky, nor runny. As with the other colour's in this range, the shimmer really brings something more to the lacquer and as its such a subtle shimmer I think it definitely makes this product stand out.

Ciate's - Sugar Plum looks quite similar to this in the bottle, however, I definitely prefer Full Steam Ahead because I find the Ciate polish requires a lot more coats (and patience!) before the colour stops looking streaky. The Ciate brush is also very thin in comparison.

I didn't want to do just a standard nail so I used Orly's dotter duo and Barry M's Matt White to create the flowers. If anyone would like a tutorial on this let me know!

(The colour definitely looks less blue in real life)

I've worn this nail look for a week now, and there's no chipping and hardly any noticeable wearing, even around and edges of my nails which I was very surprised with. In fact, they look like I have just applied the colour which I love!

I think this is such a pretty look for Summer!

Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover

This will be a quick post today!

I know this is not a new product, but as this blog is new I thought I should still write about it.

The magic nail polish remover claims to remove nail polish in one second per fingernail, and while it doesn't do it quite THAT quickly, it is an amazing product that each nail polish addict should own! I find taking my nail polish off to be a tedious and boring task - especially glitter polishes! With this remover, you put your finger into a sponge in the tub and wiggle it around a bit. This removes the polish a lot quicker than your ordinary bottles of nail polish remover. I'd say around 5 seconds per nail, maybe a little longer for glitter, but it definitely breaks down the glitter easier than standard removers. 

I've had two tubs of these since Christmas and they are very reasonably priced (around £6.99). This may seem a bit steep for a polish remover, but for what the product does I think it is so worth it! 

Once you try this, you will not go back!

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?

Essie - Rock the Boat

Essie's Summer 2013 range has hit the shops in recent months and as soon as I saw the “Naughty Nautical” collection, I knew I wanted every single colour! I held off and so far only have my 3 absolute favourites, which I'm quite proud of! All the colour's in this collection have a hint of shimmer which makes for a lovely addition to the formula and doesn't make it difficult to remove, as so many glitter/shimmer polishes do (and which I was slightly apprehensive about when I saw them!).

 £7.99 from Boots

Rock the Boat is described as being light blue with a hint of periwinkle, and as periwinkle is one of my favourite colours I knew this was the one I had to review first!

The shimmer is subtle, however is still visible.

This nail lacquer is quite sheer and takes about 3 coats to reach full opacity. However, as you can see, once on the nail the colour is beautiful and whenever I wear it I get complimented! I found the formula to be easy to apply and wasn't messy or sticky. The first coat can seem a bit uneven but after putting a second on this evened out and I only added a third for complete opacity. After wearing this lacquer for 4 days I found that the colour had lasted extremely well, which is to be expected from Essie polishes and there were no chips (aside from general wear and tear!).

 I LOVE this lacquer and would recommend going and getting this before the shops take them off the shelves!!