Barry M Vintage Violet and Cling Wrap Nail Art Mani!

Hi lovelies,

I recently picked up this gorgeous polish called Vintage Violet from Barry M, and it's completely captured my heart!

Vintage Violet is what I would call a smokey, blackened violet creme, and it's such uniquely gorgeous shade that would fit a lot of skintones.

Barry M Vintage Violet.

Keep reading after the jump!

Product Review: Nailene Ultra Adhesive Tabs, So Natural Every Day French, Couture Design Artificial Nails and Pink Brush On Nail Glue.

Hi lovelies!

Happy Hump Day! I'm skipping the weekly tag this week as I'm beat! It's been a bit crazy, workwise, so I'm exhausted!

I have a new review for you today, and that's the Nailene artificial nails in So Natural Every Day French* and Couture Design*, which I used together with the Nailene Ultra Adhesive Tabs*. Now, it's been quite a few years since I last used artificial nails, so I was quite intrigued when these crossed my desk. It actually turned out to be quite serendipitous, as I broke a nail on my thumb quite badly (darn you, antibiotics, my nails have never been so prone to tearing before), so I was keen to see if the artificial nails worked well.

Let's take a look at these and see what we think, shall we?

Nailene Ultra Adhesive Tabs*

These are a simple concept; you simply choose a size that fits your nail, pull off one of the little adhesive tabs from the protective backing, place it on your nail with the curved bit closer towards your cuticle and gently smooth it out before removing the protective topsheet, much as you'd use double sided tape.

I found it useful to use a pair of tweezers as it was more precise in application. 

If you look closely you can see the tab on my (poor, stubbly) nail bed below, the protective topsheet hasn't been removed yet.

In the photo below, I've pulled off the topsheet and the tab is ready for me to place the artificial nail over.

All you need to do then is put the artificial nail on top, and voila, you're done! The adhesive tab keeps the artificial nail on quite securely, and it provides that extra little bit of cushioning so the artificial nail sits flat on your natural nail.

Now, the instructions do say to make it extra secure by putting glue on the tab and then putting the artificial nail on, but I gave this a trial run without glue and they lasted me at least 3 days before I got bored and took them off. Removal was quite straightforward, you simply roll the artificial nail until it slides off your actual nail. That part was easy but I did find that the residue from the tab was a bit hard to remove, even with nail polish remover.

Nailene So Natural Every Day French Nails*

I thought these natural french design artificial nails were really pretty until I noticed they said 'short' on the pack! That's always a problem for me as my nail beds are quite long, and indeed, this turned out to be the case!

You get 24 pieces in this kit, in a variety of sizes, together with a small tube of nail glue, nail buffer, cuticle stick and instruction booklet. You're supposed to gently buff the surface of your nail, put glue on the artificial nail (or use the tabs/tabs + glue) and then place the artificial nail on your nail bed.

Unfortunately, I could only find pieces to fit my thumb, the rest of them were entirely too short. Shame as they were so pretty! They actually looked quite natural too.

The thing that I loved most about these? You can actually paint over them! Very handy if you've got a single broken nail or you just want lovely, well shaped nails for a special occasion (or if you reaaallly want to use glitter polish but can't be bothered with the removal - just saying).

Nailene Couture Design Nails*

Similar to the French design, you get the exact same items in this pack.

I thought this design was gorgeous and really hoped it would fit...!

Sadly, no go either! I did find one to fit my thumb, though! Isn't it gorgeous? Such a lovely thing to do for a special occasion and it takes only seconds!

Nailene Pink Brush On Nail Glue

While I was on the topic of Nailene, I had to share another holy grail product with you, my favourite nail glue! Nail glue is very different to superglue, so please only use specially formulated nail glue when using artificial nails, or when it comes to repairing breaks/tears.

I love this stuff and always make sure I have a bottle handy. It's slightly pink tinted so it looks perfectly natural, even on naked nails, and the little paintbrush makes it easy to manoeuvre without leaving blobs of glue behind! It also allows you to apply glue in thin layers, which means it dries faster!

I always keep a bottle handy in case I start to develop a tear in my nails. A couple of swipes of this and I'm good as new! You can also fix a really bad break by brushing a layer of this over the crack, snipping a tiny piece of a teabag (I'm talking about the gauze like material that teabags are made from), placing it over the glue (I highly recommend using tweezers) and then placing another layer of glue on top to seal it in.

Wait for the whole thing to dry, buff it gently and your tear should be fixed perfectly!

I hope you enjoyed that review, lovelies. I must say I am a little disappointed that the nails were too short for my nail beds, as the designs on the Couture Nails in particular are stunning!

The Ultra Adhesive Tabs* are priced at $8.99 for a pack of 24 tabs, while the So Natural Every Day French* and Couture Design* nails are priced at $16.99 each. You should be able to get at least 2 uses out of each kit, unless you have the misfortune of having long nail beds like I do. :P

The Brush On Glue retails for $7.99 but it will last you ages (in a pinch, I have even used them to glue things together in lieu of superglue, so it's a very handy product to keep around)!

I hope you enjoyed that, lovelies! Do you ever use artificial nails? Do you think these designs were gorgeous?

Much love,
MM.
x


Note: Products marked with a * were kindly provided for my consideration in accordance with my Disclosure Policy. This has not affected my opinion in any way. For more information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

NOTD - Gold/black Cling Foil Nail Art!

Hello lovelies!

Apologies for the lack of blogging for the past few days, I have been on fieldwork (out on-site doing 10+ hour days in the cold, wet, windy weather of Melbourne) and I have been tuckered out by the time I get home.

Anyhow, I'm done with the outdoor work for this week and will be back to the office tomorrow, so I thought I'd celebrate with some girly nail art! Here are some photos of what I'm calling a cling foil (otherwise also known as saran wrap) manicure (together with some shoddy tutorial photos). I first heard about this on BeautyHeaven, when a BH user 'is2u' mentioned it. It sounded very intriguing so I decided to experiment a little.

Cling foil nail art using Revlon polishes.

I used Revlon Copper Crush for my base colour, and Revlon Lunar on top. Let's embark on my first (very simple) nail art tutorial, shall we? :)

Shades used in this manicure.

1. Begin by tearing off a length of cling foil, and then cut it into 10 pieces. You can experiment with sizing but I chose squares of about 4 x 4 cm. Lay them out neatly so you can pick them up gently without messing up your polish or getting them stuck on each other.

2. Start off with a layer of basecoat, and then apply a layer of your chosen base colour to each nail.

Revlon Copper Crush.

3. Once you've painted all your nails, give them a little time to dry (or cheat by using a quick dry topcoat), and then apply a thick layer of a second colour on the top (do this one nail at a time and follow steps 4-5). It's best to choose a colour  that creates some contrast with the base shade.

Lunar on thumb and Copper Crush on the others.

4. Take a square of cling foil that you prepared earlier and scrunch it up into a little rosette or ball. Leave it looking more like a lettuce head than a football, as you need the folds to create patterns in the polish. While the polish of your second colour is still wet/tacky, quickly dab the cling foil rosette over your nail to create patterns (the cling foil will 'pick' up the wet polish, and leave the base coat colour showing through). If you accidentally take too much off, just apply another dab of the top colour over it and dab again.

Try to scrunch it up into an uneven shape.

5. Repeat with all the nails! I would recommend using a different cling foil rosette for each nail to prevent cross transfer and having your manicure become very messy. At the end, use a cotton bud soaked in polish remover to clean up your cuticles if necessary (mine were quite clean so you shouldn't need to clean up too much).

This is what your cling wrap should look
like after dabbing it on your finger.

6. Add a topcoat to finish, and you're done, voila! Here are some photos of what I ended up with.

Tip: This manicure would also look amazing with a matte topcoat applied on top!

I think this manicure is really pretty and so very easy to do! Thanks again to 'is2u' for bringing it to my attention!

I hope you enjoyed that, lovelies, will you be trying that out at home? Would you all be interested in more tutorials?


Much love,
MM.
x

P.S. - Have you entered my Garnier giveaway yet? It ends in 1 day and 17 hours, so get in quick!