Painted Lady Textured Nail Wraps.

You all know I'm a sucker for a bit of nail art, so I was pretty excited to give the Painted Lady Talons by Umberto Giannini a whirl. 

One of my favourite things right now is very simple colours but with a little edge, so these textured nail wraps tick all the right boxes. As far as sizing go I think they give you a fair range, although I would have liked one more medium nail size.

But here is my problem, as much as I tried, I just couldn't get the nail wraps to well...wrap. 

The instructions sound simple enough and I've used wraps before without much difficulty but these just wouldn't stay on my nails. I have a feeling it's because they're slightly thicker than regular wraps to give you the texture. 

I'm disappointed as I love the actual concept and design. 

Better luck next time! 

RRP £7.00 

Laura xx

*PR Sample.

Shellac Cityscape.

Getting Shellac has been on my beauty to do list for months. A chance wander by my local beauty salon resulted in me booking in for my first manicure, Shellac style.

After much deliberation with the lovely beautician Amy, we went for an eye catching combination of Cityscape, a delicate dove grey from the new Spring 2012 collection and a good dose of fine gold glitter, set with clear Shellac. 

Amy is definitely on my wave length when it comes to nails, she told me recently she set some hundreds and thousands in clear Shellac which sounds like my idea of heaven! 

The process itself was fuss free, a quick tidy up of my nails and cuticles was followed by a quick clean of the nail to remove any excess oil/dirt etc. 

A base coat is applied and cured under the UV lamp.

Next is the colour itself, I'm in love with the colour I chose. I wanted something that would last 2 weeks without clashing with anything I wanted to wear. This combination ticks every box! 

The colour is cured under the UV lamp and then a super shiny topcoat is applied and cured again. 

A quick swipe with IPA and the inhibition layer is removed, leaving you with flawless nails for up to 2 weeks, what's not to love?! 

It's safe to say I'm now a Shellac convert and will be returning to have them done again. The service itself costs £20 but I'm more than happy to pay if it means I can forget about nail maintenance! 

Do you Shellac? 

Laura xx

Tuxedo Nails.

If like me, you've got a tiny (massive) girl crush on a certain Ms. Deschanel, I couldn't help but be inspired by the nails she rocked at the Golden Globes this year. 

Thanks to Zooey, the Tuxedo nail has well and truely taken off and I couldn't help but give it a go. 

(Accessorize Polish in Shade 23 Baby Blue/Illamasqua Precision Ink in Abyss for detail)

Instead of sticking to an exact (dinosaur egg) replica, I went for a fresh duck egg blue and went for just the one Tuxedo nail, he's flying solo due to lack of time/patience/co-ordination. It's slightly more subtle for work too. 

Here's the Zooey original, what do we all think? 

Laura xxx