Sally Hansen's Long, Strong Nails

Sally Hansen Double Duty - £4.16 (at Asda)

Essie 'Cute As A Button' - £7.99 (at Boots)

Can you believe this photo shows just a week's wear of my new Essie polish?  I always paint right up to the cuticle, so you can see how much my nails have grown!  I know there are a few bubbles on my thumb (I'm not sure at what point these appeared, I don't usually get them!), but I have no wear on my tips at all.  As this is my first Essie polish, I think I can safely say that I'm now in love with the brand.

My nails have been quite weak for years; I suffer from splitting, and tend to find my 'most used' fingers (index, middle) experience the worst splitting/breakage out of all my nails.  At Christmas I began to square my nails, and had them like this for 3 months until the splitting began again.  I had to cut them really short and have been gradually regrowing them.  I've been using Sally Hansen's Double Duty since then, and my nails are rock hard.  I'm not even kidding! I put this down to Sally Hansen's protection, vitamin supplements and using a glass nail file.  I know everyone talks about OPI's Nail Envy being the bees knees, but honestly, I'll be rebuying another bottle of this when mine runs out!

xx

Power-Up With Red Nails

Models Own 'Garnet' (Promotional w/ Jacques Cider)

Models Own 'Juicy Jules'

Sally Hansen Double Duty Strengthening Base & Top Coat

Seche Vite Top Coat

I mentioned in my April Favourites post that I've been on a nail polish ban for a month - using only Sally Hansen Double Duty, if anything.  My nails are so much stronger and the splitting has stopped.  I don't think polish is bad for nails, per se, but chipping and polish remover is quite damaging on mine.  So now that it's May I've begun with a bang!  I love bright red nails, I think they make me feel just a little bit empowered.  There's something so statement about red nails.  And of course, just to ensure they were even more over the top, I added a glittery ring finger as well.  Perfecto!

xx

Black Matte & Shiny French Mani

I clearly need to work on my steady hand, but since this mani isn't the most long lasting, I wasn't too bothered! This is definitely an 'occasion' design, since I think it only lasted about two days - I think the matte top coat shortens the life span, unfortunately.

For this I used Sally Hansen's Double Duty as a base coat, NYC Nail Glossies #245B (two layers), 17 Matte top coat (two layers) and Seche Vite on the tips.  It takes me absolutely ages to do since all the different layers have to dry!  But doing it whilst watching Glee takes the edge off it... NYC Glossies polishes seem to be floating around discounted sections online (for example, here), and for the price they're great quality!  They contain vinyl shine and pro vitamin B5, which means they glide on well, dry quickly, leave a lovely gloss to the nails and don't seem to ruin nails either.  Perfect!  The brushes aren't as good as Rimmel Pro or OPI polishes, but for the price (rrp £2.50) you really can't complain.

I used the 'tape trick' for this, which doesn't always work perfectly, but I think it's mostly down to practice.  Saying that, I think I'll do a tutorial for how I do mine in the next week or so, if anyone's interested?

xx

Going Gaga For A Half Moon Manicure

Not being a fan of the new pointy nail trend, I needed another slightly wacky nail design.  Cue, the alternative half moon manicure.  I think Gaga was rocking this updated 1940s nail art a while back, but since I had no equipment for a classic half moon style, I had to go pointed and modern.

I began with a base of Sally Hansen Double Duty, layered on the Nails Inc. 'Oxford Circus', cut squares of tape and angled (with minimal precision!) near the cuticle when 'Oxford Circus' had dried, and layered on OPI 'Skull & Glossbones' (blogged about here).  Peeled off the tape, covered in Seche Vite Top Coat and hey presto!

It's a little messy since it's the first attempt. Even so, I can't stop looking at my nails..

xx