Barry M Lychee (Nude)
Barry M Dragon (Light Pink)
Sally Hansen Gem Crush Razzle Dazzler (Pink Glitter)
China Glaze Snap My Dragon (Red Hearts)
Born Pretty Glequins (#1)
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Sally Hansen
I felt like wearing a simple, clean springtime manicure today but I wanted to mix things up with a colour combination I haven’t tried before – Green and Pink. The great thing about pastels is you can mix absolutely any colours, even ones that would normally hurt your eyes. Can you imagine a combination of bottle green and hot pink? I can and it’s not an image I want to hold on to… but make them both pastels and it looks so freakin’ pretty!
I used Sally Hansen Crinoline as my base colour with Green Tea just on my middle finger. I added three thin coats of Sally Hansen Gem Crush Razzle Dazzler* to my ring finger to add some sophisticated sparkle. For the criss cross on my ring finger, I made sure the pink base was completely dry before applying small strips of striping tape using nail art tweezers. Then I painted on one thick coat of Green Tea and peeled off the tape while that was still wet.
Finally, I topped everything with two coats of Seche Vite for a glassy finish.
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I love Sally Hansen. It’s true. I only realised it today, but there’s no denying it!
Recently I’ve been finding a lot of Sally Hansen Complete Manicure polishes in Poundland. Yeah, you read that right. That shop where everything is just £1 – it’s the equivalent of a dollar store in the US. Anyways, there are normally only a few good colours on the shelves at any one time so I’ve picked up one or two at a time and now have a total of six bottles and I think it’s my new favourite line of polish.
Today I found two new colours – Fairy Teal, which I first fell in love with years ago when I saw it on a blog that I unfortunately can’t remember the name of anymore, and Green Tea which is the perfect mint creme that I’ve been searching for all these years. Ladies, if you’re in the UK, you need to go to Poundland. Now. Like, yesterday!
In order to fully express my love for this brand, however fleeting it may be, today’s mani was created with nothing but SH polishes.
I used Sally Hansen’s Green Tea and Bamboo Base Coat. Then I applied two coats of Gilded Lily* as my base colour and applied one coat of Insta-Dri*.
Next, one nail at a time, I placed small strips of striping tape where I wanted to keep the golden base coat visible. I did this using some nail art tweezers – it’s way too fiddly to do it precisely using just your fingers. I applied Green Tea and Fairy Teal over the striping tape and peeled off the strips while the polish was still wet. Finally, I topped it off with two coats of Insta-Dri, which I would definitely rate highly as a fast drying top coat.
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Hit the jump for 4 more pictures…
I used Barry M Plum as my base colour and coated my cuticles and all around my nail in Liquid Palisade* before using a sponge to dab on Sally Hansen Be-Jewelled from my cuticles up. I quickly pulled of the Liquid Pallisade before the glitter dried and applied a top coat of Essence Better Than Gel Nails.
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If I had a penny for every time someone asked how I care for my nails, I’d probably have a whole pound by now. The only reason I haven’t made a post like this sooner is because I’m really not big in to nail care and I know very little about it so I don’t really feel qualified to instruct anyone on the subject. Truth is I’m just a lucky SOB when it comes to my nails and cuticles, they don’t need much taking care of so I never made much of an effort.
That’s not to say I don’t do anything at all to care for them, just very little. In this post, I’ll share my brief nail care routine with you in the hope that some of you curious cats can take a few pointers.
The best advice I can give anyone trying to keep their nails strong is find a good base coat.
I never used base coat until I won a bottle of OPI Nail Envy in a giveaway back in October 2010 and started using it underneath every manicure. I saw an improvement within 2 weeks. My nails were stronger, less prone to breakages and grew at double speed.
Since then I’ve tried a couple of different base coats but I always come back to OPI Nail Envy. Both the Original and Matte formulas do the same job. Recently I’ve also been using a Sally Hansen base coat, I’ve never been let down by any of their strengtheners.
Where to buy:
Sally Hansen Green Tea and Bamboo Strengthener 13.3ml…
In the UK: Superdrug (£7.99), Boots (£7.95)
In the US: Ulta ($7.79), Target ($6.99)
Search for: ‘Sally Hansen Green Tea Bamboo’
OPI Nail Envy 15ml…
In the UK: Boots (£18.65), Sallys (In Store Only), Amazon.co.uk (£10.31)
In the US: Amazon.com ($7.95)
Search for: ‘Nail Envy Original’ or ‘Nail Envy Matte’
So many of you are curious about how I get me nail shape. All I do is use one snip of the nail clippers to trim my nails to a square shape, then a glass nail file to smooth the edges and round off the corners slightly. I wrote a full post about it trimming and shaping my nails here.
These tools are the least fancy ones you’ll ever find! The clippers are from Primark and the file is from Tesco’s Barbara Daly make up range. They’ve both been with me for years and I’d be lost without them!
When it comes to glass nail files, some are better than others. I discovered this when I attempted to replace mine and the replacement was absolutely rubbish. It just didn’t seem to actually file my nails so it went straight in the bin. I don’t have any recommendations on this one, sorry guys.
My cuticles are naturally quite healthy and I moisturise my hands using Vaseline’s Essential Moisture lotion countless times a day which I think contributes to my overall hand health in a big way.
This product from Sally Hansen is called Cuticle Eraser and Balm* and it’s supposed to ‘remove dry cuticles and moisturise in one step’. I don’t think it works well as a remover but it leaves my cuticles feeling super soft. I’m a reformed nail picker but sometimes the habit sneaks out and I end up taking it out on my right thumbnail and the skin around it, this is the only product that has helped to heal that mess of a finger and return the skin and cuticle to a respectable state.
I’ve heard that Lush’s Lemony Flutter is a great cuticle product but I’ve never tried it myself. It’s on my bucket list!
Where to buy Sally Hansen Cuticle Eraser and Balm
In the UK: This product was sent to me by Sally Hansen and I can’t find it available anywhere in the UK yet.
Search for: ‘Sally Hansen Cuticle Eraser Balm’
While not really anything to do with nail care, top coats are a valuable part of my manicure routine nonetheless. My favourites are Essence Better Than Gel Nails and Seche Vite.
The Seche Vite is quite new to me and I only purchased it because it was an absolute bargain in the Urban Outfitters sale. It’s a very, very fast drying top coat but it ‘shrinks’ sometimes which is incredibly annoying. It’s exactly what it sounds like. The Seche shrinks, pulling away from your cuticles and nail tips and takes your colour polish with it, leaving gaps where there shouldn’t be. If you can overlook that, it’s awesome.
If the Essence top coat was available here in the UK, I would use nothing else. Unfortunately, it’s only available in Continental Europe so it’s tricky for anyone not living there to get hold of. It’s fast drying (although not as fast as Seche Vite), glossy and it lasts. Please click here for more info about the Essence top coat (and every other top coat I’ve used in the past!).
Where to buy:
Seche Vite
In the US: Ulta ($9.95) Amazon.com ($5.13)
Essence Better Than Gel Nails
Only available in continental Europe and I believe the retail price is €2.59 for a 10ml bottle. A fellow blogger was kind enough to send me a few bottles.
That concludes my nail care favourites. I hope this is helpful and answers any questions you may have had about how I care for my nails. What are your nail care essentials?
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What is it about one new nail polish that can totally change your style? This happens to me sometimes, I just get completely hung up on one nail polish and it dominates my manicures for a week or two until I move on to something else. Well at the moment it’s this light, girly pink… Sally Hansen Crinolin.
As predicted, my New Years mani didn’t last until the New Year! These are the nails I was actually wearing come the stroke of midnight.
My base colour is Sally Hansen Crinolin. The pearls are from Born Pretty Store and I used Rimmel Urban Princess as my base on that finger. The pink purple glequins are also from Born Pretty. The glitter on my middle finger is Sally Hansen Razzle Dazzler.
The studs I used are from NPW* and they come in a little packet of 5 colours. I just want to give them a little shout out because they’re the cheapest caviar beads I know of that you can pick up on the UK high street at £2.50 for the pack. NPW products are available in Topshop, Accessorize and New Look stores.
I didn’t add a topcoat to the studded nails before these pictures in case the colour ran but I did top coat them after the pictures were taken and the colour stayed stuck to the studs. With a top coat, they even survived a night of partying and lasted until I removed the manicure earlier today.
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Here’s something you don’t see round these parts very often. A dainty, girly base colour! Poundland has been selling loads of Sally Hansen Complete Manicure polishes recently and Crinoline is one that I picked up this week. I didn’t want to go all out girly so I added some studs for toughness. Credit for the stud arrangement goes straight to Pinpoint Polish.
I used Sally Hansen Crinoline as my base coat with A-England Guinevere on my ring finger. Using a nail art brush I painted stripes of Guinevere then added on round studs and square studs from Born Pretty Store (10% off with SA5X31).
I used one coat of NYC In A New York Minute to top it off.
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