Top up your nails with different effect top coats

The easiest and most affordable way to change a look or an outfit completely, is to wear a different nail polish and speaking for polishaholics all over the world, I'm so grateful that there are so many nail polishes available to feed our insatiable craving. It's not just all the colors of the rainbow that appeals to me, but also the wonderful range of different effects that you can get e.g. matte, opalescent or glitter. The only downside to that is that my nail polish collection just grows and grows with every new color and effect that I get and storing them all will eventually become a problem, but there is a solution. There are quite a few top coats available that will let you create the same effects but on any of your ordinary nail polishes and today I'm showing you four of my favorite top coats for different finishes. To help illustrate the effects I have used two amazing polishes from the modern classic that is the Barry M Gelly Shine (£3.99) collection; Dragon fruit - a lovely warm barbie pink, and Grape - a vibrant electric blue. So let's have a look at the top coats and the looks that you can create.

 

The first top coat is the Avon Nailwear Satin Nail Top Coat (£4.50). During the winter season we saw some very interesting matte nail finishes, and with this top coat you can achieve that matte look on any of the nail polishes you already have. It's a milky looking top coat, that you apply over your chosen color and although it first looks like a slightly pink shimmery during application it dries into a great matte look. For this effect the brush isn't quite wide enough for my liking, so to avoid having to do two coats (which I had to do with the blue shade, and if you look carefully in the photo you can tell that the coverage was uneven), I would recommend that you make sure that you get a generous dollop of the top coat on the brush and then spread it out. At least that way you'll get a nice and solid matte finish, as you can see with the pink shade.

After that we have another product from Avon, the Avon Nailwear Opal Top Coat (£2.50) which I have mentioned previously. One of the nail effects that I have liked the most during the past year is the Moon Candy look, and with this top coat you can get the same effect on any nail polish without having to buy the Revlon duo kits unless you want to. It's a clear top coat with fragments that look like a crushed opal, which create a beautiful luminous prism effect. Again the brush isn't very wide, but with this top coat, it's not necessarily a bad thing since it's easier to place the opal looking fragments where you want them. With one coat, you get a nice and subtle look, that would work for any occasion to add something a little different, but if you want an even more iridescent and lustruous effect, apply a second coat - and wait for the compliments to roll in.

Moving on to a more traditional glitter look, we have Rimmel's Rock Your Colour Glitter Top Coat (£1.99) in Disco Gold. This is a beautiful glittering top coat, with very fine and tiny gold pigments for a luxurious and delicate finish. It's a great option if you want to wear something sparkly, but that's not too dramatic or flamboyant. The brush is quite narrow so even though you get a decent amount of product on the brush, you'll probably need 3-4 strokes to get an even distribution of it across the nail. Because the glitter is so fine, you'll be glad to know that it's very easy to remove from your nails without having to use any nasty acetone. Unfortunately it looks like this pretty top coat no longer is available in Boots or Superdrug, which is a real shame since it's a lovely discrete glitter polish, but luckily there are loads of them on eBay for a very low price.

From left to right:

Barry M Dragon Fruit

Barry M Dragon Fruit + Avon Nailwear Satin Nail Top coat

Barry M Dragon Fruit + Avon Nailwear Opal Top Coat

Barry M Dragon Fruit + Rimmel Rock Your Colour Glitter Top Coat in Disco Gold

Barry M Dragon Fruit + Ciaté Confetti Nail Polish

From left to right:

Barry M Grape

Barry M Grape + Avon Nailwear Satin Nail Top coat

Barry M Grape + Avon Nailwear Opal Top Coat

Barry M Grape + Rimmel Rock Your Colour Glitter Top Coat in Disco Gold

Barry M Grape + Ciaté Confetti Nail Polish

 

The last top coat isn't strictly speaking actually a top coat and it can be worn on its own for an amazing lustruous look. Ciaté's Confetti (£9) is a gorgeous glittering polish, rich with with silver colored holographic sparkles that create a fabulous radiant finish and ecause there is so much glitter in the polish, it's easy to get an even spread of it across the nail. When you use this as a top coat, one layer is more than enough for an eye catching effect but if you want to use it on its own, you definitely need at least two and maybe even three coats for an extravagant party look. Despite being very rich in glitter it's very easy to remove the polish and there's no need to use tin foil or whatever trick you've got up your sleeve to get remove stubborn glitter polishes. 

 

Using different top coats is an affordable, fun and easy way to create a particular effect without having to buy lots of new colors, and if you can't decide which one to go for there are enough top coats to choose from that you can probably get a different effect for each nail. 

Manic.Monday: Wednesday by Zoya

It's time to share with you what my BNFF (Best Nail Friend Forever), Zoya and I have been up to lately. If you've read my blog before you'll know that Zoya and I are the best of nail buddies, nothing can come between us. I do spend time with some of my other polish pals as well -  e.g. Sally and Barry, but Zoya and I make sure to catch up regularly. This Manic Monday we're going to confuse matters slightly (something which is fairly easy to do on a Monday morning), and talk about Wednesday. I'm not referring to the day of the week, but a gorgeous creamy and warm muted eton blue color from Zoya, which is like a mix of blue and green, but a lot softer than teal. It's a beautiful sunny and opaque color that would suit most skin tones, but I don't love it just for the color - let's talk about all the other great qualities of this polish. 

I have raved about Zoya before, and I apologise for what's going to happen - some more raving... Let's start with the fabulous flat and wide brush that makes application a dream, even for those of us with little patience or time on our hands. The brush fans out over the nail at the gentlest press so you rarely need more than 1.5 brush strokes per nail to get a perfectly even non streaky coverage. Regardless of which out of the more than 300 different shades you decide to wear, the pigmentation is great and with a lot of the colors you can get away with wearing only one coat, although yours truly usually applies two coats to really enhance the creamy glossiness of the formula, which by the way is light and with just the right density. I've tried a variety of shades from Zoya and even the lighter pastel and sheer shades have a lovely subtle shine to them, which means that you could even go without topcoat if you wish. The polishes dry quickly and are long lasting - on me the finish will last about 4-5 days of normal wear and tear before the chipping is noticeable, and to me that's a pretty good long wear. Let's finish this repeat rave of Zoya's excellent qualities by saying that the polishes are very easy to remove; even the Pixi dusts come off quite easily since the coats are so thick that you can easily peel them straight off the nail without doing any damage at all to the nail surface.

The magpie in me was longing for some sparkle, so I added a coat of Ciaté's Locket (£9) which is a gorgeous sleek silver metallic glitter polish, that gives an amazing brilliance and lustre. For me it's enough with just an accent nail of Locket, but you can of course also use Locket on its own, applying at least two coats, and you'll get a lovely rich and opulent crystal effect, especially if you finish with a high shine topcoat. If you do decide to go all out with a couple of coats of Locket on its own, you should know that it is a little bit tricky to get off, like a lot of other glitter polishes.

Wednesday was part of the Zoya Beach collection from 2012, and for me it captures perfectly the look and feel of warm and loungy summer days and I imagine the color would look amazing with a tan. If you want to bring summer forward a few months, get yourself this fantastic polish from LoveLula (they offer free delivery worldwide) and I'm sure you'll start to love Zoya as much as I do. Which is your favorite nail polish brand?

December favourites

It's almost the end of December and there's been so much to like about this month. From a beauty point of view I think I knew already at the beginning of the month at least 3 products that I would be wearing non stop and loving in December and they are all unfortunately limited editions, specially for Christmas. If you're read some of my earlier posts in December, some of the favourites this month won't come as a surprise to you - let's start with the make up products that have been used more often than not. 

I've added a few new products to my make up bag this season and one of the products I've loved the most in December is the amazing Gelée Powder EyeShadow from Estée Lauder (£19). Overall I really enjoy using these lightweight creamy eye shadows and this particular product takes the formula to the next level in terms of quality, intensity and longevity. The consistency is wonderfully smooth and creamy to apply and it quickly dries into a powder form that wears really well for at least the next 8 hrs. This lovely shade is Cyber Red, an intense and vibrant metallic cranberry shade that's been wonderful for a berry winter look.

Another new addition this season is a few new shades of the Color Boost Lip Crayon from Bourjois (£7.99). As you'll probably know by now I absolutely love this formula that not only gives a great satin like smooth coverage but also moisturises and keeps the lips nice and cared for. In December I've worn the shade Rouge a lot, it's a lovely scarlet red that's been perfect to wear with a winged eyeliner look.

So I've loved some of the new additions to my makeup bag this month, but I've also rediscovered an old favourite, which is almost as nice as picking up something new, in Rimmel's Glam Eyes Mono Eye Shadow (£4.49) in the shade Smokey Quartz. It's a nice and silky powder formula that's easy to apply on the lid and to build for intense color without any fall out and it lasts for at least 5-6 hrs without any creasing. The shade Smokey Quartz is a lovely slightly shimmery soft nougat, which is perfect to wear on its own all over the lid or as a base color. It's a great every day eye shadow and after having reminded myself of how much I actually like it, I will now definitely pick up some more shades of it.

 

From left to right (in natural light):

Rimmel Eye Shadow - Smokey Quartz

Estée Lauder Gel Eye Shadow - Cyber Red

Bourjois Lip Crayon - Rouge

At the beginning of December I mentioned that I had already found my favourite nail polish, which was quite a statement to make considering I also had the wonderful Ciaté advent calendar to look forward to - but as it turns out, I was right! I have worn the gorgeous Nails Inc Kensington Church Street Snowflake Effect nail polish (£10.80) almost every single day in December in one combination or another. It is a polish, however I think it's best used as a top coat since it's rich with glitter and sequins that look like snowflakes, and you could probably wear this over any color and the effect would be dazzling and beautiful. Personally I've preferred to wear it over icy cool pastels shades in light frosty blue or metallic foil like silver or gold shades for a festive look. This is a limited edition polish that has sold out in most places where they stock Nails Inc, but if you hurry up, you might be able to get hold of it in your local Nails Inc Bar, Boots or online - and believe me, it's definitely worth a little bit of effort to hunt it down!

I'm sure you won't be surprised to see that the Lush Snow Fairy Shower Gel (£10.95) and EdT (£25 for 30 ml) have landed themselves a very safe spot amongst my December Favourites. As you probably know by now Snow Fairy is released every year by Lush as part of their Christmas collection and ever since I first tried it many, many moons ago it's been a firm Lush favourite of mine. Snow Fairy is a one of a kind scent that somehow manages to be both sweet and freshly crisp and fruity at the same time. It has a very distinct candy like bubblegum scent with a subtle warm undertone of white musk which makes is perfect to wear in the winter time. The shower gel has a rich and creamy texture with a lovely pink shimmery color and the beautiful scent lasts a few hrs on your skin after you've used it, perhaps even up to about 4 hrs when you layer it with the EdT.

I'm so glad I stocked up on Snow Fairy as soon as it was released since as with a lot of seasonal favourites, it sold out very quickly and unfortunately neither the shower gel nor the EdT are available from the Lush online store anymore, but you might get lucky and still find Snow Fairy in your local Lush or of course on eBay. What seasonal or limited editions do you have as part of your December favourites?

Manic.Monday: Candied Bourjois

I've had a real love affair with the latest Bourjois products as you can see in my Fave 5 - Bourjois products and on one of my many visits to Superdrug they had a 3 for 2 offer that I couldn't refuse, and in the end I turned to nail polish to make up the magic 3. They have a lovely range of colors available and I decided on Bourjois So Laque Ultra Shine Nail Polish in Fuchsia Hype which is a lovely warm shade, with faint violet undertones.  

I am speculating now, but I get the feeling that So Laque Ultra Shine is supposed to be a rival of Barry M's Gelly Paints. Apparently the formula contains an extra dose of vinyl and reflecting resins to give that extra high shine finish and it also claims to be highly resistant and long lasting, with wear up to 7 days.

Fuchsia Hype

The brush is of a fairly standard width and should be easy to work with, however the formula of this polish is VERY thin and watery which means that it's tricky to get just the right amount on the brush for an even coat. I have a steady hand, but because it's so fluid I found it difficult to apply without getting it on my cuticles. It also means that since it's so thin, you need several coats to get an opaque look and to achieve the ultra shine finish. In the pics I have 3 coats on, and to be honest I probably could have done with another one. Because I had to use several coats to build up the colour this also means that it's even easier to chip or damage the finish, and I noticed after only a few hrs that it had started to go in some places - not exactly what I call long lasting.

So that I wouldn't let a freshly applied polish go to complete waste, I decided that I would finish with my newly purchased Avon Nailwear Opal Top Coat. It's a clear top coat with lustrous speckles that gives a prism like finish similar to a fragment of an opal, exactly like what we've seen on Revlon's Moon Candy - so with this you can "candy" any nail polish you want.

I really like the fact that it's a clear top coat so I don't have to consider colour matching or clashing, and can easily combine it with anything. It was easy to apply evenly and dried quickly, so overall I'm impressed by this product and am looking forward to experimenting some more with it. 

After one coat of Opal I had a pretty good but sparse shimmer on my nails, but since I was going for a heavier iridescent look, I applied one more coat and got the finish you can see in the photo below. I think the combination works and having applied the topcoat, I actually got another 2 days wear out of it, without significant "chippage". 

Overall I think that the Opal top coat is a great value for money product that I highly recommend and it definitely exceeded my expectations. However, considering the quality and performance of other Bourjois products I really expected much more from the So Laque nail polish. The shade was lovely but for me it didn't do any of the things it promised - I can't get any more candid than that!

Street Art Nails from Nails Inc

Being a polishaholic these days can be tough. With all the high street shops filled with gorgeous shades and different effect polishes they are enabling me. I am well and truly off the infamous polish wagon. One of the latest crazes is all the different topcoats - ultra shiny, matte, moon candy style, confetti, and of course the good old classic: the glitter coat. And seriously - who doesn't like a little bit of sparkle?

I had had my eye on Nails Inc Old Street Graffiti and shown remarkable restraint for a long time, before I finally caved in. It's a clear lacquer scattered with whimsical, asymmetric and multi coloured glitters in different textures that you use as a top coat over your chosen colour.

The first time I saw this lacquer it was worn over a white colour and I thought - WOW that's pretty cool. As with all glitter polishes no two nails will look the same, and some days the final look turns out better than others (as you can see in the photos) - that's just the way it goes. This lacquer is quite thick - almost gloopy in its consistency and it's also absolutely packed with glitter. However that does make it a bit tricky to work with. Even if it's supposed to be a hap hazard look, there still has to be some even distribution of the glitter across the nail I think - so you may need to put on two or more coats, and still do some touch ups here and there to spread the glitter shapes. 

on Barry M Nail Paint - 66 Matt White

 

on Rimmel Nail Polish - 058 Lemon Drop

on Barry M Nail Paint - 47 Black

I've tried this top coat with different colour combinations and I've also seen it on a nude nail, so really the possibilities are endless. Personally I still think it works best on a white shade or even a black.

As much as I like the graffiti effect it's got to be said that it does come with a couple of warnings. You may find that the glitters catch your clothes, or anything you touch, so be careful if you're wearing delicate lace or anything else that the glitters can pull. Also it is definitely long lasting - in fact it's a complete NIGHTMARE to take off. Even with the strongest, most horrible noxious acetone you can find, you'll have to spend a good few minutes on each fingertip, so when you apply it prepare yourself for wearing street chic for quite a while. 

The graffiti lacquers may not be for everyone since it does have an edge - both style wise and literally, but I think it's fun to mix it up a little. Imagine wearing this with a classic LBD - very fashion forward!!!

At your fingertips

With so many nail polishes and so little time, it's important for me to look after my nails and hands. So in between painting my nails all the colours of the rainbow I try to fit in products that provide some care and nourishment as well.

A while back one of my bad habits was to pick off nail polish with my fingers as soon as it started to chip - I just couldn't help myself and it was terrible for my nails. Since I discovered Pretty Quik Instant Nail Polish Remover there's no need for any of that anymore. There are several version of this out there and Bourjois is a well known one, but this little cheapy works just as well. Open the bottle, put your finger in it and twist to get rid of any polish. For ordinary polishes it takes seconds for it to disappear, but if you're wearing several layers or maybe even something sparkly (oooohhh, yes!!!) it might take a little longer. It's a little miracle in a bottle. The only thing I can't stand with this product is the smell - the remover is phenomenally effective but the pungent smell of acetone could knock out an elephant. I really wish they had a similar product that was acetone free - and it would be more healthy for nails too. The things we endure for a magnificent mani....

After that I'll use my beloved glass nail file to do any shaping necessary - truth be told, I do this as little as possible since I find that once you start filing your nails a lot, they get more and more brittle. The great thing about glass nail files is that you only need to barely touch your nail and you've corrected what you wanted. And of course there are so many pretty designs out there with sparkles, flowers, butterflies - you name it and I'm sure you can find it on either Amazon or eBay.

I've tried many nail polishes from Essie but up until a while ago never any of their nail care products, and truthfully I wasn't at all sure about the Essie Apricot Cuticle Oil when I bought it. I thought £9.95 was pretty expensive and I've used some great products that were bargain buys from Lush and Avon, but since I like to try different things I had to take the leap. It has a subtle apricot smell that makes it pleasant to use, it's absorbed quickly and it seems to do the trick. But you can get any of all the multi purpose oils that are popular at the moment, and probably achieve exactly the same result.

When it comes to nail care, there's no other brand in my opinion that produces so many little gems that really do work, as Sally Hansen. I've tried many of their products, and at the moment I alternate between the Sally Hansen Miracle Nail Growth Treatment and the Sally Hansen Nail Growth Serum.

The Miracle Nail Growth Treatment can be used as a base coat, and should then be reapplied every other day to bare nails. When I don't use that, I opt for the Nail Growth Serum and massage that into both the nail and the cuticle. Out of the two products I probably prefer the lacquer since for me that replaces the base coat, but regardless of which one you go for they certainly make your nails grow. A few years ago I had very short nails and simply couldn't seem to get them nice and long. I tried the Nail Growth Treatment and haven't looked back since. If you were to have only one single nail care product - THIS would be the one to invest in. 

I do try to give my nails a few days of rest without polish every couple of weeks to let them breath, but if I do apply a colour I'll finish off with the Rimmel Finishing Touch Ultra Shine Top Coat. Again I know that there are many options available for top coats, including the cult item Seche Vite Top Coat, but for me Rimmel works just as well, and I love the gleaming shine this gives.

I finish my glam it yourself mani with a nice creamy hand lotion and it doesn't get much better than the Caudalie Hand & Nail Cream. It has an absolutely divine smell that makes me feel energized and ready to get on with things - sun kissed Valencia oranges with a sherbetty sparkle for freshness that remind me of citrus candy. Not only does it smell amazing, but it also nourishes your hands and leaves them feeling soft, soft, soft!