Quick review: Nail envy wraps

My holiday gave me the perfect opportunity to test some of the products that I received from #LiveBloggers. First up for review are Envy wraps bling from Elegant touch.

The wraps were easy enough to use. Unlike other wraps I have tried I needed to apply a coat of clear polish first before selecting the correct size and sticking them in place, filing off the excess and finishing with a top coat. The instructions also stated that using gentle heat from a hair-dryer would help the wraps to adhere, but I skipped this step and they seemed to work just fine.

As claimed, the wraps stayed in place for 5 days and then lasted beyond that, although there was some wear at the tips on around day 3, but this wasn't noticeable from afar.

Day 3

I eventually peeled the wraps off, but I did get some peeling of my nails underneath so I would recommend soaking your nails in warm water to loosen the wraps a bit before peeling or maybe a bit of polish remover.

Graffiti design wraps

The wraps cost £5.49 in Superdrug (although I have also found them in Savers for 99p) and contain 24 stickers, which means that if you are happy to cut some of the larger wraps to size you could easily get two wears out of one packet.

Nails of the week: Nail wraps

My nails were in bad condition after using nail glue a few weeks ago. Polish just highlighted the damage so nail wraps seemed to be the perfect solution to make my nails look presentable while they recovered.

To be honest, as much as I like the designs of nail wraps at £6.99 or more a packet, I would rather buy a bottle of polish! But, I did manage to find these Girls with Attitude nail wraps at Savers for £1.99…bargain!

They are really easy and quick to use. The pack contained 12 stickers in total, 6 of each size. All you do is pick the one that closest matches the size of your nail and stick it on, then using a nail file, file off the excess wrapping by using the file at a 90 degree angle. Because there were only 6 sizes available I did end up using two wraps on one of my nails to get complete coverage.

The whole process didn’t take more than about 10 minutes and with the exception of one nail I didn’t have any issues with the wrap creasing or bubbles forming. A few times I applied the wrap in the wrong position and it was really easy to peal off and reposition.

The wraps lasted just under two weeks — I had to remove them before an interview otherwise I would have expected them to last much longer. The photograph above was taken after 5 days and you can see a slight bit of wearing at the tips but this was barely noticeable.

I am now on the hunt for more wraps at Savers. I think these will be ideal to use while on holiday as a much cheaper and less damaging alternative to shellac.

So, nail wraps, yay or nay?

Nazila Love Glamour meets Ghost the musical and a giveaway!

Last Friday I was one of 30 lucky bloggers invited to an event organised by Amazing PR to introduce Nazila Love Glamour glitz nails and watch Ghost the musical.

The event was at the Piccadilly Theatre, London, and started with the bloggers and their guests being led down to the bar where we were able to redeem a complimentary Godminster cocktail while we waited for our Nazila Love Glamour manicure.

The nail kits are amazing, each Nail Glitz packs contain 24 nails of different sizes and designs, which you can combine to create your unique manicure. Dubbed the “ghost nails” the nails are black and silver and have 3D bows, diamante and chains attached. They are very striking on and I although I had the full set some of the staff wore accent nails, which also looked very effective.

They are very long but I was told by Nazila herself that you can just cut and file the nails down to the length you prefer. I love the shape of these nails so I would be reluctant to cut them down but I may try filing those that I can starting at the back of the nail so that I don’t lose the shape.

After getting the manicure and having a chat with some fellow beauty bloggers we headed to our seats to watch Ghost. I have to admit, having seen the film, I wasn’t sure how it could be adapted to the theatre but the action scenes and special effects were amazing and I really enjoyed the show.

As if all that wasn’t enough, after the show we were all invited on stage and met the two leading members of the cast! You can check them on YouTube.

GIVE-AWAY!!

As a bonus I have been offered the chance to give-away a pair of tickets to see Ghost the musical to one lucky blog reader. Entering is simple, leave a comment with “enter me” on this post, including an email address or twitter handle that I can contact you on if you are the winner!

There are a few rules (please see the full terms and conditions below):

The prize on offer is two tickets to see Ghost the musical for a showing on Monday-Thursday until 13 September 2012. 

1. You can only enter once
2. You must be aged 18 or over and be a UK resident.
3. The giveaway will run for two weeks closing at midnight on 8th June. I will then select a winner using random.org and contact them within 48 hours. The winner will then have 48 hours to reply or another winner will be selected.

Check out my Facebook page for more pictures of the event and the ghost nails!

Good luck! 

Terms & Conditions

• This competition is free to enter and no purchase is necessary. Only one entry per person.
• Entrants to this competition must be aged 18 or over and a resident in the UK.
• The competition prize includes: 2 tickets to Ghost The Musical valid Monday-Thursday until 13^th September.
• The immediate families of the blog offering the competition are not entitled to enter.
• milktwosugars Limited reserves the right to amend and/or withdraw the competition at any time without prior notice.
• The blog editor will randomly select a winner from all valid entries.
• No cash option or alternative to prizes offered.
• The winners will be notified by the blog editor following the closing date of the competition.
• Entrants will be deemed to have accepted these rules and to agree to be bound by them.
• The judge's decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into.
• The promoter of the competition is milktwosugars Limited.

Snow nails

When the snow fell and I was all snuggled up at home I decided to attempt a snow inspired nail look.

I even attempted an artsy photo! 

I have not attempted much nail art but decided to try a faded look. Instead of using a series of colours and blending them into one another, I used an old sponge to add white to the tips of my nails.

I used an old blue No7 polish as the base, which has a sheer finish and worked well for this look. For the sponging I used Barry M white, which I placed directly on the sponge and blotted off the excess so that only there was only a light transfer of colour onto the nail. I concentrated the colour only on the tips and tried to place more colour at the edge of the nail compared to where the white met the blue colour in order to look like snow fall on my nails!

To finish of the look I applied one coat of glitter polish.

I am hoping to attempt more nail art in the future, what would you like to see next?

Christmas nails

I really struggled deciding what to do for my Christmas nails…… but after testing out at least 8 different colours of polish and various designs this is what I settled on….

I used Fashionista red magnetism nail polish on four of my nails, but added my favourite red nail polish from Beauty UK on top. Now I know this will probably seem counter-productive, but the result is the beautiful red colour you see with the slight magnetised effect coming through, adding a nice depth to the colour and a more subtle effect on the nails. The picture doesn’t really do the look justice, but I am really pleased with the result.

I decided to add an accent nail, which was a classic French tip, red line and flower nail sticker.

Finally, I also ordered and received my first ever Glossy box on Christmas eve, but waited until Christmas day to open it as a gift from myself (sad I know!) Even though I had done my nails on Christmas eve, the magnetised polish had already started to chip so I decided to cover up the worst offending nail with the Deborah Lippman red glitter polish. The polish applied really well and dried quickly

I love the end result. I like that at first glance you don’t really see anything special in the way of design, since the colours compliment each other so well, but a closer look lets you see all the detail. The only shame is that the wear and chipping started after a day!

So what do you think? I want to try doing more nail art and mixing of colours. Please share your favourite Christmas and non-Christmas designs with me below.

Nails of the week x2 Feeling Blue

In keeping with my peach themed week I decided to go for ‘Apricot Punch' by Rimmel as this weeks nail polish choice.

From the same collection as last weeks cranberry zest, this is also a fruity polish. I love the colour, however, I had so much trouble with this polish that I just can’t find anything good to say about it in terms of finish. First of all it was extremely streaky even with three coats. I patiently waited for coats to dry in between application and even after that and thinking that my nails were dry I managed to smudge two nails and get an imprint on a third. I have never experienced this with a polish before, and cannot think of a reason why since I did wait for it to dry. It is such a shame since it is such a lovely colour but I can’t see myself picking this out of my collection again.

In the end, I decided to go back to Barry M and selected ‘Cyan Blue’, a deep sky blue colour it is just the sort of shade which matches the colour blocking trend this spring/summer. Standard to my experience with other Barry M polishes, two coats was perfect, no streaks and dried without smudging it. I have never worn all blue on my nails before, but I really like it.

I decided to go one step further and make the shade matte, with my matte magic china glaze top coat. Finally with the konad stamping kit and new stencil plate, I added a butterfly to my ring finger in white. I had always tried to repeat the pattern I was going for on each finger, getting frustrated when they weren’t all straight/even, so I really like the effect of having one print on a single finger.

Crackle Nail Polishes

So I know I have featured my Barry M crackle polish twice now, but I really cannot praise these polishes enough. They look so effective and are such a fun way of adding nail art without paying to have it done or fiddling with small brushes, dotting tools etc.

So I was really excited to read that there will be a selection of colours coming soon, my only hope is that Barry M follow and provide me with my cheaper alternative. I am yet to spend £10 on a polish and I don’t intend to in the near future!

http://www.glamour.com/beauty/blogs/girls-in-the-beauty-department/2011/02/an-even-more-colorful-version.html?mbid=twitter_glamourdotcom