Hot chillies, I’ve been shellac-ed!

First off, how do you like my attempt at a creative title? With my holiday approaching I decided I would treat myself to a nail treatment in the form of Shellac nails.

Briefly, the Shellac system uses a special type of polish which is part polish part gel I believe and which promises to last for 14 days without chipping. The polish is applied to natural nails in a series of steps, just as you would with any other polish. First a base coat, followed by two coats of colour and finally a top coat. Between each step the polish is set under a special UV lamp for between 30 seconds and 2 minutes. The end result is super glossy nails which are completely dry. I did not quite believe this at first and found myself being all delicate and trying not to touch them for fear of smudging. I have never had gel nails before, but this doesn’t feel like regular nail polish and also does not feel like a thick layer like false nails.

It took about 35-40 minutes to shape my nails and apply the polish with all the steps. There are 24 colours to choose from in the range so far and the salon I went to even showed me examples of some colours layered to give different looks. 

The colour I chose was ‘hot chillies’ a beautiful red/pink with shimmer. I tried to go for something unlike that I own, although this does reminds me of OPI ‘guy meets galveston’ which is more sheer and does not contain shimmer. I love the colour and the shine is incredible and unlike any other polish I have seen.

For a hand manicure with Shellac applied I found the cost is usually around £30-35. The salon I went to offers the service of just tidying up your nails and applying the polish for £22, which is what I opted for, but I am not aware of other salons which offer this which is a great option if you take care of your nails yourself or would just like to save some money.

I’m going to keep track of how well this polish performs and post an update when I return. I am told that chlorine and suntan lotion won’t affect the polish and all I will get is some regrowth so be sure to check back in two weeks for the update. If you have already tested out shellac nails, leave me a comment and let me know what you thought or even your blog post links so I can see what colours you opted for! 

Oh so special….

I realise I am late with this review considering this palette has been out for a while now. I was lucky enough to get this in the first week it was out, picking up one of the last palettes in the store.

My Sleek collection is slowly growing and I risk my palette reviews all reading the same since the quality of this palette is as high as previous ones. As usual the palette contains a beautiful selection of pigmented colours in a range of finishes.

Of the Sleek palettes I have this is my favourite. The colours are more neutral although there is a range of tones and the colours lend themselves to both day and night looks.

I was a bit concerned in other reviews when I read that this was considered a dupe to the naked palette, which I also own. But having them side by side I think you can easily justify having both and I don’t consider the oh so special to be a dupe.

My favourite colours of the palette are Organza, Gift Basket and Wrapped Up, which along with bow are the colours I used for my first look. I applied organza all over the lid, with gift basket in the crease and deepened that with wrapped up. I then applied bow to the browbone and in the inner corner. 

I also experimented with brown eyeliner for the first time and really like the finished result. But I will have a blog post about that at a later date.

Please share your looks with the oh so special palette, I am always grateful for inspiration. Also, if you would like to me to compare this with the naked palette let me know below.

Nails of the week - Ring finger manicure

I decided to do the ring finger manicure this week, and it turns out it was just in time for the sunshine!

I’ve gone back to Barry M and am using my favourite colour, shocking pink and tangerine on my ring finger. I think these colours complement one another really well and especially since the tangerine shade is a shimmer colour which the pink is not. 

I love how simple yet effective this look is and I have had so many complements this week. Are you liking this trend?