Mooning over you..

Just a quick update today to let you know about my latest discovery.  Yes, I’m a bit late to this party I admit but....Shellac nail polish is a miracle.

I’m not the most organised individual at the best of times and I am at pains to admit that I hate painting my nails – it’s a bloomin’ palaver that, quite frankly, I could live without. Still, a “polished” vintage look (that which I aspire to and always fall short of) needs a good manicure and so, three weeks ago, I took the plunge and decided to get shellac done.

It had been a long time coming but I was trepidatious, back in my younger days I’d flirted with council estate chic – stripey highlighted hair, sportswear and long acrylic nails with airbrush designs – and I remember well how thick, ugly and unmanageable acrylic nails are.  I don’t like that chubby nail look, on my long skinny fingers it makes me look like I have a fungal infection.  It doesn’t even look good on our Dita, though this is an old pic so I'm sure she has discovered shellac too by now!

So I put out feelers, and, after asking the wise vintage girls of Facebook, shellac seemed to be the best option.

My local salon, the always rammed Ria Beauty in Dalston offered this and so I quickly booked in for a manicure and shellac.

The process is fairly simple.  Your nails are shaped, very lightly buffed(the benefit of shellac is the nail surface is undamaged as opposed to any other treatments where it must be filed to create a keyed surface for the gel or acrylic to bond to) and then a base coat applied, then two coats of colour,then a top coat; each coat dried under a UV lamp between applications.  You come out of this with gloriously shiny,100% dry nails – no chance of smudging and they are considerably stronger yet still thinner than acrylic.  All good in my book.

The only problem I had was explaining to the girl painting my nails that I wanted the half moons left blank, I’m not sure they really understood what was needed and my 45 minute appointment became a two hour one as she painstakingly painted her first half moon manicure.  Still, it turned out beautifully and everyone there ended up taking photos of my hands afterwards so I am hoping to have started a little trend in my Eat end backwater *wink*

I've had the manicure on for three weeks now and not a chip,it is still shiny.  The only issue is that it is starting to grow out, as I have unusually fast growing hair and nails, but I’m not too worried. I’ll just paint some normal varnish over the top!

This is definitely something I plan to keep doing.  I’ll be heading back next weekend for a new do,perhaps a dark red this time – they have a lovely Rouge Noir-esque colour called “Fedora” that I’d like to try.  I’m even considering buying the equipment myself to save costs, though at £20 a month my local salon is hardly expensive.

So, here you go – what do you think?

Immediately after the appointment

One week later

Three weeks later

Beauty review - Rimmel 60 second nail polish in 320 Rapid Ruby

I've made a bit of a resolution (pre-New Years) to keep my nails in better condition.  I tend to apply polish and then just leave it till it all flakes off, not very attractive, and so in an effort to inspire myself I bought a few new polishes.  I've always found little difference between expensive brands and the cheaper equivalents and so went for good old Rimmel.

I picked up three from the 60 second range - Rapid Ruby, a grey and a turquoise.  The Rapid Ruby is a very dark wine red - perfect for a vintage look and the grey has a real 30's tone, at least to my eyes.

 
I prepped my nails by filing them into vintage points (grrrr!) and then applied a basecoat of clear varnish as this polish is highly pigmented.  I then applied two coats of the Rapid Ruby and topped with a topcoat of clear varnish.

My crappy pic (I've lost my camera again) and one stolen from a google search.  All the pictures on the Internet look a lot redder than it does on me - perhaps that is because I used two coats.  I'd certainly call it a wine though rather than a red.

This is a very quick drying polish, without the bottom and top coat it does dry in 60 seconds but adding these steps added at least another two minutes to the drying time, so if you don't mind stained nails it is possible to paint and go, which is great.

I do have a few reservations though.  Part of the reason it dries very quickly is that it is thicker than ordinary polishes, this coupled with the extra large "one stroke" brush does make the polish difficult to control and so this wouldn't be easy to use for half moon nails.  You certainly couldn't paint the half moons freehand with this.  Also, due to the thickness it can tend to bubble.

All in all it is a good cheap buy at £3.99 and a great colour but definitely not for your full vintage manicure. More of a paint and run emergency polish.