Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel Review Part 1!

Hi guys!

Look I'm back already! My last post reminded me just how much I love blogging so I'm determined to get a couple more done before I have to get back to exam mode :L

So the other day I was perusing the beauty aisles of Boots (as I like to do every so often to see what’s new) and noticed that Revlon now have a little section dedicated just to Revlon nail varnishes. As a nail varnish lover I naturally went over to take a closer look and as I did a lovely Revlon Lady working on the aisle came up, complemented me on my Union Jack Nails (:D), then proceeded to tell me all about Revlon's new nail varnishes, 'Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel'.

Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel in Red Carpet

These are a new range of nail varnishes basically designed to be like a DIY version of a Gel manicure. They are meant to "provide high impact color and gel-like shine in fashion forward range of shades and finishes" and to "provide flexible, shatterproof color with excellent color retention and gloss". Basically it's meant to be a really long lasting, good quality nail varnish. The lady in the shop told me that it can last up to 11 days, which is really good seeing as most nail varnishes only last around 3-4 days, and that the reason for this is that the formula bends with your nail unlike normal nail varnish.

Now I don't know about all that technical kind of stuff, but I'm going on holiday to Italy (which I am extremely excited about! :D) for one week in about four weeks time, and so my mum, sister and I were all planning on getting Shellac manicures before we went so that we didn't have to take nail varnish and nail varnish remover with us etc. However, for all of us to have them done would be quite expensive so I thought why not try this nail varnish out instead?

So, we picked a nice bright colour called 'Red Carpet' which actually looked more coral in the shop, but on is definitely a very vibrant red, and decided that we would try this instead seeing as it was only £7.99 which is a fraction of the cost of what 3 Shellac manicures would have cost us, and which we will get more use out of because we can use it again and again.

Obviously, we didn't want to go on holiday and find that it doesn't work, so this week I am road testing it! I applied it this morning, and so every day, I am going to take a picture of it, then after the eleven days is up, or however long it lasts for if it doesn't manage the eleven days, I will do a post with the results and all the pictures so you can see the state of it through the duration of wear.
I have to say, I wasn’t overly impressed with the application of this nail varnish. It's very thick and like most longwearing nail varnishes, takes forever and a day to dry so if you have no patience, or have a tight schedule then it's just a bit frustrating! Eventually what I ended up doing was painting the base coat (I used the Sally Hansen Base coat that I always use) and first coat last night, then finished it off with the second coat and top coat (I used Natural Collection Clear Top Coat) this morning. That made sure that it had all dried thoroughly and stopped me from getting really bored whilst I waited for it to dry!

Anyways, I'll be back with the pictures from each day and a review of its durability in approximately 11 days! I'll try and do another post between times though, I'm not sure what on yet but I'm sure I'll find something!

As always thank you so much for reading!

xxx

Right Royal Nails: Union Jack Nail Design!

Hi guys! 
 It's been a long time since I last posted - I'm sorry! But unfortunately I'm right in the middle of my GCSE exams at the moment so I've been very busy studying for those. But fortunately I now have a week off from exams so I thought I'd get cracking on a nail design for you all!
 For those of you who have miraculously missed out on the thousands of adverts for the Jubilee weekend, or for those who live in other countries and so are unaware, this weekend is the weekend of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrating 60 years on the throne. Now I have to admit, I’m not really into royalty much but this seemed like a good opportunity for a nail design so I thought why not?!
 I did think of crowns or English roses for the design but then I decided it just doesn't get much more British than the Union Jack so that's what I went for! It's a really simple, easy design to create as long as you have a steady hand (or a friend who does!), however it is far easier if you have a thin nail brush as this creates a smooth straight line far more easily.
 For the design you will need a blue nail paint (preferably a royal blue but it doesn't really matter), a white, and a red nail paint. I actually didn't have a royal blue in my vast collection so I used Collection 2000 Hot Looks in BMX Bandit instead which is a slightly paler blue, but I still think this looks just as good. I used N.Y.C Long Wearing Nail Enamel in 134 French White Tip for the white and Rimmel London 60 Seconds in 430 Coralicious (which is technically pink not red but I don't actually own a true red as I have yet to find one) with BarryM Nail Paint in 150 Red Glitter over the top to make it a bit more red and also to add a bit of sparkle, it is the diamond jubilee after all!

 Then the design is easy: First paint a coat of the blue over your entire nail and leave to dry. Then take your thin brush or cocktail stick, whatever you may be using, dip it into your white, and paint a cross on your nails then add the diagonal cross so that you end up with like a star on your nail. Remember to make these lines slightly thicker as your red has to run down the middle of it and make sure to take this right to the edges but don't worry about being too neat, sometimes a bit of scruffiness adds to the look! Leave this to dry. Next, dip your brush into your red and paint a thin line down the middle of the white lines. Leave to dry, add a top coat if necessary or a bit of sparkle if you feel like it and et voile - you have patriotic Union Jack nails!

 Of course you can put your own twist on this design, perhaps using other colours, maybe go for neons, brights or metallics. Or maybe just swap one colour, such as using silver instead of white. Maybe you could just do French tips instead of the whole nail! Whatever you choose to do, have fun with it!

 All that’s left is for me to wish you a happy Jubilee weekend - hopefully I'll be back relatively soon with another post but I'm not going to be able to promise anything unfortunately!

 Oh and as always, thank you so much for reading.

 xxx