Maybelline color show nail polish review

Every week, it seems that a new type of nail polish product is being created, each one claiming to be bigger and better than the last ‘new thing’. The latest company doing this is Maybelline, with their new color show nail polish. The product claims to be a new gel based formula, with colour popping pigments that gives you bold, crisp, chip resistant colour.

The reason that I first tried these nail polishes is because I absolutely loved the MNY my varnish nail polishes that Maybelline used to do, and I was disappointed when I couldn’t find it anymore. But with all its bold claims, I thought I would give their new product a try.

A selection of the different colours, taken from the Maybelline website

But do all these claims really hold any truth? Well I have to be honest, these nail polishes are both brilliant, but bad at the same time. I own six different colours, and the darker colours, Urban Turquoise and Power Red, are some of the best nail polishes I have ever used. They go on amazingly well, giving really bold intense colour even with just one coat, but with two your nails stand out so much.

Watery Waste, a silver colour, doesn’t give quite as much of a bold colour as the darker ones in just one coat, but that’s obviously a given. And then we come to the lighter colours, Cool Blue, Pink Boom and Winter Baby. I cannot believe how different these colours can be from the darker ones. When I tired to apply this to my nails without any base coat, the polish just seemed to slip from my nails and fall and sit in the sides of my nail, which is not a good look. However with a base coat applied the colour does seem to redeem itself, and be almost as good as the darker colours.

However, Winter Baby, in my opinion, is a compete waste of money. I just can’t seem to get on with this nail varnish. To get any kind of colour from it you have two options, put on a thicker layer and wait ages for it to try and dry, or put on thinner coats and have to put on at least three for it to make any kind of impact, and doing this takes a long time.

Because I work as a cleaner my hands and nails take more of a beating day to day than other people’s hands would, so I found that the claims it was chip resistant weren’t strictly true, but it does last a lot longer than most polishes I have used.

So all in all, this nail polish offers mixed results, with the darker colours being amazing bold and easy to apply, and lighter colours being more subdued and a little trickier to apply. But for only £2.99, which is amazingly cheap compared to some other companies out there, it is a good nail polish.  

By Lucy Bunce

My nail art essentials

When doing nail art, it is essential that you have the right tools for the job. So here are a list of all the tools and polishes that I think you need for doing really good nail art.

1.     A good base coat – Now not all people agree with applying a base coat. Some people see is as a waste of time, or that it takes too long. But I couldn’t disagree more. I think a base coat is super important, not just to protect your nails from becoming weak and stained, but also to help the polish stick better to the surface of your nail. My favourite base coat is Avon nail experts adhesive base coat. It makes your nail varnish stick like glue, and is amazing at protecting nails from damage.

2.     A good quality nail varnish – Now this really depends on what you class as a good quality nail varnish, but I find as a base colour, nail polishes that are a little thinner in consistency work well. I like Maybelline colour show (look for a review of this product coming soon). But for doing design work, I find thicker nail varnishes to be good, such as Barry M, as they won’t bleed and will hold their design better than thinner polishes.

3.     A top coat – Now a top coat is different to a clear nail varnish. In the past, I have used clear nail polish as a top coat and it works fine on just regular painted nails. But on nails that have an intricate design, I find that clear polish can drag and blur the design, which doesn’t happen when you use a top coat, so it’s a good investment.

4.     Dotting tools – I love dotting tools, they are so versatile, not only can you just do dots with them, but with the smaller tools you can do more intricate designs, like drawing pictures on your nails, which is easier than doing it with a brush. I have Cheeky double-sided dotting tools, and they are fantastic. Dotting tools are cheap enough to buy from Amazon, but if you don’t want to buy them, you can use things from around the house, like the bottom of a make up brush, or the bottom of a pin, whatever you can find that will create dots.

5.     Nail striping brushes – These come in either sets or individually and are small pots of nail polish that contain a small brush for applying it to the nail. You don’t have to buy these specifically, and if you wanted to make your own stripers, you can cut an old paint brush down to size, or use an old eyeliner brush.

6.     Masking tape – Masking tape is a brilliant way of achieving different techniques on your nails. You can use it to create squares, triangles or any shape, and it can be used to create French tips or half moon manicures. I think masking tape works much better than cello tape as it is less sticky and is therefore easier to remove from the nail, whilst doing the least amount of damage to your manicure.

7.     Nail polish remover – A pretty obvious choice, and you can use whatever you want, ordinary nail polish remover, the pads, or the new pots, which allow you to soak your nail. Either way your going to need good quality stuff, because sometimes you can have a few layers on your nails, and it takes a while to remove it.

So there you have it, these are my essential tools for doing nail art. You don’t need them all, but I think with all of these you can create any design possible on your nails. If there is anything you think I have missed, don’t hesitate to comment. 

By Lucy Bunce

Nail Plates – A Bundle Of Fun?

If you have never tried them before nail plates are an absolutely amazing way of jazzing up your nails if you are a novice nail artist, if you aren’t very creative, or if you don’t have the steadiest of hands. So when I decided that I wanted to expand my collection of nail plates (I already had three Konad plates given to me by a friend), I began looking around Amazon. And I was shocked to find that Konad nail plates sell for £6 per plate. And that’s when I discovered Bundle Monster.

And boy am I glad I did. After reading some of the reviews people had written about the plates, saying that they weren’t engraved deep enough to pick up any polish, and that, in a nutshell, they were rubbish, I was a little apprehensive.

But after deciding to ignore the reviews and see for myself, I ordered the Bundle Monster 21 piece stamping kit, each plate containing 6 designs (that’s a total of 126 designs) for just £14.99.

And all I can say is I have no idea what any of those negative reviews were about. They must have been talking absolute rubbish, because to me, these plates are amazing. They come with a protective blue film covering the top of each plate so they don’t get damaged in transit, and even though on Amazon it tells you not to forget to peel these off before use, I, I’m sure like the people who hated the product, almost forgot to. With the blue film on, of course the engraving isn’t going to be deep enough to pick up polish.

The plates are amazing, and come with three different types of print, fun individual designs, like grapes, lips and heart designs, French tip designs, and full nail designs. I experimented with all of these when my plates first arrived, and each one of the turned out fine. I wouldn’t say they were perfect as some designs are very intricate and did struggle to pick up the full effect, but it picked up enough to still look fabulous.

What the nail plates look like

However if you are thinking of buying these plates I will give you some tips. These plates work amazingly as long as you use them properly. If you think that you can just buy these plates and go, you are wrong. You also need a scraper, to remove the excess paint and to press it into the design, and you also need a stamper to transfer it onto the nails. These don’t come with the plates, but are cheap enough to buy separately.

Also DO NOT try and use ordinary nail polishes. This seems to be a regular mistake that people make. Regular polishes are no way near thick enough, so I would suggest buying a proper Konad special nail polish. I have a white, pink and a black one, and the black one works brilliantly, picking up far more detail that the lighter colours.

And always remember to clean the polish off of the plates after use, as this can build up and take away the smaller details.

The only downside that people may find with this product is the size of the full nail prints. I have very small nails, so the designs fit onto mine with room to spare. However if your nails are on the larger side, then you might be left with a gap on either side.

So there you have it, for such a cheap product Bundle Monster nail plates are amazing, and if you are thinking of trying nail art yourself, I couldn’t recommend these enough.

By Lucy Bunce

Introduction

Hello everyone and welcome to my new blog, Love Nail Art Forever. As you can probably tell from the name, I love all things nail related, and this blog is my way of expressing that.

On this blog, I will write reviews of new nail art products that I try, I will talk about what new trends are heading our way, and I will also show off some nail art designs that I try, and much, much more.

So if you love nail art, this is definitely the blog for you.

Lucy Bunce