Gel Nail Swatches - Final Thoughts!

You may remember the gel nails that I had done at Professional Beauty North a while back?! Well I thought I'd do a quick update post showing the polish after 3 and a half weeks of wear and what I thought about how they left my nails after.

As you can see, all brands stood up well in how well they lasted, none of them chipped, wore away or changed in appearance at all - and that is pretty damn impressive. Nothing I did made any difference to how they looked. In fact, they were all still so very pretty, that I did feel a bit bad when I removed them.

Saying that though, I was definitely ready to remove them as you can see, my nails have grown quite a lot and there was a huge gap between my cuticle and where the polish started - and normally, I'd have taken the polish off way before I did, but this was an experiment, and so they stayed put.

After removing them, the only nail that appears to have suffered any damage was my thumbnail, which had the Calgel on. It feels so dry and is hugely marked, even buffing didn't smooth it out - I'll spare you the photographs I took, it's not pretty at all!

I'd certainly recommend the NuBar Gelicure and Artistic Colour Gloss without hesitation, and would just say to make sure that the Calgel system isn't going to damage your nails before you have it done as other than the damaged nail, I was still very impressed. I can't honestly say if this damage was a one off as this is my one and only nail/experience of it, just approach with caution and make sure you know everything there is to know.

Do you have gel nail polish? If so, which one and do your nails ever get damaged with it? x

P.S - The Kooky Nail Wrap lasted 2 weeks, although there was tip-shrinkage quite soon into that but it wasn't awfully noticeable!

A Few Gel Nail Swatches & A Kooky Nail Wrap From Pro Beauty North 2011!

 The ORLY/OPI combination is what I was wearing before the show, thought you might also like a little look at that too though?! Picture doesn't do it justice!

Whilst at Professional Beauty North on Sunday, I thought it would be rude to not partake in a few trial gel nails, since I've actually never had them done before(!) which frankly seems ridiculous, being that I am a beauty blogger! The gel nail polishes that I had applied were by Artistic Colour Gloss, Nubar Gelicure and Calgel Nail System and so far, I am impressed with them all!

I wanted shimmery, glittery finishes and I wasn't disappointed - the bonus of having gel colour and glitter is that you get a totally smooth finish. The Nubar Gelicure is by far the most blingy of the ones I chose, and consists of 2 coats of a grey polish (I think it's called smokey or something) followed by 2 coats of the silver glitter and I love, love, LOVE it!

The Artistic Colour Gloss is 3 coats of a shade called 'Hotness' from what I can remember and it is beautiful, it looks like it's lit from within with all the sparkles... totally stunning and I think would be perfect for Christmas, don't you agree?! It also doesn't look sheer near the base of my nail like the photograph shows it, think that must've been the flash playing tricks there.

The Calgel system is actually applied from a tub, rather than a bottle and is self levelling, which is great for those of you with ridges or pitting as it REALLY smoothes the nail (so do the others, but I feel this one does it a little more)... I don't know the shade of this one, but it is lovely all the same!

This gel is said to last 4 weeks, which sounds great... but honestly, in 4 weeks time there will be a big gaping hole between the colour and my cuticle that I really wouldn't want, so I think this would be coming off long before then!

I also had a heatless nail wrap applied (above), they're by Kooky and I've been watching them for a while, ever since receiving an email with some of their stunning designs on that really caught my eye (see below)!

I had the Snakeskin Brown & Gold design (second one in) applied on my middle finger, and it looks gorgeous... so I bought a pack whilst there (well, it would have been rude not to) - I forgot to add them to my haul post yesterday as my brain just wasn't functioning as it should, whoops!

I like that they're heatless, it's one less step for me to muck up so on that score they're a big win - I shall let you know how long they last when I do a full review as I'm not sure if the heat would make a difference in how long they last! There's also a MASSIVE range of designs available, I could have honestly bought a lot more than I did, but I was a good girl and stuck to just one!

Do you likey, ladies? x

Professional Beauty Nubar & China Glaze Nail Polish Haul!

First off, sorry for my lack of posting, I've been a bad blogger (and not very organised) as I didn't get a chance to schedule any posts whilst away from home over the weekend!

Yesterday I went to Professional Beauty North @ Manchester Central (although if you're like me, you actually still call it the GMEX) and whilst I wasn't there as long as I'd have liked (Mr Beauty Scoop was bored!), you'll be pleased to know that I still managed to have quite a large nail polish spending spree.

 Nubar Prisms Full Collection!

 Nubar Prisms Close Up!

 Nubar Prisms Close Up!

 Nubar Reclaim

Nubar Sparkles Collection!

I bought 20 Nubar polishes, including the full Prisms collection as I love the look of the holographic finishes, all but the silver G180 polish from the Sparkle collection since I already own that one (and have blogged about it HERE!), and Reclaim, the green holographic polish from the Going Green collection. I also bought a few random sparkly ones that I think I'll use as topcoats to make plainer polishes twinkle!

 China Glaze 'Let it Snow' Seasonal Sparkles Set!

 China Glaze 'Let it Snow' Belle of the Ball Set!

From China Glaze I bought 2 Christmas sets (I would have bought more but they had sold out(!) on the first day) including Seasonal Sparkles that contains Poinsettia, Twinkle Lights and Holly-Day polishes, and the Belle of the Ball set that contains Champagne Bubbles and Tinsel Town polishes and a bauble - I have a few more bits from the Christmas/Holiday 2011 'Let it snow' collection coming from America too, I'll show you when they arrive!

L-R: It's Alive, Señorita Bonita,Ruby Pumps, Ahoy, 108 Degrees, Pool Party!

I also bought 6 other China Glaze polishes including 108 Degrees, Señorita Bonita, Pool Party, Ahoy, It's Alive and Ruby Pumps!!

I'd have loved to have spent more time (and money) there but after leaving early, and remembering how packed it was on the Monday last year, I decided to quit whilst I was ahead and order some more bits online at some point. I don't think I did too badly, do you?

Did anybody else go to Professional Beauty? If so, what, if anything did you buy? x

NUBAR G180 Star Sparkle - Swatches!

I love sparkles, I make no secret of this fact and I think one of the best places for me to have my sparkle and glitter (aside from jewellery) is on my nails; be it an odd nail with full on sparkle, a light coat to give all nails a twinkle or maybe just doing the tips over another polish – basically I have an assortment of ways to get my fix.

This polish satisfies my need for sparkle perfectly. It has an overall silver glitter effect but if you look closely you will see little rainbow sparkles glistening within it - like tiny little jewels. I’ve tried to capture this in the photo’s that I’ve taken but my photography skills currently leave a lot to be desired, especially without the use of my main (albeit point and shoot) camera. I've also photographed the swatch on a variety of backgrounds, in different lights (all with flash though) so that you get different perspectives of it.

3 coats of the polish have been used to get this density, no topcoat or basecoat has been used.

For a glitter polish it actually lasts rather well and is not too rough to the touch – something that has put me off (slightly) with cheaper glitter polishes in the past. Any roughness is eased with a couple of coats of topcoat anyway, something I like to do regardless of the type of polish as I find it helps immensely when you need the polish to last longer.

I have wanted to have Swarovski crystals on my nails ever since I saw them on TV and at the Professional Beauty event, but it cost a fortune to have them done so this nail polish seems like a decent choice to give me that kind of sparkle in the interim – at least until I can justify spending that kind of money to Mr BeautyScoop.


** If you're coming to this page from my Professional Beauty Haul post, apologies for the picture qualiry, quantity and lack of real nail - this is a very old post! x **