Jessica Brilliance Top Coat Review

I love a high gloss finish on my nails, especially if it gives the look of a gel manicure.
When I got the Jessica Brilliance High Gloss in a Flash top coat, I didn't get my hopes up too high but inside I was really wishing for a high shine, gel effect and lasting finish. I wasn't disappointed.

A real bonus of this polish is that it dries in an instant! It can be applied  over your base colour while it's still tacky to speed up drying time. I was a little wary of doing this in case the colour was picked up and dragged off my nail or transferred from my nail to the brush. Thankfully it didn't, I think this is down to the formula which is slightly thicker than I'm used to but not gloopy in the slightest.

They state "UV inhibitors and reflective polymers prevent chipping, smudging or yellowing."
As for chipping, each time I've used this, my nails haven't chipped. At all. Seen as I paint my nails every few days, I don't know exactly how long this keeps your nails chip free but a solid 4 days later and they look as good as new. There's no smudging of your base colour and so far, no yellowing of the polish in the bottle.

On my nails, I have Rimmel's I Heart Lasting Finish polish in the shade Pop Your Pink. I usually avoid using this because it chips so easily but with the Brilliance top coat, it stays put until I take it off.

Before:

After:

As you can see, there's quite a difference in the before and after pictures. 

A friend had mentioned that she really wasn't a fan of this polish so I was really surprised when I liked it as much as I did. 

I've never tried Seche Vite but from what I've read and seen, this seems like a very similar polish.

If you're looking for a new top coat, I highly suggest trying this out. 

I hope you enjoyed this post. :) 

Let me know if you've tried this polish and what you thought of it!

Thanks for reading ♥

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NOTD: Barry M - Blueberry

A few weeks ago, I was watching the Britain's Got Talent auditions and I spotted Alesha Dixon wearing the most gorgeous blue colour polish on her nails.

I needed it. 

I then remembered, I had it - or something very similar.

The polish in question, is a Barry M Gelly polish in the shade Blueberry. 

I was obsessed with this colour last year. 

My original bottle had totally dried up so I went out and got a new one. I didn't have the Gelly version last time but I am partial to a glossy nail, so I went with it. 

The reason I love this polish so much is that I've never seen a blue quite like it. It's almost lilac but at the same time, completely blue. I've had complements from total strangers about my nails when I'm wearing this. 

If you haven't used a Barry M polish before, it has a fairly standard sized brush and a thick formula that requires two coats for opacity in most cases. 

My camera seems to have washed out both the colour of the polish and the colour of my skin... 

I'll  insert a photo taken from my phone which shows it a little truer to real life. 

It suits my skin tone really well, especially now that I've got a tan. It also looks lovely as a toenail colour with my sandals. 

It has a high shine finish like all the Gelly range. It lasts 3-5 days for me before chipping with a layer of Barry M Clear polish as a base and top coat. 

If I remembered to apply a top coat very couple of days, I'm sure it would last much longer. 

I think this is the perfect nail colour for summer and just makes me happy when I look at my hands.

What's your favourite nail colour at the moment? I love reading your comments so do let me know. :)

Thanks for reading ♥

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Nail Care Routine

I've been taking a lot of care of my nails over the past couple of months as I've been trying to grow them out. I have brittle, weak, bendy nails that break very easily.
By following this routine, I've seen such an improvement in the strength and length of my nails.
I'll also show you a couple of ways to easily remove staining from your nails.

I'll start with stain removal, I do this about once a week to get rid of any yellow discolouration on my nails.
You can either do one or both of these depending on how bad the staining is. You can also use a buffing block but that can really weaken your nails.
First of all, get yourself a whitening toothpaste and rub it into your nails for a couple of minutes. Once you're finished, rinse off with water.

Next, add a spoonful of baking soda to a small bowl of water. (I never use exact measurements, just go with whatever looks right to you.) You can add lemon juice to this mix but I feel like citric acid is a little too harsh for my nails.

Next, you need to submerge your nails for 5-10 minutes. I like to rub my nails gently with the baking soda while I wait.

Now, it's time to put some moisture back into our nails. For this, I use sweet almond oil. I use a Q-Tip to apply it but you can clean out an old nail polish bottle and fill it with the oil, then use the brush to apply it. I do this at least once a day but  try to do it up to 3 times a day.
You need to massage this into your cuticles, nail beds and underneath your nails - once they're long enough - until it has been absorbed.
For me, this is the most important step as it keeps your cuticles moisturised and stimulates blood flow to the nail area helping them grow.

Finally, apply your base coat or any nail strengthening treatment as directed. You'll need to wait 30 minutes to an hour while the oil soaks in before doing this or the polish will peel off.

I'm not sure why my nails are showing up so yellow/orange in these pictures because they don't look anything like that in real life...

If you're wondering about filing, trimming and cuticle pushing, I tend not to do any of these until totally necessary. Once every 3 weeks or so. I know that sounds like a long time but my nails really don't grow very fast and my cuticles are always nicely pushed back without me having to help them. I also don't recommend cutting your cuticles.

Let me know if you have any tips for taking care of your nails, especially if you've found something to help with breaking and bending.

I hope you found this post helpful :)
Thanks for reading! ♥

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