Seeing as today is the last proper day of my half term break, I am in a get-stuff-done mood. I have already done a Pilates session, painted a wall, washed my hair, been to the doctors, picked up a prescription and been food shopping for the week all before midday – phew!
I keep my ear to the ground for any new and exciting beauty releases and had a good nosy at Alexa Chung’s recent offerings for Nails Inc, one of my favourite nail brands. The top coats all looked lovely but at about £15 a bottle, they aren’t cheap for a glitter topcoat.
I nipped in to my local Poundland recently and noticed a dupe for the heart topcoat that is getting a lot of love at the moment. Seeing as it was only a pound, I thought I may as well give it a try and as I was about to pay I noticed a new nail varnish stand stocking ‘Jess’ products. I have to admit I hadn’t heard of this brand before but decided to pick up two shades; a fiery red (matador) and a creamy blue (swan lake).
I tried out matador first of all. My first impressions weren’t great – the formula was very thin and patchy and I needed three coats for opacity. However, after a bit of effort, I did really like the shade and it had a nice glossy finish to it.
Now for the hearts! This bottle contains metallic gold hearts in a red tinted gloss. Part of me through that it would be better in a clear gloss as the red did affect the gold colour of the hearts. Rather than end up with a thick layer of the coloured gloss on my nails, I dabbed the brush onto a piece of paper and picked out the hearts with some tweezers before placing them on my nails.
The hearts were slightly raised on the nail but a few generous layers of topcoat smoothed these down and I think the finished look is quite effective.
I was slightly less pleased with the staying power of the Jess nail varnish. It chipped dreadfully within a few days and my manicure didn’t last the week. I haven’t tried the swan lake shade yet but I am hoping it performs slightly better!
