nail routine for long lasting manicures and strong nails

China Glaze Are You Jelly? and Models Own Southern Lights

I went back to acrylics for about 2 years whilst I wasn't blogging, and had them all taken off last summer. One thing that's really irritating about natural nails is that the polish doesn't last anywhere near as long! Those two things combined have lead me to develop a very rigorous process when it comes to my at home manicures. I thought I'd share the products I use along with some general tips to help your manicures last longer whilst strengthening your nails!

Now this is LONG, and some of it seems like common sense/you'll have been doing for years, but I wanted to compile it all into one post.

Using the following process and products helps my manicures last about a week with minor tip wear. I do usually get bored and switch it up before the week's out, however.

notd: china glaze street chic

I've been really loving autumnal shades again recently, which is probably lucky due to the great british weather at the moment!

this is Street Chic, part of the China Glaze Metro collection released last fall, and it's a taupey brown with a very slight purple undertone, I like that it's not too warm but not so cool it makes my skin look funny.

I couldn't for the life of me get a good picture of the colour (desperately need an actual camera), so the first picture I changed the colouring of slightly and it's now pretty damn close.

The colour looks a lot like cadbury chocolate; a kind of muted chocolately brown.

This polish, like 99% of the China Glaze colours I own, goes on like a dream. This was two coats, and applying it actually feels like applying a smooth chocolate sauce to my nails! It's naturally really shiny on its own but I've added one coat of Seche Vite as always to enhance this shine.

I don't actually like chocolate, but I shall be getting my chocolate fix from this at work tomorrow!

You may have noticed how long my nails are getting, I'm absolutely chuffed, although I keep breaking my right index finger so I then have to file the rest down, which is annoying. I talked about my experience with Nail Envy when I first started this blog, but I've continued using it and it actually seems to be working rather well. I just apply one coat before my base coat (china glaze strong adhesion), and it doesn't seem to be affecting the wear a at all. I might do an updated review of it shortly...

xx 

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notd: china glaze high maintenance

flash

indoor light

this is probably my favourite red I own. It's a slightly blue based jelly, it looks a bit like fresh blood and that's just how I like 'em.

This is three coats because I always do three, but it looks fine at two. It's closer to the flash pic but a bit deeper and not quite as bright. my skin looks really yellow on camera for some reason but it's actually really pale and pink toned, and this looks lovely with it if I do say so myself. It's really not a summery colour but the weather hasn't been lately so I don't care.

I also love the name of this polish, although it's not a high maintenance polish to apply. my ex thought it was hysterical when I bought this. I'll let you guess why.

:)

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notd: pearl accent nail, nails inc basil street + china glaze golden enchantment

hello ladies!

fancied a bit of nail art today, so I thought I'd jazz up my usual accent ring finger with some flat backed plastic pearls. I wasn't sure what colour to go with on the rest of my nails, and I've been wanting to try golden enchantment for ages so I went with Nails Inc Basil St for my base, as it's my FAVOURITE nude ever. I'd misplaced it and searched high and low for an hour, messing up my base coat in the process! The colour doesn't really show because of Golden Enchantment, but it's a lovely beigey nude, I'll do a seperate post on it soon.

Golden Enchantment is a really fine gold holo glitter in a clear base, it's not very dense at all, but looks beautiful with one coat, although this is three, I love it, it'd look gorgeous over virtually everything!

The accent nail is quite straight forward to do, but if anyone wants a tutorial I can do one :)

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notd: china glaze fuschia fanatic

To keep up with this weather I decided it was time to paint my toenails which I have neglected for the past week. I did myself a mini pedicure and painted them this lovely colour. I also did my nails to match, which is a rarity, and in 2 days max will no longer be the case!

I know a lot of people in the UK haven't tried China Glaze polishes as they're quite hard to get hold of, but I'd really recommend them; they're a definite contender for OPI in my opinion, and a bit cheaper. I get all of mine from Sally's, I've got about 11 now, and every one is beautiful. They have a great range of colours and the application is generally a dream.

This is a blue-based hot pink, similar in colour to MAC's girl about town lipstick which I LOVE! it's darker and less neon-looking than in this picture because it was taken in sunlight, but still a gorgeous bright pink. perfect for summer and classic enough for all the other seasons too I think!

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