Tag: Glimmer

In search of: the perfect gold nail varnish

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You know, sometimes you get an idea in your head, and you just can’t shake it out. I was like that with gold nail varnish for the past year and a half. I got it in my head that what I really NEEDED for the holidays was gold nail varnish. Proper bright, sparkly, beautiful, rich gold nail varnish, varnish that would say “HELLO CHRISTMAS! Yes, indeed, I am ready to party!”

People, I am pleased to say, my search is over.

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Please excuse the hasty rush job on these nails, I got over-excited when they were drying… Sigh. Anyway, I hope you can see that gorgeous shade on the bottom thumb there – that is the gold of my dreams! What is this exotic metallic varnish called, I hear you cry?! Why, it’s OPI’s Goldeneye! The MUST-HAVE gold varnish for 2012, I reckon!

In a clockwise fashion from the bottom, these are the ‘gold’ varnishes I am wearing: Goldeneye (OPI, the clear winner), Gold Coin (Revlon, just not at all what I hoped for, it’s basically just silver!) Glimmer (TopShop, my second favourite, but more of a bronze), Gold (GOSH, another tame looking gold), then Star Dust (Rimmel, another bronzy one).

Here, though, is the clear winner. Isn’t it beautiful? You can purchase this shade from HQHair for £11.

Glitter and glimmer: Effie Trinket’s reaping nails

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I’ve always been a tad lazy when it comes to nail varnish – if you call lazy sticking to plain colours! Nail art and decorations always felt a bit beyond me, but when I saw Effie Trinket’s amazing reaping nails in The Hunger Games, I knew I had to try and replicate it for my Hunger Games party costume! While my finished nails look nothing at all like Ms. Trinket’s, I am actually really pleased with the effect that I came up with – glittery gold over festive fuchsia, just right for the holiday and party season coming up! Glitter and Glimmer nails

To achieve this effect, I layered two coats of Fuchsia Hype nail varnish by Bourjois, and allowed to dry. Then, using a makeup sponge, I patted over bronze Glimmer by Topshop three times – once over the whole nail, second just the top half, and the third time, just the tips – making a graduated effect where the bronze shade was much thicker towards the end of the nail. Then I covered the whole lot with Saffron London’s gold glitter, and finished with a top coat. Honestly, this is probably the most complicated thing I’ve ever done to my nails – but it definitely wasn’t difficult, it just involved a lot of stages and layers. I used to find that my nails took so long to dry if I applied more than one coat, but these days it seems like formulas dry quicker, so it’s not as much of a pain as it used to be…

Anyone else tried to do an Effie on their nails? What did your end results look like? And, if anyone gives this a whirl, let me know!