Beauty: A week in my finger nails!

Hi guys,
According to new research, the fastest selling beauty product right now is no longer the lipstick, but the humble nail varnish. The theory is that in the recession, where we can't afford to update our looks with new clothes right now, women are instead choosing to update their look by changing their nails.

I've always loved painting and looking after my nails, and generally I varnish them every other day: every day if they chip. So rather than look at what I wear in a week (because let's face it, you've seen almost every piece in my wardrobe before!) I thought I would show you a week in my nails:

Friday: You may have seen these nails in my post of what I wore for London Fashion Week, Day 1. I cheated with these and applied nail wrap: these are Nail Rocks. As you can see, they peeled really quickly though, and the ends didn't look great!

Sunday: The grey base colour is from Essie. The shade is called Then and Now, and was specifically designed for the new online shop of the same name. The mustard is from Topshop. I don't have any nail pens or fancy tools, so I applied the polka dots using the end of a lolly stick! I wore these nails with a simple grey dress and mustard heels: I love coordination!

Tuesday: I'm prepared to admit that I was watching My Big Fat Gyspy Weddings when I painted my nails on Tuesday, and that definitely influenced the results! To create this look I applied a lovely rich red Nails Inc. varnish called Victoria, and used my Barry M glitter varnish for the tips. It looks a little bit cheap (like badly applied acrylics) and I was definitely pleased when it started to chip and I could take it off!

Thursday: I went home to my parents house for my nephew's Christening over the weekend on Friday, so on Thursday night I applied a simple and glossy coat of this neutral looking brown Boujois varnish. I wanted something that I could touch up quickly and easily over the weekend, and this definitely fit the bill!

How do you update your look without spending a fortune? Are you a slave to your nails, or happy to let them chip?

Love Tor xx

Fabfrocks reviews: Nails that cut the mustard

Hi guys,
For the past 4 weeks I have been hunting for the perfect mustard nail varnish. I love the warmth and vintage feel of the colour mustard and have been wearing it for years but it's current fashion popularity means it's so much easier to find now, so as well as buying a couple of new mustard dresses, I resolved to get myself some mustard fingers!

I don't normally spend alot of money on nail varnish, so first I tried Barry M. The nearest they had to mustard was an egg yolk yellow, and it was very very runny. Even after two coats it looked thin and streaky: often a problem with light coloured varnishes. I wiped it off and started again.

Then on Monday whilst in Topshop to check out their sale, I found this:


I've never tried Topshop make up before, and was dubious: I always am when fashion brands branch out and try other things. The colour is called 'cut the mustard' and as it was only £5 I decided to give it a go. The colour is really rich and although I did need the second coat to get a flawless finish, with two coats it has given a thick and glossy finish. I think it looks fantastic!

I've now had it on for two days and haven't suffered a single chip (admittedly I am wearing a base coat and top coat, which is probably helping). But for £5, I'm really impressed! Having been unsure about Topshop make up, on the nail varnish front at least, I'm a new convert.

Love Tor xx

Daily wear: Taking it to the max!

On Sunday I went for a brief shopping trip in High Barnet (home of all about 10 shops!) and in a nasty cheap looking shop called "prodigy", where all the dresses are less than £10, I fell in love with a pair of maxi dresses in the window. 5 minutes, one weird curtain (instead of a changing room) and £20 later, and both dresses were mine - maybe it shows you shouldn't trust a book (or a dress!) by its cover! Today I decided to try one out:

I am newly in love with maxi dresses - they're flattering, and keep you really cool when the weather gets hot whilst still protecting your modesty. I teamed mine with last years blue sandals from Primark, a chunky green bangle from Miss Selfridges, my favourite Joy bag, and a necklace I made myself by pulling together the charms from all my necklaces that had broken chains.

I also painted my nails in lilac to match: the colour is palmer violet from 17, and I really love the shade but am disappointed with the quality of the varnish: it's the first time i've ever tried 17 varnish before and it seems to peel of almost as soon as I put it on. I've now given this colour three attempts and it is yet to stay on my nails for more than one day - definite nail varnish fail.

Overall I like the affect of the outfit - perfect for a day out in the sun, or for sitting in my office, which doesn't have any air conditioning!!

Love, Tor x

* Technically this is a yester-daily wear post - I wrote this yesterday but blogger was playing up so I couldn't get it published!

PS - If you haven't already I would be eternally grateful if you could vote for me in the sarenza blogger challenge!

Painting my nails: D.I.Wah

Inspired by Gem Fatale's post on how to paint your own leopard print nails, and missing my vibrant WAH creations (but lacking the scratch to have them done properly) I decided to give it a go myself. Rather than going for Gems vibrant blue and red versions though, I went for a more "natural" print using nude, hot pink, and brown. Here are the results:

Given that i'm naturally cackhanded, I don't think I did too bad a job, however you can see wobbles and they obviously don't look as good as they did when I had them done professionally. These ones were free though: there's pros and cons to everything! You can use any three colours to create your own leopard print, although obviously the base colour has to be lighter than the two you put on top.

I used: Bourjois so laque in beige glamour for the base, No 7 long wear nail varnish in hot pink for the spots and Barry M in chocolate for the very top detail.

If you'd like to have a go at releasing your inner animal then you can follow Gem's tutorial here. Hopefully you'll have steadier hands than me! And if you'd rather trust the professionals then WAH have opened a concession in Topshop Oxford Circus, meaning having your nails done won't need to interfere with your shopping!

Love, Tor xx

Barry M nail varnish: oh the colours!

Does anyone else walk into Boots or Superdrug looking normal and walk out looking like Rainbow Brite? Whenever I pass a Barry M counter I try a little varnish on each finger until I end up looking like a technicoloured nightmare!

Luckily today I was avoiding the crazy brights and pastels, as I was looking for something to replace my standard black varnish, that wasn't black but would compliment all the black clothes I wear. (wow that sentence was complicated!)

The good thing about Barry M is that the colours don't have poncey names (I hate the poncey names that make it hard to work out what's actually inside!) From left to right I tried: racing green, chocolate brown, bright purple, grey, and matte white.

I really liked the chocolate brown (this is the one I ended up buying) and it looked this good with one quick coat. The racing green was another favourite, but it was thinner and needed a couple of coats. I tried the white because I thought the monochrome look might work well, but it wasn't for me: it reminded me of when we used to paint our nails with tippex at school (yup, I was that cool!) The thing I love about Barry M nail varnish is that they come in a variety of matt, shiny, and sparkly finishes: i generally like the colours that come in shiny, but i'm desperate to try a matt varnish in sooty black.
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I usually stick to basic colours on my nails, but five minutes at the Barry M counter makes me brave and ready to try anything. What nail varnishes do you keep going back to? And what colours would you recommend?

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Love, Tor xx

Nail colour: Bourjois have nailed it!

Barry M will always be my "go-to" brand for injecting exciting colours into my nail varnish collection (and I love their black nail varnish so much I buy it over and over again) but for it's high gloss and ease of application, Bourjois "So laque" polish is one I will certainly turn to again.

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I was looking for a nude nail colour that would almost blend in (certainly tone nicely) with my skin, and not draw too much attention to itself, whilst still making me look polished and well put together. This kind of subtlety isn't something Barry M does well, so I had to look elsewhere in the Boots make up department to fulfill my needs; the So laque in "Beige glamour" fit the bill perfectly!

At £5.49, I wouldn't call this cheap. And I wouldn't have bought it at all if I didn't have an important event coming up that required a definite lack of black fingers. But now i'm really glad I did; the brush is fan shaped so that just one application covers the whole nail (two sweeps on the thumb) It had a great consistency which made it really easy to apply too, and it looked nice after one coat, and could definitely be worn that way, but I applied two coats because I wanted a really high gloss finish.

The bonus of buying it in Boots was that they are giving away a £5 voucher for Ruby and Millie/No 7 with every purchase over £5. And given that the No 7 nail varnishes are just over £6, next week I will be buying myself their new teal polish for £1. (because making 2 purchases in one week would just be decadent, no matter the price!) That makes the overall collective cost of the 2 varnishes very reasonable indeed!

What's your favourite nail varnish? Are there any other brands you would recommend I try?

Love, Tor xx

Boredom is....

...sitting in bed painting your nails over and over in a series of intricate patterns, because you have nothing better to do! The swine flu is almost over, and hopefully I will be back to work tomorrow!

God I have gross toes! However, as you can see, my favourite nail varnish producer of choice is Barry M: the colours are amazing, and although it almost always takes two coats it dries quick, you get a great glossy finish, and it lasts for ages! Oh, and I found out a couple of days ago that the Barry M factory is in Mill Hill, just a couple of miles from my house; small world!! I am also slightly in love with my new pink nail art pen; i'm not sure i'll ever wear patterned nails out of the house (it seems a tad too trashy for me!) but it sure has killed the hours over the past couple of days!

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Love, Tor xx
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PS - Don't forget to check out my competition for your chance to win a gorgeous Mink Pink dress!