To kick start the new year and this new segment on my blog, I thought I'd polish up on my manicures. After a few months of working in an office and tapping away at a keyboard for many hours of the week, the upkeep of my nails took a back seat last year and I went for the more natural (lazy) look. No longer did I indulge in my Sunday evening routine of taking off the colour I had been sporting since last weekend and carefully picking out a new hue to take on the next week with. In fact, after taking off the shellac manicure I treated myself to for July's summer holiday, I probably only painted my nails once every couple of months for the rest of the year!
Recently, I'll find myself pausing in the middle of typing a sentence and taking a good few seconds to stare at my nails and daydream of the beautiful colours I have sitting in my bedside cupboard. Therefore, to prevent having to throw all my varnishes away as they near their use by date, I have decided to start this weekly entry on my blog and I must say, I'm very excited to have pretty, perfected pinkies again!
I'm going to start with a little sale buy I picked up from the Space NK sale after Christmas. The nail varnish is called 'Super Natural' and is by the brand Rococo. Firstly, the little box it comes in is lovely and it struck me that it would make a lovely gift for friends - so I picked up three more shades and have tucked them away for future birthday presents!
I applied two coats of this nail polish and found that achieved a shade I was happy with. The colour is a muted, lilac mushroom shade and very much reminds me of 'Porchester Square' by Nails inc, which is one of my favourite shades. The main difference is that the Rococo colour has an iridescent sheen running through it that really translates onto the nails and looks beautiful in the light.
I always use the same top coat, which is the Seche Vite dry fast top coat as it's by far the best top coat I've ever coated my nails in. It has to be one of the most hyped up products in the beauty world and it really lives up to it's promises! I only ever apply one coat of it as that's all you need to give a high shine finish and long lasting protection to your nail varnish. I've also used this top coat on my shellac manicures in the past, as I find they brighten up the nails after the colour begins to fade, giving them a fresh finish and leaving them smooth to the touch.
At a fairly high £12, I wouldn't say that this is necessarily worth the money as it does chip fairly quickly (after about 3 days), even with my trusty Seche Vite on top. Whilst this isn't too bad if you're a nail lacquer floozy, I like my nail varnish to last most of the week so that I can stick to my Sunday routine and because, well who has time to paint their nails mid-week!? Luckily, this range almost always seems to pop up in the Space NK sale, so you're sure to be able to pick a colour to try out if you fancy it!
Have any of you tried out Rococo? If so, which colour would you recommend?
Have a lovely week,
H x