For me, I don't know about you, but there is no cleaner 'look' than a nice neat and tidy french manicure?
I don't have a steady hand and I really do not like the guide strips though as I think they make a fiddly job even fiddlier. I also find they end up making me smudge my white line anyway then I end up getting in a mass strop throwing the set back in the box and reaching for the nearest colour to me for a quickie do and having done with it, yes even if it doesn't match what I'm wearing!! : o
So the first thing I do is rip open the box and chuck the little buggers in the bin!
Now the product I am going to share with you today made all my home French Manicure dreams (not nightmares) come true!
Sally Hansen, I LOVE YOU!
I've had two sets from Sally Hansen my first was from superdrug approx £4 ish? I can't remember as this was a while ago now. My second from Boots for £5.30 I do believe there are three sets but two colours to chose from in the top coat. (The pinky colour)
I have the Sheerly Opal set and I love it, I have had it a while but never get fed up of it, even though I'm known for being terrible for changing my nail colours! One week I love brights the next I love nudes the next I'm loving pastels. This sheerly opal though is a staple for me and my ever growing nail obsessive collection so I thought I would share it and hopefully if any of you buy it you will love it just as much.
Now it is extremly hard to capture the absolute beauty of the pink in a picture just over the nail its self so I've taken a picture over a bright pink in an attempt to show the glimmer colour but as I said its nearly impossible. With words I would describe it as a two toned clear if that makes any sense. To the naked it it appears clear then as the light catches it the beautiful opal shimmer appears.
Swatch:
Now onto the brushes, the first set I had was just normal standard brushes but the second set was a little different. The Opal Brush was your normal brush however the white tipping brush was very fine, as fine as the brushes you find on nail art brushes.
At first I found this annoying as it goes on your nails quite fine but in the long run I realized It's much neater and easier to work with especially if you don't have such a steady hand.
Even though it can be time consuming the final outcome is great, so to any of you I would not recommend treating your self to a french mani if you have somewhere to be. It's something I treat myself to after a long week, along with a face mask and a cuppa. But if I do find myself in a rush, I line the smile line off with the fine sally brush then fill the rest in with a chunkier brushed white polish and off I go!
I also have the Elegant Touch kit from boots, this kit is £6.54 and doesn't come even a tad close to SH for me. You don't get the beautiful shimmer and I find it's even more of a time drainer as you have to ad a clear top coat over the natural also and with the SH kit you don't need to and it still lasted longer so that's an extra bonus! I also like the Maybelline Forever Strong Professional french manicure top coat as its +Iron and is quite hard wearing same as the Sally Hansen but for the top coat alone you are looking at £4.09 in boots & Superdrug and for just over a pound extra you can buy one of the lovely Sally Hansen kits!
I think I'm going to treat myself to the Sally Hansen 'Hard as Nails' FM kit when I have a few extra pennies, that or it's going on my list to Easter bunny. (I'm allergic to chocolate and all things dairy so my family have always gotten me gifts rather than chocolate so I don't get Ill. Easter is the only time it really benefits me haha! I wake up thinking mmmmmmmm cosmetics rather than mmmmmm choclate.)
Quite a Long post for a French Manicure but still I hope you've enjoyed reading or at least found it useful as I highly recommend!
:)
Katie
xxx
