Hey Everyone!

I am ashamed to admit that I am a nail biter, its a disgusting habit and one I have struggled with all my life, I long for pretty but practical nails.

Last year I dabbled in acrylic and gel nails but due to my work they were forever getting ruined or damaging my natural nail underneath every time I knocked my finger, so I turned to false glue on nails for my days off that were long lasting and easy to remove.  I love the glue on nails but they do leave your natural nails in a bit of a peeling mess when you remove them.  So nails that require no glue and claim to last up to a week sound like my perfect product.

Broadway Impress Nails - TGIF £8.99 available here

When the Impress range was first released I was not one of those girls rushing out to purchase them as I couldn't understand how they can last up to a week with no glue involved so forgot about them until recently I had the chance to try them so was excited to see how they work and how long they last.

Each pack contains 24 nails in different sizes ensuring you can get the best fit for each nail.  I can get two full sets from each pack just having to file the nails down slightly at the edges for the second set. The set I tried were the pretty floral design which I believe is called TGIF, I love this design its so girly and detailed.  All the designs in this range are great, I like the neon pink, french manicure and leopard print.  The length is perfect for me as I don't like massive claw like nails and feel that this length is really natural.

The application is quite straight forward.  There is a sticky tab on the back of the nails which is revealed by removing a plastic cover, removing this cover was the most tricky and irritating process.  As I have no nails at all I couldn't remove it with my fingers so resorted to using tweezers, which sounds easy but the tweezers kept ripping the plastic tab and then the sticky side would stick to the tweezers, in short it took longer to remove these than I would like and lots of pinging nails all over my room.  To make them stick to the nail you just place them on your natural nail and rub over to create a bond between the sticky tab and your natural nail.  Within about 10-15 minutes I had a full set of pretty and practical well manicured nails.

 They look gorgeous but unfortunately didn't feel very secure and felt that they could ping of at any minute and I was interested to see how long they would last. 

 I applied these just before I left for work at around 10.00am, I walked to town not using my hands at all, purchased my tickets at the train station at about 10.35am and this is where I had my first casualty.  As I entered my pin into the chip and pin machine one of these nails just pinged of and fell to the floor.  So in less than an hour I was one nail down. During my 25 minute train journey in which I made a phone call and ate some crisps I lost another three nails.  This was so disheartening I had lost four nails within the space of an hour and after the effort I put into applying them I would have expected them to last a day at least, but unfortunately four hours after applying they had all loosened and fallen off.

Im not sure if my natural nails have anything to do with them not lasting as my nails are extremely short so there is a small nail bed for them to stick to, even then I would expect them to last more than four hours.

My initial thoughts about these being difficult to last long as they do not require glue were correct, they do not last a day never mind the 'up to a week' claim on the packaging.  As I love the designs so much I might try another set but apply using my usual nail glue to see if they last longer.

Have you tried these nails, were they effective for you?

Gem

xxx

*PR SAMPLE

Ohh Look a nail post on Button's Blog, that is something you wouldn't have seen for a while.  I will explain.  I work in a supermarket and working in the bakery is not easy with long nails and polish is just a no no, A croissant with added pink glossiness wouldn't be good for me or anyone.  For this reason I tend not to bother with my nails unless im going somewhere or have a few days off work.

Before these even landed on my doormat the service I experienced was second to none.  I was sent an order form and two sets of blank nails, one in square and one in stileto.  I sized up my nails making sure the set I was being personalised would fit perfectly, this impressed me so much as I have tiny nails so when buying false nails normally I use all the smallest sizes and find it hard to get good fitting nails.  I chose the stiletto shape as I think its so on trend and something I had never had before, with stars such as Rita Ora and Rihanna being a big fan of this shape, if its good enough for them, its good enough for me.  Also on the order form was a space to completely design each nail, this was so difficult as all of the designs on the Bella Loretta Facebook Page are gorgeous, I decided to use them as inspiration to my completely unique creations.  

The nails come on a sticky pad which keeps them in place when you are not using them and in a pretty floral plastic resealable wallet which keeps them safe and in the best condition.

These are amazing quality. The nails used are sturdy and not bendy like some cheaper alternatives I have used in the past, the gels used are fabulous colours and completely Opaque, and the crystals, bows and lettering have been attached using the strongest glue ever as they will not budge.  The topcoat used is a gel topcoat which keeps everything chip resistant, this makes these nails reusable and will still look the same as the first application every time you apply them.

Application is extremely easy, I used cuticle oil and a wooden nail stick to push back my cuticles before washing my hands.  I applied these one nail at a time using a nail glue I had in my nail box, and in about 5 minutes flat I had glamourous nails.

I had these on for 5 days before I removed them, in this time no chips appeared and all the embellishments were still firmly attached.  I removed these by soaking my nails in warm water for about 10 minutes before lifting them off with a wooden nail stick, after soaking these came off easily and pain free.  I have put these back in the plastic wallet for the next time I want to add a bit of excitement to my fingers.

These are available to order via Facebook or Twitter.  At first the £25 price tag seemed expensive for one set of nails but after the service I received the fact that these nails are 100% better quality that any I have tried before and reusable I could completely justify purchasing these for a special occasion.  

These are hand made my Celebrity Nail Artist Loretta.  This lovely lady has her own in home salon based in Basildon, Essex. As well as creating the most amazing nails I have ever seen Loretta is a  FULLY QUALIFIED Level 2&3 beauty Therapist and provides lots of different treatments at affordable prices.

It is clear from the service Loretta provides that she is passionate about her work and it is lovely to see this passion shine through.  This amazing lady is a complete success story and if you have a little read of this you will know the story of her success.

Lots of Love

Gemma

xxx

During a recent Poundland visit this little pot of sparkle managed to sneak its way into my basket!

 

I cannot believe the quality of this nail polish because it only cost one little pound!  The chunky glitter looks perfect alone or over a colour.  I have applied it over Essie's Pillow Talk.  It dries so quickly too which I am massive fan of because waiting around for polish to dry is one of my pet hates.  It does smell very chemically (if thats even a word) which could be a bit off putting for some people but for me its not a problem.

 

 

 In these pictures it still looks like there are gaps in the glitter but in natural light it looks like your nails are completely covered in the glitter, resembling when I have had acrylic glitter overlays.

 

I am one happy bunny with this purchase and will be trying to get my hands on every colour in the range!

 

Lots of Love

 

Gemma

 

 

xxx

As a self confessed nail chomper, I know its naughty of me but I cant seem to stop doing it, I love acrylic nails, glue on nails, stick on nails and basically anything else that adds a bit of length to my tiny nails.

 

I love to experiement with different colours, designs and paterns, mostly on toes as obviously I dont bite those (YUK) Nothing to arty farty though just little details to make my nails stand out from the crowd.  I have a fair few nail varnishes not a massive collection but all the basics and a few in between.  My favourite brands are Revlon and Barry M for nail colour but I am longing to try the Essie range and add a few more Models Own to my collection.

 

These are a few images from the past wee while, on my own and my boyfriends mum's nails.

 

As I said nothing spectacular but I like them:) Hope you all do aswell.

 

If you want to know how I created any of these just ask :)

 

 

Lots of love

 

 

Gem

 

xxx