Apart from a brief dinner date, all my outfits this week have been nothing special. I’ve had a week off work so have indulged in fail-safe dresses, ripped jeans and all that other off duty jazz. The only thing outfit-wise that’s been worth talking about is this week’s manicure.

A few weeks ago I bought (another) red nail varnish and a lovely soft lilac-y one from a brand that I had never heard of. Truth be told I’d only popped into the shop because it had replaced the local Superdrug so I thought I’d finally have a nosey. All in all, the shop was a bit naff; but these gems might tempt me to venture back in the future.

Essence is a cheap brand, and although the name suggests it intends on jumping on the Essie bandwagon, the bottles have a distinctive shape and a mammoth brush. The brush is so wide and the consistency is bloody brilliant. One swipe was nearly enough to cover a full nail, so perfect if you are in a rush.

The red is a true pillar box red with a high shine. Over the years I have bought a lot of so called ‘gel finish’ nail polishes, but this one is the only convincing one I have encountered. It’s oh so shiny. The aforementioned brush also means you get a nice even coverage and it dries pretty darn quick too.

Weirdly however, the red version does chip a lot more than the lilac. That is not to say it chips a lot; you don’t have to worry about big chunks being absent from after work drinks, the chips are fairly minimal.

Hands up if you’re a nail art fan! Just kidding, I know you can’t risk the smudges. To say the polish is quite smooth and quick drying if you run out of nail glue and decide to just stick things on willy-nilly anyway, you’re in luck. When I did my nails, I was apparently feeling a bit fruity as I reached out for my wheel of fruity nail art. I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I don’t know what fruit this is meant to represent, but I like the way the zesty coloured clashed with the red. Whatever the fruit, it has lasted through three shampoos, a hair mask and multiple bouts of washing up, which is great when you think it’s just the polish holding it on.

So there you have it, this week’s outfit is nothing more than a cheap nail varnish, which is just as well. As I type this I’m sat in an old cotton t-shirt, with wet hair– and let’s face it, that’s a photo not worth sharing.

I may be being a bit over optimistic here, but I’m hoping some of you are coming back enough to notice that I haven’t posted a new post in a while. Sorry, my bad! However I will be making it up to you guys by posing as many Halloween nail art tutorials as I can get through before the big night itself arrives.

Now that’s cleared up, let’s move on to the subject of this post without further ado…

October is here, which means the hunt for the perfect autumnal nail polish is in full swing. As such, I recently invested in Barry M’s Gelly nail polish in Chilli.

Under the store lights, and in fact most artificial lights, it isn’t really a chilli colour in my mind. It’s somewhere between a dark red and a burnt orange… Actually I’ve just had a thought; maybe he was thinking more chilli con carne than the spicy little fruit. In which case, I suppose it does look a bit like Colman’s Chilli Con Carne mix.

Anyway, dragging our minds away from the kitchen (easier said than done) although I’m not a qualified nail technician, I do like to think that I know my round a nail polish brush.

I didn’t know my way around this one.

Be warned, unless you are concentrating on having the right amount of polish on the brush for each nail, effects may vary. I had the burnt orange-red colour through to dark red on some fingers… Almost like a colour chart. However I take responsibility for this, I probably should have concentrated more on it after I noticed the first two nails were of varying shades.

I have got to hand it to old Bazza; it did have a lovely high shine to it. One that keeps you glancing back down at your nails as they catch the light. Unfortunately though his Gelly polish lasted about the same amount of time as jelly at a kids party. That’s not long, in case you’re wondering.

I took this photo the next day at work – hence the ruler, and you can see that it already has some noticeable (read: gigantic) chips. Sob.

So to sum it up, if it’s for one night/day then this is a great polish with unbeatable shine. Just be prepared to re-apply if you want longer lasting colour.

So this is my first ever blog post on rebeccacotzec.co.uk (Yay!) and unfortunately I feel I should start this blog with a confession: this design isn’t mine. I’ve borrowed it from Nailedit who sell gorgeous false nails.

However, I’m not really fan of wearing falsies (how do people manage to type in them?!) so I thought I would try to recreate the look because:

• It’s more fun.
• I thought this design would be perfect for shorter nails –which is great as I’ve broke all mine.
• It’s not your typical palm tree look.
• It’s also fairly simple, so great if you’re a nail art beginner.

I started this nail art design with a pale pink base, I used Rimmel’s ’60 Seconds Nail Polish’ in ‘Ring a Ring a Roses’ and while I loved the colour – a pale pink that looks neither washed out or sickly sweet- it wasn’t great to apply. Yes drying in 60 seconds(ish) is all well and good and admittedly helpful for nail art; however it’s a bit thin to be honest. It takes quite a few coats to get coverage, and after them it’s not even. I’ve been practising nail art for over a year now, and I struggled to get a smooth even finish. Maybe because it’s so thin and watery, but I don’t think that the fact it dried so quickly helped matters.

Once the base was dry, I used a dark purple from called ‘Benn’a Berry’ from Collection 2000 (is it still called that?) to add on the ‘branch’ of the palm tree. Ok… So in a realistic world I suppose you’re supposed to use brown, but I think that the dark purple is dark enough, while the slight reddish tone works well with the other colours. I used a dotting tool, using a medium end to draw the line. If you’re new to nail art, using a toothpick works just as well – sometimes even better if you want a fine line.

Next I used a green that is just described as ‘matt green’ from the always-awesome w7 Cosmetics. If you haven’t used this brand you must try them, they honestly are my favourite. They last quite a while, even for someone who chips their nails as much as me, they also have a great range of colours. If you’re shopping on their site, investing in their eye-shadow is another must! Love it!

Anyway, getting back to the point of this blog, now we begin to add the ‘leaves’ Try to make the leaves thicker towards the branch getting thinner as they splay out. As you can see from the photo I’ve left gaps in between my leaves, but tried to elongate them to cover more of the nail.

The final step is to add in some more ‘leaves’ you could do them all in one colour however I personally think that doing them in two shades just gives it a bit of depth, the detail adding to the overall effect.

I used ‘Pear Drop’ from Rimmel’s ‘I Love Lasting Finish Collection’ and just added in leaves wherever there was space. You can see an example of the lighter shade next to the (badly drawn) arrow.

The Finished Design

And that’s it! You have palm tree nails! If you decide to give this design a go, why not show me by commenting or tweeting me… I’d love to see! Or if you’re currently rocking some nail art, share it with me too… I’m always on the lookout for inspiration!