Nails: 17 Lasting Fix (Parma Violet)

I bought this in the Summer (May-ish) to go with my new flip flops.

I have worn this colour a lot over the last few months and don't quite want to let Summer go yet. It's also a fairly neutral colour but adds a bit of fun for work. With my new found want to wear nail varnish & take better care of my appearance, I have (as you know) started wearing a lot more nail varnish. Now I do not profess to be a professional/fashion conscious/any authority at all, but I do know what I like.

This nail varnish is not expensive (at £2.99), but when I first had it went on really well, and even one coat was enough. Now I can tell it's a bit older & used and there are a few bristles on the brush that need sorting out. However, I like it, and its nothing a smidge of nail varnish remover & pair of scissors won't fix!!

Time for a manicure

I'll let you in on a secret. I am a nail biter. I have bitten my nails for as long as I have had them. I've been much better over the last few years and I do think that I have finally (touch wood) dropped the habit. Until I have a drink or two.

So manicures are fairly new to me as I have never had nails to work on and I am a bit rubbish at it. I kind of figure it must just be practice.... so here is my first proper attempt at doing my nails. I will say that I did have a mini manicure at a spa last weekend, so they weren't totally mishapen to start with (luckily for me!)

Before:

Here's what I did.
- Removed any nail varnish with remover, just in case.
- Washed my hands.
- Masaged cuticles with cuticle remover.
- Used an orange stick to push cuticles back.
- Masaged nails with Nails Inc oil slick pen.
- Moisturised hands with hand cream.

And that was just the prep bit!! I didn't realise how much went into it - but my hands did feel lovely and soft! :) Here are the products I used:

Then:
- Filed my nails to an (almost) square tip.
- Used a base coat with some special ingredient to help my nails grow.
- Nail varnish (finally, the fun bit!) in a very dark brown (almost black) with glittery finish.
- Nails Inc top coat to keep the colour safe.

This was the final result:

But I didn't like it. So I took it all off and did this:

And I enjoyed it so much I decided to try again on Sunday and went for blue:

I am sure there is much more detail & information I could add here - but I'll leave that for another post!  Any tips to share?