Mavala Jeans for Genes Kit

Jeans for Genes day is a couple of months away yet (it happens in October every year, this year it is Friday October 5th), but it never hurts to be prepared, right?  This year, Mavala and BeautyBay have teamed up to provide an exclusive kit to raise funds for Jeans for Genes, and it's a cracker.

Consisting of a base coat, the Mavala Denim Blue shade, and a top coat (normally all retailing at £3.50 each), for £10, one pound of which goes to charity.  

  
The blue really is a gorgeous denim-blue shade, not quite a metallic, but it has lots of shimmer.  It's not blackened, and is very definitely a blue when it's on the nails, which I like:

I really like this shade, in the right lighting, it appears to glow off the nails:

The base and top-coat are up to Mavala's usual high standards (incidentally, their ridge filler is one of the best I've ever used, Mavala know their treatments), and, making a saving of 50p on buying the products individually is good too.

Will you be buying Denim to support Jeans for Genes this year?

The Fine Print: PR Samples.

This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Mavala's Elle Shades

If you're a reader of Elle Magazine, then there's a great freebie with the issue this month: a free bottle of Mavala polish!  I'm a big fan of the Mavala mini-bottles, and this is a great selection of shades.  You'll get one of either Elle Red, Elle Grey or Elle Orange, I thought I'd show you a swatch of each, to help you make a choice:

These are great shades, the red is a perfect classic red, pulling neither pink nor orange, the grey is a cool concrete shade, and the orange is BRIGHT.  My camera has dulled down the finish somewhat on the orange, but it's probably my favourite of the bunch.  Swatches show three coats of red and orange, and two coats of grey.  No topcoat.


Elle's Mavala shades will be free with the September issue of Elle, which is available now.  Which one will you get?

The Fine Print: PR samples.  I haven't bought a printed magazine in years.  And it was probably Look In or something when I did.

This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Wonder Product - Mavala Nail Systems

 

I don't give things wonder product status very often - I'm fickle, and I get bored of products very, very easily.  Certainly, if I can't see results from a product within a short time, then I stop using them, and, expecially when it comes to my nails, I'm lazy, so if I have to use a product, say, more than a couple of times a week, then I'm prone to forgetting about it altogether ....

However, the trio of products you see above, well, I love them! And they've made such a difference to my nails in a very short time, it's almost unbelievable.

Here's how my nails looked about two months ago:

And here's how my nails look after six weeks of treatment with the Mavala nail system:

Can you see the difference? (and yes, I know this is a picture of my other hand, looooong story!) best of all, my nails are STRONG now, and don't peel, flake or just plain snap at the drop of a hat.  I'm totally in love with having nails, and I've been asked a couple of times if I've had acrylics done!

Here's how the system works:

It's a three part system - but you can mix and match how many of them you need, or want to use, this is just the products I've found that work for me in combination, you don't have to use all three if you think you don't need them.

Firstly on a daily basis you use the Nailactan Nutritive Nail cream, just massage a tiny amount into your cuticles, and this keeps the nails moisturised, and prevents dryness and brittleness.  I'll be honest here and admit I don't always use this every day, but I do use it two, maybe three times a week, and it's very good at getting rid of dry, raggedy cuticles.

Secondly, you use this stuff (and if you only get one product, this is the one I can't recommend highly enough) Mavala Scientifique Nail Hardener:

It's a very thin liquid that you paint just on the very tip of your nails - twice a week to start with, falling to once a week, or once a fortnight once your nails are up to strength - and it penetrates to bond the nail plates together and make them stronger.  This tiny bottle - and it is tiny -  is an entire year's supply, but I've been using it for six weeks now, and as you can see, I've barely made a dent in the contents!

This formula does contain formaldehyde, and as such, you have to be careful with how you use it - it hardens everything, including skin, so I'd recommend that you read the instructions very carefully before you use it.  I've had no problems with it, but it is a bit whiffy, (it reminds me of sage and onion for some reason) so make sure you don't use it in too enclosed a space.

Then, before painting my nails I use the base-coat system:

Bottle number one contains nylon strands in a strengthening base, to further support the strength of your natural nails.  Once this coat is dry, you add a coat (or two) of bottle number two, which will fill in all the ridges left by the strands and leave you with a glossy base to apply polish over.  I've found that using these as a base both strengthens my nails and hugely improves the wear of my polishes.

Mavala introduced Scientifique to the UK in 1959, and they say that it's never been bettered. I think I have to agree with them.  What do you use on your nails?

Mavala products are available at independent pharmacists nationwide, but I've found all these products in my local Debenhams.  Products cost from around £3.75 for the varnishes, to around £10 for the treatment products.

The small print - these products were provided for review purposes, but all reviews are honest regardless of the source.

Nail of the Day - Rococo Vayder

If you follow me on Twitter at all, then you might already know I've fallen for Rococo polishes in a big way.  Yes, they're expensive, but all the ones I've tried are so pretty, and the wear on them is simply fantastic, usually at least five days without any signs of tip wear or chipping.  Here's my latest purchase:

It's called Vayder and it's an opaque black with iridescent micro-sparkles.  In the picture it looks like a silver glitter, but under artificial light these little sparkles light up like diamonds, I love it.  The above pic shows two coats for full opacity, and a seche vite top coat.   There's no gritty feel from the glitter on my nails, either.

I now own three Rococo polishes, all in colours slightly different to what's in my usual colour wardrobe, from left to right here, there is Vayder, Utility and Underground:

Also, I want to show you a before and after of my nails now I've been using  my ultra top secret nail regime for a few weeks:

It might not look like much to you, but for me to have ALL of my nails visible from the other side is amazing to me!  Another couple of weeks and I'll reveal all, but this new nail routine is something I'm astonishingly happy with, and I'm beginning to think my nails actually look okay instead of being something I'm really ashamed of and frustrated with.

What are the winter nail colours you're loving at the moment?

Nail of the Day - Mavala Tokyo

There won't be too many Nail of the Day posts around here for a couple of reasons, the main one being that I'm lousy at applying it, and the other one is that I have truly dreadful nails that don't grow, and when they do, the second I start to think they're looking reasonable they start to split, peel, flake and then snap.  It's very frustrating! 

When I do wear polish though, I tend to favour dark shades, as I think they're a rare example of something that actually looks better on short nails (at least, that's how I justify it to myself, anyway!).   Mavala sent me some samples of their mini-polishes to try recently, and it was love at first sight for this shade!  It's a gloriously rich inky purple, and under natural light the colour is gorgeously vibrant and not at all "gothy". I'm wearing it in my rather staid office job right now!

Mavala specialise in mini pots of polish, and they promise a " unique formula" that is free from parabens, formaldehydes, toluene, camphor, cellophane, animal ingredients and heavy metal.  They also say that their product delivers microscopic air pockets to allow nails to breathe, so is allegedly a healthier option for your nails than some other varnishes on the market.  I love mini-products - seriously, give me a miniature version of anything, and I'll love it way more than the full size version, I'm a bit odd like that - so the dinky size of the bottle really appealed to me, and it means the polish won't dry up completely before I get to the end of the bottle.

I found the polish easy to apply (the pic shows two coats, with neither a top nor base coat, with flash), and although the brush on my bottle had a few stray bristles that I'll need to remove for next time I use this it, I really like it. I'll keep you posted on how the wear is!  I was slightly disappointed in that I was expecting the colour to have a matte finish, but I actually really like the satin-y shine of the polish, I'm looking forward to seeing if anyone notices it at work ...

You can find Mavala polishes for around £3.75 at good chemists and department stores.