The Eyeko Polish Range, some hints and tips to get the best out of your nails.

I hate nail polish. Polished nails are pretty, no doubt about it, but hell, I hate the polish itself. It's gloopy, it goes everywhere, it's hard to remove from the skin, and even if you do apply it perfectly and keep your hands in a bubble for hours after, the second that you go to bed or get changed they have cloth imprints, or smudge, or smear. You have to make a decision to get them done in advance of any outings and risk chippings before you get to wherever you're going, or you do them at the last minute and run the risk of turning them into mutant nails, bubbled and twisted.


I never wear the stuff. When I do, I leave it there until it all flakes off.


But Eyeko have such a vibrant pink (Punk Polish, £3.50) that I had to get it and try it out. It was awesome. The colour was worth all the faffing about not touching anything.


This was back when Eyeko Polish was in those little jars, like Miss Selfrige used to do? Anyway, they started bringing out a new range of polishes, and it just keeps on growing. There are now 16 shades available from Eyeko.com and there is something for everyone.


One thing most people don't realise is that the slight translucency of a single coat of eyeko polish can be used to create a whole new range of colours. For example (and I was praised on this by one of Eyeko's founders) I had a pale dusky purple shirt on, and I made my nails match by going over a layer of Lilac polish (for lovely nails) with a top coat of Nude polish (for perfect nails).


Here's the result:

Very similar to the result of using Nude polish, but with a very slight purple hue. You can just see the corner of my shirt below my wrist, the colours match up really well. I wore this to the Eyeko 10th anniversary cocktail party for ambassadors and bloggers. It was a wonderful night, and I got to check out loads of new products and had a lot of fun.


The next week I had a birthday party to go to at the Intrepid Fox, and nudie-nails were less suited to the metal bar. So I layered up again, this time going for Saucy Polish (for naughty nails), a very sexy pillarbox red, topped with Vampira Polish ( for gothic nails), which is a black polish with red glitter floating in it.
The result?

So sparkly, it flares under flash!

I love the sparkles, but I wish my cuticles didn't look so messy. Looks a bit like my nails are bleeding!

Without flash.

I love vampira polish, it's so beautiful, glossy and sparkly!

After that night out, I started testing out the other colours, seeing as I've the full set now (minus Military Polish, which I gave away. Not big on the khaki green).
I put Coral Polish (for resort nails) on my pinky over Vampira, it kind of just came out red because it's a very translucent shade, but on bare nails it comes out very reddish orange, a dark coral colour. I'll have to do a proper two coats and put up a pic. I put Posh Polish (for ladylike nails) on my ring finger, Tea Rose Polish (for country nails) on my middle finger, left my index with vampira and put Chi Chi Polish (for girlie nails) over black on my thumb.

Here's a swatch:

The all-seeing-Eyeko, drawn using Eyeko Graffiti Eyeliner in purple and navy blue.

The British Manicure

My friend Kitten has set me off on this trip, I've started doing a twist on the French manicure. I think of it as the British manicure, because it certainly isn't French, even though a lot of the vocabulary comes from France.

Here's an example.

Start with any shade you fancy. No need for nudes here, but you can if you like.
I went with Tea Rose (for country nails).

First coat

Second coat.

Then paint the tips with a different colour. You could do white, I did one hand in Petite Polish (for french nails) and the other in Posh Polish (for ladylike nails)

TOP TIPS!

• Keep your nail polish somewhere cool, like in a shelf on your fridge door, to stop them from going all gloopy after you've had them a while.
• While you're waiting for your nails to dry, play on your XBox for a while. It keeps your mind off testing them (and accidentally smudging them because they aren't set) and it's easy to keep from smudging them on the large controller.
• Make sure you don't have to do anything straight after you've done your nails, and for heaven's sake, go to the toilet before you start! There's no more surefire way to bugger up your paintjob than trying to pull your knickers up with wet nails. Not to mention getting toilet paper stuck to the polish.
• Rub talc over your tacky polish to stop it being quite so sticky. Helps with the toilet paper problem.
• Go get some Eyeko Polish. It's chip resistant, they don't use Toluene, Formaldehyde, DBP or Camphor, and UV absorbers stop the colour from fading. All that and it strengthens your nails. Mine have been cracking and flaking a lot less since I started using them. Go to www.eyeko.com and make sure you use Ambassador Code E2825 when you're checking out for a free gift when you spend £10 or more. What's more, this offer CAN be used in conjunction with Eyeko's Offer Of The Week (this week it's a free Vampira Polish - enter VAMPIRA in the special comments box)so you get TWO free gifts. I love free stuff. Oh, yeah, and you get free delivery in the UK and Europe X-D