Let’s just say I got a little bit Jubilee happy! It almost felt like Christmas with the high-streets adoring flags, bunting going up at home and Jubilee themed goodies to your hearts content. I have had my eyes on the Ciate Caviar Manicure kits (where you pour little beads like hundreds and thousands onto your nails to give a 3D effect) for a while but haven’t taken the plunge with one of the kits yet. This was all until Jubilee fever! Exclusive to Selfridges for dear old Jubilee they are selling a Red, White and Blue kit. They are £18 and you can still buy them via the Selfridges website (here). I got a little over excited by this kit and pretty much dashed to Selfridges after work to ensure that I had one ready for the big Jubilee weekend.
The kit comes with a pearly white nail varnish, a pot with all the red, white and blue beads, a tray to pour the beads over and a funnel so any excess can be poured back into the bead pot. Initially from the outside of the pot the beads don’t look very vibrant and the white beads hardly look white, but once poured over the while nail varnish the intensity quickly picks up
The process of applying the beads isn’t as fiddly as I thought it would be. You paint each nail once with the white nail varnish and leave it to dry. You then apply another coat of the nail varnish (a nail at a time) and before it has dried you pour the beads on top and the beads stick to the wet nail varnish. I then tap my nail on the edge of the tray to knock off any excess and lightly push in the remaining beads to ensure they have stuck down securely. I then continue with the rest of my nails and once finished leave them to dry for 15-20 mins. To complete the process I paint a clear top coat on the edge of my nails. Voila 3D Jubilee ready nails!
These are not the most sturdy of nail designs but they do hold up pretty well. You will get about a day/possibly 2 days wear out of them before beads start to fall off. I didn’t mind when they did as they left quite cool coloured dots on the white nail varnish that I left for a couple of days after =)
