Nail It!

Gone are the days when a French manicure was the height of sophistication and pillar-box red nails were considered daring; these days with snake skin manicures, nail wraps galore and new nail trends every season, having the latest ‘must have’ nails has become as important as carrying the latest designer handbag (not to mention a LOT more affordable). Nailgirls London was founded by former fashion editor Lynda-Louise Burrell and her sister Jo as a reaction to the nasty, toxic, nail wrecking polishes and salons that were saturating the beauty market. On her return from New York where weekly manicures were a must, Lynda and her sister noticed that London was seriously falling short on clean, affordable and friendly walk-in nail salons so set about creating the Nailgirls Spa to fill the void. The sisters also wanted to offer their own collection of nail polishes incorporating the very latest fashion colours hot off the catwalk as well as the classic hues that we all know and love. Nailgirls launch a new limited edition range to match the fashion catwalk collections each season; their unique shades were seen on the nails of a host of London Fashion Week shows last season including Erdem, Pringle and Hannah Marshall. What’s more all of the colours are free from any harmful chemicals (so no nasty odours), are not tested on animals are suitable for vegans and the packaging is recyclable. Talk about saintly!

Visit the website to see the full collection or pop into the Nailgirls Spa for a New Year's treat.

LAQA & CO

With the latest nail trends being followed as closely as the clothes at last month's Fashion Week it seems as though there is a new ‘It’ manicure popping up every week. From nail wraps, cracked nail polish, dip-dye and ombre nails, metallic tips and nail art worthy of a Turner prize it is clear that nails are where it’s at this season.

LAQA & Co. is a range of bright, high–gloss nail polish in an easy to apply pen applicator. They work just like a real pen, only these pens let you quickly and neatly do your nails anywhere in a few clicks. The pen applicator let’s you click and colour so it’s as easy as putting on a lip gloss and great for throwing in your handbag for on-the-go touch-ups. What’s more, each pen is beautifully packaged in unique artwork from a host of young designers, making them more than just polishes and more like little pieces of art. Each designer has created artwork to suit their chosen shade and receives a percentage of the profit from every colour bought.

Choose from the trend-led nudes ‘Birthday Suit’ and ‘Pimpin’ or deep pinks and purples ‘Nookie’ and ‘Bells & Whistles’ which are perfect for Autumn. We’ve been coating our nails with ‘Toff’ a deep, glossy navy whose packaging has been designed by Tatiana Plakhova, complete with futuristic images including micro fibers, jellyfish, nets and other imaginable objects. Next on our shopping list is ‘Blurple,’ a deep purple shade with packaging designed by Nazario Graziano although with names such as ‘Tigerblood’ ‘Those Meddling Kids’ ‘Fancypants’ ‘WTF’ and ‘ I Want a Pony’ we think we will be adding the whole collection to our shopping cart very soon.

LAQA & Co are available from Selfridges and the W Hotel store or online here.