Nails

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.

Nail Polish Heaven on the Web

Everytime I walk into a beauty store, I am always determined to find my perfect color of nailpolish in my favorite brands. Unfortunately, I feel like that NEVER happens in real life. I am all too used to walking in and the color I want is sold out or not sold there so I have to settle for a mediocre color that I never end up wearing. Thankfully, my time of nail envy is over due to my recent discovery of Beverly Beaute! Beverly Beate is a website completely devoted to women and their fabulous nails! They supply an array of brands including CND, Orly, China Glaze, Nail Tek, Seche, and many many more. You can also shop through every color known to man to find your perfect match for the season. Essie alone has nearly 300 different colors! In addition, you can buy nail jewels from Swarovski and tools to help perfect your nails to look salon done.

Personally, I love my lights hues so thanks to Beverly Beaute, I have found my new favorite color for this fall – Essie Prima Ballerina!

PLUS you get free gifts after buying a few products! Who doesn’t love free gifts?!

Medieval Nails

We are loving a-england, an indie nail brand from Adina Bondana who has some serious fashion credentials, including working with Gianni Versace. All of the polish colours are named after characters, places and objects from the myths of King Arthur and Camelot (The range itself is called The Mythicals). Guinevere is a pale mauve tone, Lancelot is a black red garnet, and the King himself is a steel gray. The brand primarily features a range of tones shifting from gray to violet, with flashes of brighter gem-inspired colours such as red, blue green and gold.

The polishes are all available from their website which offers advice on what colours you may wish to try depending on what kind of mood/impression you are trying to achieve. So if you are feeling ‘mysterious and sensuous like a gothic princess’ (errr, like every day obvs) you will be needing Camelot or Elaine. The site also includes a glossary of mythical terms so you can swot up on the story behind the name of your particular shade – we are debating whether this could almost excuse painting your nails in a history lesson...

The polishes will set you back £9. We recommend placing an order as soon as possible as there is free p+p worldwide this month in honour of the June ‘Gem of the Month’ The Holy Grail – a very on-trend yellow/gold.

The mastermind of nail creations

Nail polish can be anything you want it to be from a finishing touch to an outfit, to a real style statement. I have always been a bit of nail polish addict, playing with different colours and designs. A few months ago I found the mastermind of nail creations, Megumi. I went to her this past Wednesday wanting something different to get me in the mood for summer. She decided on a nude Gelish and then finished off the look with tiny ice cream cones on my thumbs for a fun twist. Those aren’t stickers, what you see there is hand painted on by Megumi herself! Check out her other creations on Megumi’s website.