… (but actually they’re really not all that summery). England, you mercurial beast. One week there’s a heatwave, the next skies are grey and rain showers intermittent. My nails don’t know what to make of it, so they’ve worn all kinds of colours from mellow blues to deep inks…
OPI NAIL ENVY STRENGTH IN COLOUR out in September for £19.50 each here / OPI’s original Nail Envy Nail Strengthener is their cult product and the four ‘colour’ (all are shades of nude) incarnations are set to be equally as popular thanks to the combination of wheat proteins and calcium (to strengthen the existing nail throughout the duration of wear), and wearable shades that make picking one easy as can be. My favourites are Hawaiian Orchid (a purple pink – pictured below) and Samoan Sand (toasted, natural beige). The other two in the collection are Bubble Bath (cutesy pink) and Pink to Envy (which is a can’t-go-wrong sheer pink).
CIATE AW15 OLIVIA PALERMO COLLECTION launching on the 28th of August for £17 each here / Olivia’s second collaboration with Ciate includes some excellent make-up, too, but it was the two nail polishes that really caught my eye. Napa Valley is a rich, deep raspberry that would jazz up a neutral ensemble while still remaining Palermo polished, and New England Fall is a rich blue/purple that I’m wearing below.
NAILS INC MULTIVITAMIN IN PRIMROSE HILL part of a set of 7 for £36 here / I was blithely unaware of the limited edition nature of this one so it took a while for me to hunt it down online, but manage to do so I did and I actually think the set as a whole is pretty spiffing. As well as this blue/grey, it also contains: a couple of seriously bright shades; a muted, minky pink; a nail art confetti polish (not my thing but a nice addition if you like to jazz things up), and a base and top coat.
ESSIE SUMMER 2015 COLLECTION £7.99 each here / White sparkly nail polish is a touch divisive (some think it looks like tippex), but I quite like the boldness of it and have been obsessively wearing Private Weekend over the past few weeks. The rest of the collection also offers up a couple of other pretty pastels and a nice coral.
NAILBERRY OXYGENATED NAIL LACQUER IN MYSTERE AND BLACK BERRY £14.50 here imminently / Totally forgot to take a picture of my nails with these two in an episode of brain fog so I’ll just go to town on descriptions in case you can’t make them out in the top picture. Mystere is a putty pink that looks extremely muted so it’d go with everything. Black Berry is a proper, deep, rich black that ticks the ‘I need something a little gothic on my nails’ box. As with all Nailberry, they’ll let your nails breathe while wearing so you won’t remove to find your nails have yellowed underneath.