Shellac- for the nails you've always wanted

I have formed something of an addiction to Shellac- the semi permanent nail varnishing technique that I used to be a bit snobby about.

It turns out that it makes your nails look amazing and it's very addictive having unchipped, bright red nails to look down at for at least a week before there is even a sign of trouble.

I must say that although they say the varnish lasts 2 weeks I would say a week is the optimum time for it looking truly film star well groomed. However you can eek out another week if you're careful and don't mind the regrowth showing a little at the top of the nail. I also have quite fast growing nails and I've noticed not everyone does.

I have paid so much money for manicures that can't last more than 2 days on me because I type all day everyday- for work in the week and for my hobby at the weekend. I also don't have a cleaner and things like unblocking the sink earlier (I know, I was horrified too... chick peas it turns out do not go down sinks) just ruin anything but this industrial dried on space age varnish.

On the downside once the shallac starts lifting I do have a tendency to be bad and pull it off which is really bad for you nails and they tell you not to do- but if you don't do that like me you shouldn't have any trouble- and you can finally have film star, do anything and they don't chip, nails!

What's not to love?

Marilyn

Marilyn Monroe's face is never far from our minds but having recently seen My Week With Marilyn I have been thinking about her more. Hers is the face I think of when I imagine a beautiful, feminine woman. The film also made me realise that she as stylish too, she wore quite simple, classic clothes in colours that worked for her most of the time and when she dressed up, she really dressed up.

There are probably women who were or are technically more naturally beautiful, more quirky certainly, who perhaps have or had higher IQs and certainly who were happier but she was truly beautiful and her enigma and star quality are unquestionable, even after so many decades. She had a grace and a uniqueness that I know I don't and won't have.

But we can all try to be our best- as Marilyn did- she wasn't an advocate or bed hair or the no make up look. This Emerald Street article about Marilyn Monroe's beauty secrets is so interesting- it shows that even someone who really didn't have to try did everything she could to look her best. I am going to try and highlight my face just like Norma- Jean to see if I can capture a whisper of her vivacity. I might also dab on some Chanel No 5 in her honour.


Image from from the blog Kiss and Make- Up.

Content Beauty/ Wellbeing

Some weekends ago- when it was still Autumn- I arrived in central London to find the sun blazing and decided to walk from Covent Garden to my appointment in Marylebone. My shoes were making that happy clicking noise that only brouges make on pavements and I was enjoying weaving through the much prettier side streets to avoid the madness that is a Saturday in W1- truly I do love London but I can only love it by taking some eccentric routes at the weekend.

So already in a peaceful mood I visited Content Beauty/ Wellbeing a frankly almost too good to be true salon, apothecary and grown ups sweet shop for anyone who likes natural and organic beauty, based just off Marylebone High Street.

I was there to try the perfumes (of course) and so focused was I on the search for new smells that I sort of forgot that I love natural beauty.

In fact natural products are very important to me- although I don't think that has to mean expensive products. There is a fantastic range available at Content- some of the trusted favourites like Dr Hauschka, Jurlique and Weleda (which is extremely good value in my opinion) and some newer or less well known brands. There was also a really interesting range of organic hair care available which I want to start trying (haircare is a bit like make up I find, we all want to be natural but end up using the chemicals because we haven't found natural products that are good enough to make us stop- especially if like me you have long, curly, celtic hair).

I am going to be writing about the lovely, interesting organic perfumes I tried there in the coming weeks- but may I suggest if you wanted to treat yourself to anything natural at all it would be the place to go.

(These pictures are from one of the feature walls inside the shop).

Faking it

Not that.

So I’m back from the land of the free- and it turns out of the fake- fake tans, nails, teeth, I suspect rather more fake faces than I’m used to and just an astonishing amount of fake boobs.

I’m afraid the fakery leaves me cold and in the numerous cases of what must have been barely eighteen year olds with new, large and frankly just silly looking boobs actually quite upset. Boobs are just boobs though, the idea of near children having surgery to change their faces is always something I’ve been uncomfortable with- although I accept that if I had the nose of a Roman general I might feel differently. I am far, far away from perfect and I’m sure if I walked into any cosmetic (not plastic as they do do some remarkable work) surgeon they would like to improve me in many ways- but where does that end?

Nevertheless I am vain and easily led and thus found myself in a salon having my nails done while on holiday. I don’t think is anything wrong with that.

Unfortunately the nails I got given were very wrong, for me. They are gloriously plastic, wide and with those white tips that are sartorial suicide. Great- I paid for this. See I fail every time at being honest when hairdressers, beauticians et al ask if I like something- I always say yes when the answer is no. So when I said something natural looking and started getting anything but I didn’t have the courage to say on what planet is this natural? I actually said yes those are really lovely (it was like an out of body experience).

Now the point of this is not to share my pain with you all- but to say how funny-peculiar the fakery is making me feel. I literally have fake plastic stuck to me with super glue, I cannot get it off with my own hands. It’s not actually how they look it’s how they feel- there is more of me there than there should be and when I touch things, hit the keys, hold the pen, my hand doesn’t feel my own. I can’t open cans properly and when I touch someone, something it’s not quite right; the flesh of the apricots in the shop last night was find under my palms but when my fake hands got the side it felt like nails screeching up a blackboard.

These are just nails. How must it feel to have alien collagen inside you, or indeed have some of your bone cut away, or bits of tissue moved around? Perhaps I am just funny and it feels wonderful to some, most people. It’s not for me though if I’m honest. It might be the path to more mass appreciation (and here my nails are a bad example, there are plenty of people who are cool rather than me with my wide scary white nails, who probably aren’t all they seem, from a fake bake here to some subtle work there) but you have to be comfortable in your own skin don’t you. Or I do- and I’ll take the consequences.

Don't blame it on the sunshine

I am pale- and I like to think interesting- but what is certain is that I am pale, can burn very easily and must look after my skin (although in truth of course everybody should).

Before the holiday a delightful and very appropriate giftMineral sun cream SPF20 of sun cream and foot spritzer arrived from the lovely people at Liz Earle.

From these pages I think you will have gleaned that when it comes to skin care I am committed to natural products- but sun care is extremely important and I have found historically it’s been one of the areas where I have had to compromise and use chemical products and have felt frustrated- so I was keen and hopeful about trying this new, natural option.

Very happily and to be honest with some surprise I can report that the factor 20 sun cream kept my skin from any kind of burning throughout a holiday in very sunny Hollywood (although I used a different, higher SPF on my face- but I always do use a different product on my face). I probably do have some base from the smattering of summer we’ve had in the UK but even taking that into account I was extremely impressed. I genuinely had no redness or soreness starting to appear on my skin and I sat on open top buses, by the pool and on roller coasters (I know, don’t hate me).

The scent is also very pleasant- mostly there is a natural shea better smell with perhaps a little of the green tea ingredient. I was really pleased that it was different to the usual sun cream smell- although there is still something of that lovely, oceanic air of the beach. It is more subtle than the usual onslaught of coconut you get with suncream and therefore- for a fragrance fan like me- allows for also wearing your own perfume without having to worry it will clash badly with your protection.



I had thought the foot spritz was a lovely extra but a product I wouldn’t normally buy and perhaps wouldn’t use overly much. I was completely wrong and was very grateful to have this with me. My feet swelled quite badly which is the first time this has happened to me, although it was a long flight. When I arrived at the hotel and collapsed on the bed the spray was the first thing I reached for- and it worked- my feet were a smaller (I assume the rosemary ingredient helps to get your circulation going), happier and more refreshed almost immediately.

When to spend

Even in these frugal times there are some things you spend money on. In a quest for quality not quantity my list of things to splash on would include:

Loo paper (or toilet roll if you like)- this has inspired the whole post really. The cleaners at work in an effort to economise have started providing us with what seems to be rice paper. This is not helpful. Especially as in an effort to economise we all use the loo paper for tissues. I have scratched half my hay fever-plagued skin off because I'm too thrifty to just go to the supermarche.

Tissues- see above. A big manly tissue is my favourite.

Chocolate (as in Green and Black's worth spending money, not as in silly gift boxes that cost more than a meal, I mean I like those if anyone wants to send me one but I wouldn't buy one for myself)

Coffee

Chicken (although that's more for reasons of conscience than cash)

Shoes. Sort of. In that ones made of a breathable material (not necessarily leather) mean less blisters, bad smells, strange infections and happier feet!


Things I am very happy to economise on:

Books. Not that I don't spend lots on them I do- but I am more than happy to buy a second hand one or ten- because obviously I can have more and also I am happy about passing them on to people. Also if I buy paperbacks from a charity shop or second hand shop I can have more brand new ones.

Water. I like the tap stuff, it's not too cold and when I buy mineral water I seem to spend my life recycling.

Nail varnish. I have bought all kinds from the champagne to the white lightnings (if you are not British that is very, very cheap horrible alcohol) of nail varnish and honestly I think all that matters is that you like the colour, put two coats on and don't let it go gloopy. Good base and top coats do seem to matter though. Oh dear this is getting perilously into preachy beauty magazine territory isn't it.

Travel:
Buses: I love the bus, you get to drive around London looking in shop windows, seeing people go by and you can listen to podcasts and music. The tube is often too loud to hear the spoken word and quite a lot of quiet songs. That said I don't like traffic jams, misty bus windows, seats facing backwards or bendy buses- or when the bus terminates for no reason and the driver doesn't know (which means can't be bothered) to do a transfer.
Walking: clearly the best way to get around and to see London, always my preferred mode of transport where possible!

Nails: faking them and breaking them

I notice hands- and feet. I am always more attracted to a man with nice hands- which can mean anything really. I was going to say lovely clean hands but actually that isn’t true because hands covered in paint or ink are attractive. Hands that are used are so interesting as well I think- where they have been defined by muscle from their work or because they are so delicate and therefore appropriate to their work- be it playing an instrument, writing, manual work, intricate work.

We use our hands so much but I'm not sure we always treat them as well as we should.

So nails and what to do with them- it's not a weighty subject but tending to nails, like waxing, takes up far too much of a woman's time and I wish someone would just invent a method of making them always look neat and lovely forever.

I have just had my first ever set of somewhat false nails soaked in acetone and filed with an electrical device to get them off. They weren't the long scary, square kind. They were tasteful gels and were the length of my own nails- a millimetre or two of white only. I thought these were going to be a wonderful idea, goodbye to nail whitening pencils and re- touching every couple of days. Hello to always pretty hands. Not so, hello to strange peeling after just two days and no way to neaten it. Really should I have anything on me that needs removing with acetone and an electrical device (that looks and sounds like it came from the dentist) voluntarily? I'm not sure I should.

In truth what I think is nicest is really lovely, plain hands with no polish at all. Unfortunately it cannot be denied that neat hands and nails look nicer and a manicure makes your hands look better- unless you have stunning hands- and who does really. In fact I quite like my hands, but that only makes it worse- because they are quite nice they should be made the most of.

Americans are far ahead of us on this- the manicures over there really do last about 5 days. I have never had one here- including the scary removal with implements and chemicals one, that lasted more than 3 days. I can do my own manicures that last 3 days- but I don't have time.

So my hands are back to being quite English again. My lovely, real nails are just painted with some nude pink varnish and they will have to stay that way until someone invents the nail equivalent of electrolysis- although does electrolysis really work or am I just telling myself it does and that one day it will be mine to stop me from going mad as I shave/ wax/ pluck away?