Nail varnish that doesn’t chip?

I once had a friend who believed that as long as her nails were painted and eyebrows in shape, nothing else mattered…. These days I count it as a bonus if I get out of the house without yoghurt smeared on my shirt, or dried cereal in my hair. I love my nails to look nice, but unless I have a wedding or special event to go to they stay naked; it’s just one less thing to do.

We all want nail varnish that doesn’t chip, hence why Shellac, the queen of gel nails, was invented. Shellac is great for many reasons: it is much less damaging than its predecessor acrylics, has a great glossy appearance and it lasts a good week or so without chipping or peeling. The downside? It’s a real pain to remove at home and I don’t have the time, or money, to attend weekly appointments at my local nail salon, however much I might like to. What I’d like is a regular nail varnish that lasts more that one evening.

Colours – Country Tweed and Heirloom

This week I attended Bloggers London Fashion Week and was treated to a manicure by Kate from True Brit. Now True Brit is a new nail varnish range, that has a super-glossy gel like appearance. So it looks like Shellac but you can remove it with normal nail varnish remover. They say the proof is in the pudding , so how long did my True Brit manicure last?

I worked for two days and had three days with Daisy, activities included: cooking, nappy changing, washing up, scouring her high chair clean etc. Here are my nails at the end of day 6.

Kate is a former beauty therapist and now multi business owner she knows everything to know about nails. I was bemoaning the fact that my quick paint of Nails Inc’s Porchester Square was already chipping despite the fact I’d used Seche Vite super top coat, so she gave me these top tips which I thought I’d share:

# Put a drop of oil on your cuticles each night before bed, to make them and your nails look so much healthier.

# Top coat works best when your nail varnish is bone dry. Then your nail varnish stands a much better chance of lasting.

The Verdict

• Good lasting nail colour, despite doing a lot of household tasks it only started to chip at end of day 3.
• A mere 61 colours to choose from- I enjoy being spoilt for choice.
• At £12.50 for a 10ml bottle it’s more expensive than its competitors; Nails Inc & Opi. True Brit = £1.25 per ml vs Nails Inc £1 & Opi £0.83 per ml.
• Free from: DBP, Toluene, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, Camphor and Parabens + 100% cruelty free – always good.
• Made in Britain, with a love for London. All the nail varnishes have very British names: Big Ben, Brighton Rock and Cream Tea to name a few. However this is quite reminiscent of Nails Inc’s colours, for example Primrose Hill and Cambridge Mews.