Focus Group: blind nail varnish test

I carried out a focus group to find out which brands of nail varnish were most popular. I disguised the varnish bottle and let the members of the group try out the different brands and rate them in various areas; pigment, application, durability, brush.

The brands used were; Model’s Own, Barry M, Essie, Maxfactor, Rimmel and H&M. This gave a wide range of brands and prices in order to make the focus group fair. Once tested, I got the group to wash up one plate to see how the varnish reacted to determine the durability.

(Please click the images to enlarge them)

The varnishes were rated out of 1 – 10 (10 being the highest) and here are the average results:

	Pigment	Application	Brush	Durability	total
Models Own £5	8	4	4	3	19
Barry M £2.99	7	8	6	6	28
Essie £7.99	7	9	8	8	32
MaxFactor £3.99	6	6	5	7	24
Rimmel £4.59	5	5	5	8	23
H&M £2.99	6	4	5	7	22

Here are some comments made by the group:

(Model’s Own) “I really really like the colour but the application is a bit hard to get even coverage. After the durability test a lot of them chipped too.”

(Barry M) “I personally really like the colour and it’s buildable so you can have it as bright as you like. One thing I didn’t like was that the brush was really long which I found quite difficult to use.”

(Essie) “Absolutely love this one, the colour and application are amazing and survived pretty well after the washing up!”

(Maxfactor) “I don’t really rate this product as I found the brush was far too small”

What is interesting is that the most expensive nail varnish was the most popular among this group. This goes to show that maybe it is worth spending that little bit extra on nail varnishes.

Check out other nail varnish reviews on these blogs:

http://www.thepolishaholic.com/

http://www.nailpolishwars.com/

http://the-swatchaholic.com/

 

Interview: Emma Fryatt

This week I caught up with Emma Fryatt who was voted as one of the Nail Artist’s of the year by Scratch Magazine.

When Emma’s not competing and exhibiting at beauty events or working alongside the likes of Marion Newman and Gareth Pugh at Paris Fashion Week she’s working and teaching at her Nail Artistry UK salon in Ipswich.

I spoke with her to find out the hottest new trends and what it’s really like being a professional nail technician…

What has been the most popular current trend among your clientele?

Gelicure (gel polish, see below) is huge at the moment and increased nail businesses turnover by 50% as its attracted the natural nail client as they now get a manicure that lasts up to 3 weeks. Matte finish nudes are also big but if in doubt clients love a bit glitter!

Besides your own nail range, which brands do you feel are pushing boundaries and creating something new in the nail world?

Sam Biddles ‘Be Inspired’ which focuses on pushing the boundaries with nail art, she’s very creative when it comes to the aspect of 3D nails.

What is the best part of your job?

Variety and spontaneity. Every day is different from salon work to travel and session work it definitely keeps you on your toes!

How important do you rate manicures/nail art in the process of putting an outfit together?

Very! The celebrity world has helped this as the likes of Rihanna and Adele don elaborate nails at every red carpet event the public now have an affordable designer item they can wear every day.

And finally, why do you think that the interest in nail varnish and nail art has exploded in the past couple of years?

Again, celebrities have had a massive influence and its affordable more so than hair. People are more likely to buy a hair colour to put on at home and just have a trim saving them sometimes in excess of £100! However £20 on nails is an affordable luxury.

All images for this post are courtesy of Emma’s salon Nail Artistry UK Ltd, Ipswich

You can access the website by clicking this link:  Nail Artistry UK Ltd, Ipswich

WAH Nails Book Review

WAH started in 2005 based around a fanzine of fashion forward girls that created a new wave of street-smart feminism. In 2008, Sharmadean Reid, the creator of WAH, took the extravagant nail art that her and her friends were making and wearing and opened up the first WAH salon in East London. It was a complete hit that attracted the likes of clients such as Marc Jacobs and Nike.

2010 saw the beginning of WAH in Topshop’s Oxford Circus branch and two years on was when the first WAH book was launched.

The design of the book keeps within the theme of WAH’s signature style of being vibrant and edgy but very informative and helpful too.

Each nail art design is laid out in simple sections. You get a little bit about the design, what you need and then bullet pointed steps on how to achieve the look.

What I thought was a nice touch was that a different WAH girl then models the look on the opposing page – an easy way for the readers to get to know the team, making the whole brand a lot more personal.

The book gives tutorials of an impressive 88 different nail art designs but there is also a double page showing ‘The WAH 100’ which is the top 100 most popular styles asked by WAH clients, this is a great page for inspiration.

My one and only downfall is that they should state a difficulty rating on each design because if you are a beginner you’ll have to do a fair bit of practicing before attempting some of the trickier designs.

The WAH nails book of nail art is £9.99 and can either be bought from the WAH store online or in store at Urban Outfitters.

Like, Tweet and Follow WAH Nails to keep up to date with all the latest and hottest nail news.

      

Check out some behind the scenes footage from London Fashion Week

A short and shapely history of Nail Varnish

Before we discuss the different areas of nail art I thought it would be suitable to briefly explain to you how nail varnish came about and how we got to where we are with it today.

The earliest sign of nail adornment was in 3000 B.C. China where coloured nails were a sign of wealth and social status. A mixture of egg whites, gelatine, beeswax and natural gum were then combined with natural dyes (rose, orchid and petals) to create the nail paint. Although, the application was not as simple as we know it now to be, nails had to be soaked in this mixture for at least two hours for the colour to finally set.

Chen Yu 1940’s advert courtesy of Etsy

Fast-forward to 1923, where Revlon created the first opaque nail colour, as opposed to the other pale and transparent neutral shades that were already on offer, here is when nail varnish really took off. Throughout the latter half of the 20^th Century, the vogue for brightly coloured nails and more neutral shades were constantly interchanging.

Chanel hit big in 1994 with the colour ‘Rouge Noir’, it became their best-selling product ever and created a cult-like following after Uma Therman wore it in the action/thriller film ‘Kill Bill’.

Today, brands such as Models Own and 17 at Boots have created ranges to include every colour imaginable. Now, you can choose from glitter, texture and even scent. It is safe to say that the obsession with nail varnish does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

Models Own Summer 2013 Collection courtesy of Wizard Pr

17 Summer 2013 collection courtesy of Red Consultancy PR