Rimmel Lycra Wear Nail Polish

...my favourites has to be Rimmel Lycra Wear Nail Polish. I never used to be a Rimmel fan and found the London brand to be unappealing, but in my quest to find a good chip-resistant polish this was recommended to me by a friend. She had bought it because of the price - it costs £3.99 for 12ml - and had been suprised by its durability and hard-wearing properties.

I went to Boots where the full Lycra Wear range was on display. After battling ...
...I now really like the Rimmel London brand and have bought other products in their make up range, all of which I've been more than happy with. This polish is exceptionally good and I've since bought more, even from the featured range. The best thing about Lycra Wear is that it enables you to wear a bright colour and not be worried about ugly chips forming. Indeed, this is one of the reasons I've been so hesitant to wear one. I have since worn a dark ... more

Nail varnish has the ability to look chic and stunning; it also has the ability of looking cheap, tacky and ugly. The way in which it is applied, the chosen shade and the colour finish determine which quality a woman ends up with on her nails. Garish colours, such as lime green or egg-yolk yellow look terrible on most people, even teenage girls who can normally pull-off any look because of their age. The wrong shade of red can look tarty and give the wrong impression. Black and very dark blue can look gothic and messy, though of course this is all a matter of taste, isn't it. Colour is something which can be argued because it is merely a preference, but chipped, cracked, streaky, gloopy colour is something else; women across all walks of life will unite in the opinion that this is always unattractive, undesirable, cheap-looking and ugly.

Trying to find a nail varnish that won't chip used to be a mean feat, but nowadays there are several brands and varieties to choose from that offer chip-resistant formulas as standard. I have tried a variety of these myself and of all of all of these one of my favourites has to be Rimmel Lycra Wear Nail Polish. I never used to be a Rimmel fan and found the London brand to be unappealing, but in my quest to find a good chip-resistant polish this was recommended to me by a friend. She had bought it because of the price - it costs £3.99 for 12ml - and had been suprised by its durability and hard-wearing properties.

I went to Boots where the full Lycra Wear range was on display. After battling my way through a huddle of young girls trying out all the testers on their nails (each nail a different colour!) I was pleasantly suprised by the great shade range on offer; there really does seem to be a colour available to suit all tastes. Here are the shade names: Oyster Pink, Lilac, Pure Sin, Ice Queen, Magenta, Pink Shimmer, Innocent Pink, Sandalwood, Ash Rose, Gold Spun Coral, Venus, Posh Trash, Magnolia Pearl, Azteque, Russet Flame, Hot Gossip, Celebrity Bash, Beige, Baby Pink, Ice Blue, Desire and Grape Sorbet. Among this range were pastel colours, matt finishes, pearl-effect, shimmery metalics, subtle tones and brash bold colours which I was quite impressed by, though I was looking for something a little different.

I like natural colours that enhance what I have already been blessed with. I don't like to look false, especially when it comes to make up, and this applied to my nails. That is why I was so delighted when I found under the main display a small selection of French Manicure shades also in the Lycra Wear range. This range was smaller and included three slightly coloured transparant shades of top coat, a base coat and a few pastel/subtle colours which were based on traditional manicure shades (pale pink, ivory and beige). I was thrilled with this small selection and chose French Ivory and Milk Chocolate shades.

The main shade ranges are packaged in a medium-sized, rounded clear-glass nail varnish bottles with black lids. They are quite simple yet eye-catching and attractive. On the bottle is the brand name 'Rimmel London' and the 'Lycra Wear' trademark undermeath. It claims to offer "up to five days super durable polish for nails". This is all featured in silver print and the shade number and name also appear. The manicure shades look more gentle and subtle in their appearance with white lids. They also have the 'Rimmel London' brand name and 'Lycra Wear' trade marks on them in the same places, but have the words
'French Manicure' on them, along with the shade name and number. This features in metalic magenta and looks really clasic and chic. On both varieties there is a sticky plastic label on the lids with the 'Lycra' trade mark, featuring in the relevant colours. The back of the bottle feature exactly the same information as the front in several different languages.

I couldn't wait to try out my new polishes. I had been so pleased to find the manicure range that I'd bought two shades, so I hoped they would live up to expectation.

I am a little more adventurous when it comes to toe nail colours and will wear more daring colours like red or silver, but for a day-to-day look I like to keep to subtle, natural shades like beige and rose-pink, so I decided to apply the Milk Chocolate shade to my toe nails and the french Ivory to my finger nails, as I never wear anything bright on those. I prepared both sets of nails, pushed back the cuticles, separated the toes and clipped the nails into shape. I was ready to be impressed...

I did my toe nails first as I didn't want to smudge my finger nails. I unscrewed the lid to reveal the usual long plastic tube with a brush on the end. The smell of the varnish was quite strong and not fruity like some available, but this didn't concern me; I like the smell of traditional varnishes (in the non-solvent abuse way!). The consistency was perfect - not too runny, not too thick - which is always a good sign. When you buy a polish that is already thick to start with you know it won't stay good for long as it will thicken a little with use, as they always do. These polishes have a little metal ball-bearing inside and require a good shake before opening to ensure the mixture is even. The great thing about nail colour is you know what shade you are getting because you can acurately see it through the glass bottle; if only the same could be true for lip colour! The main worry is the thickness and whether it will glide on to the nail or slide onto the skin. I dipped the brush into the pot, removed the excess and carefully applied it to my nail. It went on easily and dried hard after about 2 minutes. The first coat is always slightly streaky, unless you specifically buy a one-coat product, so I wasn't alarmed when I found this to be the case here. After I had waited for all of my nails to dry I applied the second coat. This is were it can all go wrong with thick polishes. A thick polish takes decades to dry hard, so when you finally lose the will to live and apply the second coat the brush drags the first coat and you're left with a lumpy mess. I'm happy to say that this didn't happen with in this case and the second coat went on to the top coat like a dream. This also took about 2 minutes to dry hard, though I always leave it a little longer before putting shoes/slippers on just in case.

My mum taught me how to apply polish properly when I was seven years old- one streak either side of the nail and one down the centre, always leaving a tiny gap at the outer edges. I am quite precise now as a result, but you don't need to be to apply this product as it seems to merge and even out by itself, which is good for those of us with unsteady hands or for when your daughter wants to paint your nails for you!

The colour result was fabulous! It was even, shiny and natural looking. It really did look chic and I felt quite proud of how my feet looked. I had the same joy with my nails; Ivory is a hard colour to apply and can look patchy if even the slightest application mistake is made. This colour was even and looked classy and subtle; just what I like in a polish. I think the Lycra allows the mixture to spread evenly as I've never had nails that well coloured unless I used a metallic/pearlised finish, which cover a multitude of sins by their shimmery nature. The colour gets top marks, but what about the durability...

Five days after application I still had enviable nails. I could not believe that the colour had lasted this long and still looked freshly painted. There wasn't a chip, split, crack or even faded patch of colour to be seen and the finish still looked new and gorgeous. By now, when using a standard polish, I would have removed it as the colour would have chipped a day or two after, but this kept on going. I removed it after one week and this was only because my nails had grown slightly and you could see a definition line. It is easy to remove with a standard remover and doesn't stain the nails (though for very dark shades I';d always recommend applying a base coat first).

I was so impressed by the durability I decided to use this brand for my nails on my wedding day. The last thing I wanted on the photos was chipped, ugly nail colour, and I wanted something reliable which I didn't have to worry about. I has used this now several times and trusted its effectiveness completely. It didn't let me down, and even lasted for the duration of my honeymoon, so I look really well-groomed on all the beach photos!

I now really like the Rimmel London brand and have bought other products in their make up range, all of which I've been more than happy with. This polish is exceptionally good and I've since bought more, even from the featured range. The best thing about Lycra Wear is that it enables you to wear a bright colour and not be worried about ugly chips forming. Indeed, this is one of the reasons I've been so hesitant to wear one. I have since worn a dark red on my toe nails and felt a sense of liberty from my strict colour coded ways! Although I still dislike bold colours on my finger nails, I've felt confident enough to experiment on my toes using this range thanks to its high quality. I have no qualms about recommending this brand to you.
 

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