Thursday 10 November 2011

101 Dalmation Attempts

Thursday 3rd November marked the date of the Mulberry and Stylist magazine event to be held in store at Spinningfields, Manchester to celebrate the beginnings of our Spring/Summer 12 stock making its summery arrival onto our shelves. 

There was a whole host of things to get excited about, not so much when you're working the event, but still an event is always a bit livelier than your average shift. So despite the promise of male models bearing gin cocktails and bite-size British culinary classics, Yasmin performing a live acoustic set/DJ set, gold Bayswater balloons, goodie bags and a prize bag draw amongst other things the only thing I was getting rowdy about was the pile of cardboard boxes waiting patiently in the toilet cum storage space with the words "REVLON" printed all over them. Despite my best efforts the boxes remained sealed until absolutely necessary meaning no precious play and swatch time.


 When I finally got a free minute to devour a mini steak sandwich and wash it down with a coconut and grapefruit gin concoction I sneaked my way over to where the pile of goodie bags patiently lay, waiting to be rifled through. Naturally I wasn't disappointed, there were some eyeliners and mascaras from the fairly new 'Grow Lucious' line from Revlon along with a lovely Super Lustrous Revlon lipstick in 'Revlon Red' (very imaginative) and thankfully there was the clink of a glass bottle I was hoping for. Yes, yes I love lipstick and I love mascara but since growing my once stubbly nails this summer I have rapidly become fluent in all things nail varnish so the presence of a polish was a welcome surprise, unfortunately the shade was 'Bewitched Bordeaux' - lovely in itself but I had received Rouge Noir as a present a few weeks previously so the Revlon will probably lie a little dormant in my collection for a while until Rouge Noir has served its purpose.

But to ease the pain of my shade disappointment the lovely people from Nail Rock nail wraps had provided us with a whole host of nail wrap freebies and two of their talented manicurists to be at everyones back and nail art call throughout the evening. I had heard nothing but good things about nail wraps and nail water decals from BritishBeautyBlogger and so after the disappointment of not having my nails "rocked" by one of the manicurists on hand (pun unintended) at the event due to the glossy nature of my Chanel Beaute des Ongles topcoat preventing the nail wraps from sticking to the nail bed, I was looking forward to an enjoyable evening of applying my goodie bag Dalmatian print nail wraps at home.


"Its easy!" they say, "it takes two minutes!" Does it balls.

 I lovingly prepared my nail as instructed. I removed all shine from the nail bed (not a difficult task after daily varnish changes have left my nails a peeling, yellow stained wreck). I applied the nail rock. I didn't even have the chance to pick up my nail file to "shape" the wrap as it had fallen off my finger. Ever since I had become a nail varnish aficionado I hadn't really encountered anything of too much trouble. Shatter coats mastered, the perfect even distribution of Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday glitter chunks in only one coat and without the aid of an orange stick was a walk in the park, freehand french manicures… a doodle. But my Nail rock nail wrap skills didn't flow rather so freely, to say I struggled is quite the understatement.


I wondered if i was doing something wrong? I was sure I'd heard over time on various blogs that a hair dryer was a vital part of the process? But no, the packaging insists "NO HEAT REQUIRED" So what makes them stick?! Hard work and brute force certainly doesn't. There is no give in the wrap and so it cant accommodate any sort of bend in the nail which leaves a big ugly crease when I try to smooth the wrap out over the nail. The worst part was, for three hours at the event I watched on as the manicurists buffed, filed and pressed with ease all the while sipping on Gin and cranberry cocktails, laughing and joking away. After what felt like 101 attempts I gave up and so it is on that note that I (un)gracefully bow out of my quest for Dalmatian nail rock wrap perfection.

 If anybody, anybody has the secret, please help a sister out.

Event images courtesy of http://www.manchestersfinest.com/

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