Hot Pink Nails

I have terrible nails. I bit them relentlessly as a girl, only growing out of regular chewing in my late teens. It left them weak; and to this day they rarely grow more than 2 or 3 millimetres above the tip of the finger.

I've flirted often with glue-on acrylics; and even had fill-in acrylics on a number of occasions. But because of my naturally short nail bed (stubby, if you will), they always end up looking slightly off-kilter; almost top heavy.

So I've been trying to get back into wearing nail polish, as a way to make my stubby nails look a bit more glamourous. Last week I had a craving to paint my nails hot pink. As with all paint, "hot pink" can vary depending on the brand. But I found the exact shade I wanted among Maybelline's new mini Colorama range.

It's interesting - I swear this picture shows the colour I bought, but according to the website, it's called "Sweet Candy". My bottle says "Bubbalicious", but the website shows that as a pale pinky-white.

Either the bottle has been mislabelled, or the website is wrong. I have seen the Coloramas in a number of stores though, and this hot pink colour has always been called "Bubbalicious". So I'm not sure what's going on there.

What IS great about the product is the size. I'm very changeable when it comes to nail polish - I buy a colour on a whim, use it once or twice, then relegate it to a tray. While I understand quality improves with price, I feel like I've wasted money if I spend more than about $10 on a nail polish - simply because I don't get the wear before it congeals and has to be thrown away.

So the slimline 7.5ml Colorama bottle is just about perfect. Enough to give you a few wears - and you can always go back and buy another. It retails for around $6.95 per bottle.

The colour is amazing. Hot pink without being skanky, if that makes sense. It's like a classy hot pink. And while I appreciate my own bias, I actually think it looks better on short nails. It looks funky but practical.

I will admit the application brush was a bit problematic - paint seemed to gather on the stem more than on the brush itself, and the brush could do with being a little wider for easier application (like Rimmel's excellent Lycra Pro). But like all nail polish brushes - it depends a lot on your ability to wield it well.

As always, I stuffed up the time it would take for my nails to dry; so several of mine quickly went splodgy and patchy. The ones that didn't though look fab. The colour is strong and even and the polish shiny.

A note regarding my eye make-up here: I bought another Sportsgirl Colour Me In eyeshadow pencil, this time in Hollywood (purple and puce). I used the purple on the lower lash line and V-corner, then blended with the puce across the lid. I added a touch of Chi-Chi Real Minerals shimmering eyeshadow in "Shop-A-Holic", and finished with Designer Brands Amplifying mascara. I was quite pleased with the end result, although the lighting in this picture doesn't do it justice.

The DB mascara is supposed to place small "tubes" over your lashes to thicken and lengthen them. I'd say it adds length, but I'm still on a quest to find a good fattening mascara. Certainly when removing it you can see tiny bits and pieces of product coming off. It claims to not melt off - and certainly once it's dried, I've found it very wearable.