Spice of Saffron : OPI Nail Envy 'Perfect Couple'

Hello :-)

For today's blog post I am going to focus on my nails. Recently I purchased a new set from OPI named the Perfect Couple, containing Nail Envy and also the Avoplex cuticle oil.

This set cost me £18.95 from a local beauty store but I have seen it being priced from £18.00 right up to £32.50 online!! So make sure you shop around a bit to get a good price. I have used OPI Nail Envy before after seeing it on QVC and I have always been very pleased with it and see what a difference it makes to my nails almost straight away. I have tried the original version (pictured above) and also the matte version and I definitely prefer the original as I found the matte goes a bit cloggy and sticky after a while. So i definitely would recommend buying the original over the matte version, buying the original also makes a great top coat as it leaves a really shiny finish which is what I prefer on my nails. However, both do give the desired result of growth and strength in the nail so I guess it all depends on which kind of finish you prefer.
The cuticle oil is also great and helps encourage the nails to grow and keep the nail bed looking healthy. Whenever I go and have a manicure at a beauty salon, the beautician always comments on how healthy my cuticles look! Although it is oil, it doesn't feel greasy for ages and ages so you can quickly get on with things. I usually apply the oil at night just before I go to bed around my cuticles so I can leave it to soak in. But if you do use it during the day, you can massage it into the cuticles to get it to soak in quicker. I think this oil smells so lovely too! It makes you feel very pampered.

So I thought I would post a few pictures on how I would usually use the above products:

Firstly I apply one coat of the original Nail Envy onto my nails. It says on the bottle to apply two coats, but when I am using a colour I do one coat as a base, then the colour, then use the second coat of my Nail Envy as a top coat. If I wasn't going to use colour, I would just apply two coats of the Nail Envy.

This is what it looks like after the first coat- nice and shiny. My nails are quite short at the moment because I (regrettably) haven't used this product for a while. But I know that it will quickly show results.

I let this base coat dry, then I apply my chosen colour. Today I have chosen 'Dutch Tulips' as it is for once sunny in the UK and this colour is lovely and vibrant.

So I again apply one coat of this, leaving this result:

I love how shiny it is and OPI polish is so easy to apply as most of them have the wide brushes which means that usually you only need one stroke on each nail! This is the result after one coat, sometimes I would do two coats of colour depending on the shade.

I then do my second coat of OPI Nail Envy over the top as my top coat. Nail Envy recommends you to do a new coat every other day, then after 7 days, remove and start again.