Mani Monday! Embellish 3D Manicure.

This week, Manicure Monday comes in the form of Embellish 3D Manicure exclusively for Primark beauty. There has been so many of these 'caviar' nail effects on the shelves lately since they were first seen done by Ciaté. However, for £18 I couldn't really justify it despite how much I wanted to. Working in Primark, I noticed these manicure packs before MUA bought out their version of it so I purchased this first and for £2.50, it was quite a bargain buy.

Currently, there are only 3 different sets (there was more during Christmas, which were featured in the black box, not white.) This one has a 10ml pearly nail varnish with 14g bottle matching beads. Other sets come in a raspberry coloured varnish with multi coloured beads and also a mix between the two (pearl nail varnish/multi beads.)

The set also comes with a convenient little funnel so you can put all the excess beads back into the bottle it came from, so you're not wasting it all.

Pearl Nail Varnish

Obviously, you need a starting point and this varnish is it. I really love the colour, it's highly pigmented and the photo above shows only one coat. The instructions on the back say to apply two coats but I really don't think it's needed at all. Other than the colour, there's nothing else positive about it. It's gloopy as can possibly be, which also meant that it took quite a while to dry and even when I was sat doing absolutely nothing, it had still managed to smudge. You could also see the brush tracks which I tried to even out as much as I could but ended up creating little mounds of it instead. Not a good look.

Pearl Beads

Whilst the varnish is still wet, you pour over the beads over your nails. I chose just an accent nail to try this on, as I was unsure how it would turn out. It was easier to apply then I imagined but just make sure you have a tray to collect all the beads that don't end up on your nails. The end result was a bit messy as the beads didn't cover the entirity of my nail and even when I pressed individual beads to fill in all the gaps, it still didn't look 'right'. I also applied a top coat over the beads just to ensure that they wouldn't fall off during the day but this also didn't work because only half an hour later I was missing half the beads off my nails and was finding them all around the house. 

I think you can see for yourself that it didn't quite work out as I hoped, i.e the lumpy nail varnish and messy accent nail! What I did like, however, was the funnel (simple pleasures) which was really needed after the cascade of micro beads. They went straight back into the bottle mess free which is exactly what I wanted instead of crawling around my floor picking it all back up again.

 

 

Overall, it's an alright little gift and despite the not so brilliant review, you might find it works a lot better for you. However, I am quite hands on so it's not really ideal for me to use everyday. I would try this again if it was for a one-off occasion or a night out but I would take it straight off the next morning. The main problem I had with it was definitely the nail varnish so if you're put off you could just use your own and buy this simply for the beads, or buy MUA's Star Constellations (which have been reduced to £2 here!) For £2.50 I can't complain too much, it just lacks a little finesse.

Pro's 

• The nail varnish is highly pigmented and a lovely, luxurious pearl colour. 
• Cute packaging.
• Highly needed funnel included.
• A good quantity for the price (but a case of quantity over quality maybe?) 

 Con's 

• Gloopy, slow drying, brush tracking nail varnish.
• The beads don't stick (maybe because of the formula of the varnish? something wasn't right nontheless!)

 

XXX