Manicure Monday: Rose

This week I decided to branch out and try a new brand of nail varnish. Don't worry, I'm fully aware that I'm being a little bit wild, living life on the edge and seriously need to calm down before I do something reckless.

I wish I could say this was an impulse buy as I intended it to be, but in reality I must have spent 20 minutes in Boots mulling over absolutely every nail varnish in sight before eventually settling on this one. I religiously use Lancôme's Hypnôse Drama mascara but have never tried any of the nail polishes, and as soon as I spotted this pink I knew it was exactly what I'd been looking for.

I have a million different shades of pink, but for some bizarre reason none quite like this.

At £13 it's a little more expensive than I would have liked, but I'm glad I bought it. The candy pink shade of Rose (333) is not overly bright and even has a certain softness to it, and it's definitely perfect for the summer. Even though I prefer pastel shades this year, this has put me in such a positive mood as it's such a classic summery colour!

(IMAGE SOURCED FROM www.debenhams.com)

The main draw back for me is the fact that the bottle is so tiny (it's half the size of most of my others) and it took three coats to achieve an even finish. As a result I doubt it will last as long as most of my other polishes, which is a shame as it's clearly not good value for money. That being said, for me three coats normally looks ridiculous and very thick on the nail, but this looks just as if I'd only used two. Each coat dried super quickly which meant it took half the time to do my nails than it normally does, so apart from using up more polish it's actually quite good. The final look had an almost matte finish, but my Essie top coat added a shine and smartened it all up.

It's a lovely colour and was really easy to apply, so I'll certainly be looking at Lancôme again in the future. However, it's not amazing enough for me to go mad and buy the entire collection, or even another polish for the time being. I'm glad I added this to my collection, but unfortunately Lancôme didn't blow me away - maybe my expectations were too high given my experience with the mascara!

Lesson learnt: next time I'll read a few more reviews and not base my selection of nail polish on experience with a totally different product from the brand!