french fingers (Bourjois French Manicure kit)

Member Name: rlparker23

Product:	Bourjois French Manicure kit
Date:	31/05/08 (585 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: no sticky guides, good quality polish, drys quickly

Disadvantages: not sure about the 'miracle brush'

On the rare occasions my nails are all the same length I like to have a French manicure. For special occasions I don't mind paying a professional but the rest of the time I am more then happy to have a go myself. This can have varying degrees of success ranging from looking ok to having white polish and those little guide stickers all over the place.

I hate the little white stickers you use as guides for painting the tips of your nails. I can never get them on straight and then when I take them off they tend to smug the varnish. So when I saw this manicure kit from Bourgois I thought it could be the answer.

The kit comes in a pretty pink and white box. It has a picture on the front of a brush with curved bristles painting the tip of a finger nail. It claims that it is a miracle brush, specially designed for nail tips.

The kit is £9.95 in Boots and Superdrug which seemed a little expensive but it contains 3 full sized bottles of Bourgois nail varnish which retail t £4.95 each so I think that it is quite good value. Plus I have always liked Bourgois nail varnish. The three varnishes are So Laque! in rose lounge, French manicure blanc raffine, and a clear varnish which is supposed to maximise shine and provide long lasting results.

So one evening I decided to put my new 'miracle brush' to the test. The first step is to paint the tips of the nails with the white varnish. I unscrewed the lid and looked at the brush. It is flat and about 5mm wide and the end of it was trimmed into a curve. It isn't an even curve though the point on one side is longer then the other.

The brush is supposed to make it easy to paint the tips in the correct shape as the curved brush is supposed to match the shape of your nail. So in theory you paint one half of the tip then turn the brush over to paint the other half. Sounded easy to me!

Well it wasn't. Now I am not going to pretend that I am a natural when it comes to putting on make up or painting my nails but this was really fiddly. It took me ages to get the right amount of varnish on the brush, too much and it runs too little and you get a thin streaky look, neither of which looks particularly glamorous. However that could just have been me being a bit daft!

The next problem I found can't just be because of my lack of beauty savvy. The brush just isn't the right size for some of your nails. It is perfect for the nails on my index fingers, little fingers, and the ones next to my little finger (no idea what they are called, ring finger perhaps?). But the nails on my middle fingers and thumbs are just a little bit to wide, I paint one side then the other and there is a gap in the middle. Now with a normal brush this wouldn't be a problem but this one is shaped so I had to turn the brush on its side and carefully fill it in.

Once the tips are dry you paint the whole nail with the rose lounge colour. This is a very delicate, natural shade of pink and it compliments the colour of your nails really well. Then when this has dried go over the whole nail with the clear varnish. This leaves your nails looking really shiny and they feel really smooth.

After a bit of practice you can get really good results with this manicure kit. However I don't think that it is anything to do with the brush. I can achieve the same results using a normal brush and running it horizontally across the tip of the nail. But the polish is good quality and goes on smoothly and easily. It also lasts along time. The rose colour claims to last 7 days but I have never tried it on its own.

Usually this polish/French manicure lasts about 3/4 days before it starts to chip, although I am not exactly careful with it. It does not last if you do the washing up with out your marigolds on! Also when I died my hair the tips turned pink which was an interesting affect :-D

I have also found that if the white tips do chip you can fill in the chipped bits and then just add another coat of the clear polish and it is hardly noticeable (handy if you are just about to go out!).

The polish also dries fairly quickly which is good as you have 3 layers to do. It usually takes me between 20-30 minutes to do all my nails but i'm sure someone with a bit more skill could do it much faster!

Over all I would recommend this kit, with a bit of practice you can get really good results. Plus even if you can't be bothered to do a proper manicure you still get excellent quality natural and clear varnishes to use.

Summary: good home manicure kit