Disclaimer: I am affiliated with LART - I'm the official UK reseller and Educator for the UK

Hi there, 

How are you all doing during this difficult time? 

I've been cheering myself up with new manicure every few weeks and boy, did I miss having my nails pretty! 

Today I want to share with you a very colourful rainbow manicure I've recently worn. I've used LART and Bio Seaweed gel polishes and I'll include a short comparison of the two brands further down. 

My friend BB over at SNSnailskent bought the LART Hybrid Gel polishes and I really wanted to try them out to see whether we should stock them for the UK market. That's how this manicure started...

I was testing out four LART Hybrid Gel polish shades to try the opacity and formula and their Infinity Base & Top coat system. Once she left I really didn't want to take those lovely bright colours off so I looked into my stash of gel polishes and picked some Bio Seaweed Gel polishes to finish off the other hand. And since I'm wearing two different brands I might as well compare the two!

Here are the colours I've used:

• LART 014 Lotus Flower
• LART 012 Chilli
• LART 411 Honey
• LART 602 Berry
• Bio Seaweed Gel #80 Shipwreck
• Bio Seaweed Gel #228 Very Berry
• Bio Seaweed Gel #194 Mermaid
• Bio Seaweed Gel #107 Pinky Swear

Opacity

Both brands had shades that were fully opaque in two coats and then some that would need three coats to be perfect. I think most brands have this problem but I would like to see only a few shades that do this to really love a brand. 

With LART, the mustard-coloured shade Honey was the one that would look better with three coats but I could JUST get away with two. I find most yellow colours do this and lack good opacity. Other LART colours were lovely and opaque in two coats. 

With Bio Seaweed Gel the opacity was a bit worse. The Shipwreck (dark blue/purple) definitely needed three coats to be nice and dark and so did the Pinky Swear. The others were quite lovely in two coats. 

Application

Both LART and Bio Seaweed Gel were lovely to apply and I had absolutely no issue with consistency or their brushes apart from the lower opacity of few shades. 

Strength

I've included this category because for me it's important how much strength the gel polish provides for the nail, especially when the nails are weak and thin. 

I've noticed a huge difference in strength and it surprised me. With Bio Seaweed Gel, my nails were still weak and very flexible. So much so that one has already cracked from my nails underneath being too flexible. 

However, with LART it was very different. My nails were supported, the nails had strength and didn't bend nearly at all. There was a tiny bit of flexibility but not enough to damage my nails by accident. The Infinity  system of Base and Top coat is designed to provide extra strength and can also be used to extend the nail up to 2mm which is the first time I've seen this possibility with a gel polish system. 

Longevity

I've had the polishes on for 10 days in total.

The first problem appeared three days in when I bent one of the nails with Bio Seaweed Gel on. The nail itself is ok but the Bio Seaweed Gel cracked and I could see a start of peeling off. What a shame! 

Later on I've had more cracks of Bio Seaweed Gel but luckily nothing like that with LART gel polishes. I think the added strength was the reason. 

I must say I was very surprised how much of a difference there was between those two brands. I'm definitely liking LART hybrid gel polishes more and I'm not saying that just because I'm selling them. They were better, hands down! I think I'll have to get a selection of LART gel polishes for myself for when I'll want a change from LART Dipping system manicures. LART gel polishes are great for nail art and that's what I'm really missing - creating little pieces of art, my art therapy!

I tried to find where to buy Bio Seaweed Gel in the UK but I think the distributor is no longer selling them and I wasn't able to find if there's a new one. If you know one, let me know and I'll happily link to them. 

LART Hybrid Gel Polishes and the rest of products are available to order at LART Nails UK website. We currently have catalogues you can browse and soon will have products available elsewhere online (but psst, that's a secret for now!). 

Hope you've enjoyed this little comparison and let me know if you've heard of LART products before and where ;)

Hello lovelies,

August has passed very fast for me and it's time for the monthly nail art challenge from Paint All The Nails. I completely forgot (thanks to my 2-week holiday) and I didn't have time to do any special colour block design. Luckily I've had an older manicure that I've done and that I can use. I still have my square shaped nails there but I'm sure you won't mind ;)

Today's manicure is very colourful and summery and I can show you a step by step tutorial of the design too! I've done it using Leighton Denny polishes and a Color Club French Tip white polish as a base. Yes guys, this is so far my favourite white nail polish. Here's the final look and list of all the polishes I've used:

These nails might look difficult to do but I've broken the design into small steps for you and in the end it's just painting lines. A great design to practice your line work ;)

How to:

Step 1 - Apply a base coat to clean and dry nails. Then paint them with one or two coats of white nail polish. I've used Colour Club French Tip which is very opaque so I got away with just one coat.

Step 2 - Paint the top of each nail with a different colour. I chose colours that will be somewhat dominant on the nail.

Step 3 - Add thin and thick stripes of the same colour to the nails

Step 4 - Start adding more stripes of different colours. Try to stick to similar colour families with the odd stripe in colour of the next nail to tie the nails visually together

Step 5 - Continue with adding more stripes and colours to the rest of the nails. Different widths of stripes make a really interesting effect

Step 6 - Finish up with a coat of Leighton Denny One For All (as a top coat) and admire your new beautiful nails ;)

My line work is far from perfect but all in all I quite liked this look. And practice makes perfect so imperfection isn't a fail at all, just another lesson on the path to perfection!

What do you think of this look? Would you wear it?

I'm so glad I was able to participate in this month's Paint All The Nails Challenge again and if you'd like to see what my fellow nail bloggers came up with, check out #paintallthenailscolorblock and the link up below!

Have a lovely day! Lucie x