to Get the Longest-Lasting Manicure EVER At Home

Getting a great salon-style manicure (you know the type – smooth, glassy, perfectly shaped, no chips or smudges in sight) at home that actually lasts (longer than, y’know, a day) can be a real task. But it IS possible. And we’re going to show you how to do it. Right here. Right now.

You will need: a good base coat/nail strengthener (we love the Sephora-stocked Perfect Formula Gel Coat), your choice of nail polish and a good top coat (we recommend Sally Hansen’s Diamond Shine Base & Top Coat).

First, apply your base coat or nail strengthener. It’s important to make sure your nails are well cared for and nourished, and the coating will provide a nice, smooth surface to facilitate that glassy smooth polish look. Always wait at least ten minutes between ‘layers’, and consider submerging nails in ice cold water for thirty seconds (just fill up your sink and dunk) to encourage faster drying and ensure no chips or smudges get even a look-in.

Once your base coat has dried, apply your nail polish. Always make sure there is enough polish on your brush (you don’t want any streaks), but not a huge glob (too much polish on the nail won’t dry well and will smudge at the stroke of a feather). Sweep your nail polish on in steady, straight, vertical strokes. This will allow you to get a great shape, with those tell-tale clean, straight, just-out-of-the-salon edges.

Once you’ve dried and dunked, apply your top coat. Apply perhaps a little more liberally than your polish, and apply all over the nail (make sure you apply it to the natural nail, over the coloured part, as this will ‘seal’ your colour, making it impervious to chips). Preferably, double your drying time to twenty minutes, and use the cold water trick. And voila! Perfect nails, no salon required. One last tip: do your nails at night, just before you go to bed, as your nail job will firm up properly overnight, and be hard as, err, nails by the time you wake up.

Laura Hunter-Thomas,

Ici Fashion 

How to Get Made in Chelsea-style Perfect Skin

For those of you who reside in the US, Made in Chelsea is a British reality TV show following the dramatics of pretty and privileged 20-somethings frolicking in the affluent London borough of Chelsea. Whether you’ve seen it (love it or hate it) or not, you have to admit that there is one aspect worthy of admiration: the perfect skin paraded around by all the cast members (see Millie Mackintosh, above). Well, we’re going to tell you how to get that. This post is not about choosing the right shade of foundation, which is an epic venture in itself, but about applying products to create a photo-ready, dewy, truly flawless finish.

You will need: a good moisturizer (if you have oily skin, try Vichy Normaderm Total Mat Fresh Hydrating Gel), a liquid/cream/gel-like foundation (we love Clinique’s BB Cream), a powder concealer (or you can use powder foundation; we recommend the eco-friendly and pure mineral offering from Alima Pure), foundation brush, cream blush and setting powder.

After moisturizing your skin, start by pouring a little foundation on the back of your non-dominant hand. Using the middle finger of your other hand, get a dollop of foundation and swirl it on a patch of uncovered skin on the back of your hand to thin it out. Then blend the foundation onto your face in straight strokes. Blend up and over your lip line (later, using a tissue, just lick your lips and wipe off any excess). It’s always a good idea to use a small amount of foundation and build coverage, rather than slapping a load on at once.

Once you’ve applied your base, take your powder concealer or foundation and foundation brush. Shake some powder into the top of your powder container and shake the powder a little bit so it separates into tiny dots. Pick up these tiny dots one by one on the very tip of your foundation brush and dot over individual blemishes. You can also dot over areas of shadow, redness or uneven pigmentation. Yes, this is incredibly fiddly, but this is how you get truly flawless skin.

Next, take your cream blush. Smile into the mirror, and dot blush onto the apples of your cheeks and then upwards in a curve along the cheekbones and onto the temples. Finally, dust the tiniest touch of setting powder over your t-zone. This will keep you from looking oily while encouraging a dewy glow that will develop beautifully over the course of the day. You beauty.

Laura Hunter-Thomas,

Ici Fashion

Enviable Beauty series – How to Get Kate Middleton Hair

Let’s be honest: Kate Middleton is pretty much perfect. Her skin, her outfits, her hair. Especially her hair. She must have a fantastic stylist. If only one could get her look at home. But surely not – it’s too perfect, isn’t it? Well, actually, no. Behold – the quintessential guide on how to get pretty, perfect Kate Middleton hair.

You will need: two hair brushes (one large barrel brush – we recommend the 4-inch Spornette Prego Ceramic Styling Brush on Folica.com – and one soft or natural-bristle paddle brush, like the DENMAN Paddle Brush also available from Folica.com), a root lift or volumizing spray like Kiehl’s Super Thick Volumizer, a few bobby pins and a good hair dryer (we like the Solia 1875W Thermal Ionic Hair Dryer, available from Folica.com, which produces millions of negative ions that eliminate frizz to create sleeker hairstyles and healthier locks).

After washing your hair, gather it into a high ponytail with one hand, and with the other, create sections by taking a two inch thick portion from the underside of the ponytail. Twist the rest of the ponytail out of the way for the moment (you can pile it on top of your head after twisting the length of it and pin it in place, if you like). Let the section you just created fall, so you have a thin curtain of loose hair, and spray the volumizing or root lift spray in a side-to-side motion over your roots and the inch either side (on the curtain of hair and new underside of the ponytail). Then create another section of hair in the same way, continuing like this until you’ve repeated the process for a total of four or five times. Now take your hair dryer and blow dry the spray into your hair by just roughly raking your fingers through your hair.

Once your hair is roughly dry, go back to step one and create a section of hair. This time, take your barrel brush and blow dry the whole length of the section, keeping the hair dryer pointed down the shaft of the hair while pulling the brush away from you. Once the hair is dry, wrap the section around your fingers all the way up to the roots, and pin in place. Continue to section your hair and repeat the process, working up your head from the back of your hair until every section is curled and pinned.

Once you’ve curled and pinned every strand of hair, remove the pins and gently shake out the curls. Then, take your paddle brush and brush through the entirety of your hair. Style as desired (centre or side parting, etc.) and finish with a touchable, medium hold hairspray like Moroccanoil Luminous Hairspray. And voila! Welcome to the world of people with perfect hair.

Laura Hunter-Thomas,

Ici Fashion