Superdrug beauty store Cardiff

A little while ago I was contacted by the PR people for Superdrug and asked if I'd like to pop into their new flagship beauty store and try out some of the treatments they have to offer using a pre-paid gift card.  Always up for a challenge I graciously accepted and went on my way.

When I first got there I asked a member of staff what treatments were available.  All together (not exhaustive) there were: HD Brows (I'd literally had my brows done that day by Benefit), Hair - either having it dyed with a dye I'd bought in store, or having a cut and blow dry, Gel nails, eye brow threading and more.

I opted for gel nails - I'm hoping they'll last long enough to see me through labour :)  Here's my experience:

She started off by taking off my nail polish (you can see in the 2nd pic down, there were still traces of the previous red colour on my thumb and around my fingers) and then filing them. Now, I'm no nail expert, but I'm sure the nail file she was using was one you'd tend to use with acrylic nails as it was very rough.  When I went there, I'd managed to get my nails to a length that I was really happy with, but a lot of length was taken off and I wasn't asked if this is what I wanted - I was just asked 'square or round' - to which I replied square.  The corners weren't filed either, meaning I now have some very sharp edges to my nails.

My nails after filing, a fair bit shorter, and my index finger and middle finger nails are slightly wonky 

 Buffing :)

After buffing :)

First coat on, hand is in the lamp :) 

This is the colour I opted for, 'Diamonds are for me' - she applied 2 coats of this, and a coat of clear

The finished look!  It's a gorgeous colour, a bluey purple glitter, very pretty.

I'm happy with the finished look, the ends were a little rough and I filed them back a little when I got home as they were catching on my clothes.  Coverage is good and applied neatly and without flooding the cuticle (something I really don't like).  While it wasn't a perfect manicure, I would have preferred to keep my nails the length they were, I'd only just given them a mani myself, but despite the short length I am happy with the finished look (apart from the sharp corners).  This treatment costs £15 in store.

With what was left on the gift voucher I made 2 purchases, one was to replace my much loved GOSH forever shadow stick - only because I'm an idiot I bought shade 1 instead of 2, D'Oh!  I also bought my first GOSH lipstick in the shade Night Kiss - I have a feeling this might be a good dupe for the MAC Rebel colour - I'll do a comparison post to see if this is actually the case :)

Overall I love the range of treatments you can get in the Superdrug beauty store like buying a Revlon nail polish, and having it applied for free in store by professionals.  Would I go back and have gel nails again? Yes, but if I don't want my nails filed, I'll be saying so this time - the actual gel mani was great.

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*The treatments and makeup were given to me for the purpose of reviewing Superdrug's beauty store, all opinions are my own