DIY Mineral Nail Varnish: BM Beauty in 'Her Majesty'

Picture heavy post!

Last month LuxBox released their first beauty box – blogged here – and whilst I was pleasantly surprised there was item that had popped up in a previous GlossyBox that I really didn’t like.

In theory the BM Eyeshadows are right up my street; they’re mineral based and I love mineral makeup. However, it wasn’t the product itself I had the issue with. The issue was with the colours.

‘Wolf Howl’ and ‘Her Majesty’ respectively, are very glorified names for a garish purple and a very bright pink. I honestly take my virtual hat off to anyone who can pull these colours off, but as a girl who shies away from shadows anyway, these weren’t for me.

Beauty Box Swappers was flooded with these up for swaps, with not many takers so I knew swapping wasn’t an option.

Source

Que brainwave.

I’d heard of some people grinding up their broken shadows and blushes and using them as pigments for nail varnishes, so my loose, garish purple and bright pink were perfect.

Here’s how I did it:

I used an MUA clear nail varnish; at just £1 it’s a complete steal for stuff like this.

SO.

I laid down some paper over the dining table, loose powders can be very messy and I didn’t fancy a new pink table!

I made a little funnel out of a small piece of paper and some sellotape, stuck it in the top of the varnish and tapped the shadow in.

I added about a quarter of the pot, removed the funnel and put the brush back in. Looks like a mini nuclear disaster. (Yes, I’m a geek)

I shook it for about 30 seconds, let it rest for 10 seconds and then shook it again just to make sure that all of the lumps were gone.

This is the swatch after it was mixed in, but I wanted it slightly more pigmented so I repeated the steps again.

Darker swatch.

My new ‘Her Majesty’ nail varnish :) and a whole heap of mess.

Really pleased with how it turned out, the pictures don’t show it well but it’s a very shimmery, golden pink.

I did this with ‘Wolf Howl’ too, but found that the shadow settles quite quickly. If you’ve got some small ball bearings around the house then they’d be perfect to drop in to help you revive the polish when you shake it back together.

Don't limit yourself to loose powders, you can crush pressed powders to use in DIY nail varnishes.

Have you got any powders you’ll be trying this with? Links if you do please :)