A feel-good hit for your fingertips

Try a DIY manicure with my favourite new shades

The mood-boosting quality of a good hair day is well known. But I also find when it comes to a quick fix in the feel-better stakes, an easy win can be found with a good manicure. Sprucing up your nails with a burst of colour is a pretty inexpensive way of getting your beauty kicks (especially if you can DIY it).

Traditionally, in the winter months it’s the deep tones that we reach for – a mulled wine of a red rather than a bright pillar box – but these strictures have relaxed. Chanel started turning tradition on its head more than a decade ago with counterintuitive seasonal shades – launching iced light green Jade in winter garnered a waiting list.

But even greater change has occurred since the seismic shift of the past two years, says Thea Green, founder of Nails Inc: ‘The old rules have gone out of the window!’ The first lockdown showed ‘an immediate and steep rise in neons and polish effects – a 300 per cent rise, in fact’. These shades would usually trend later in the year when people travel to sunny destinations. A similarly bright mood prevailed polishwise through Christmas 2020 and the first few months of last year with nail effect and glimmer also soaring early.

But singer Adele threw a spanner in the colourful works. Leighton Denny, leading nail expert and eponymous brand founder, says that within 24 hours of her ‘Easy on Me’ video coming out (with the close-up shots of her nails in it), his deep berry colour Jungle Juice shot to first place in the best-seller list.

It replaced Butterfly Wings, a pale pink with a dash of blue iridescence, which had been topping his autumn/winter charts and sold out twice. (For a similar shade to Jungle Juice, try Brittan Brown, far right.)

So the light and the dark of it is: there are no rules, only moods.

Dior Vernis in Mineral Peach, €27, arnotts.ie

Suqqu Nail Color Polish in Uguisu, €14.49, cultbeauty.com

Revlon Ultra HD Snap! in Think Pink, €7.99, superdrug.com/ie

Nails Inc 45 Second Speedy Gloss in House Hunting in Holland Park, €9, nailsinc.com

Rimmel Kind & Free in All Greyed Out, €6.49, superdrug.com

Max Factor Masterpiece Xpress in Feelin’ Pine, €8.99, boots.ie

Leighton Denny in Eager Vegan, €14, leightondenny.com

OUR BEAUTY DIRECTOR’S HERO BUYS

A burst of nail colour is a cheap way of getting your beauty kicks

Essie The Nail Tech Edit x Michelle Humphrey in Go Overboard, €9.99, boots.ie

Ashe London in Brittan Brown, €18, ashelondon.com

@edwinaingschambers