MUA Makeup Academy Nail Constellation (Nail Caviar dupe)

MUA Nail Constellation

This is basically another dupe for Ciaté's Caviar Nails from MUA;  a further - even cheaper - alternative would be to visit a good craft store and purchase micro beads; because that is all these are, in essence. (that said, the little funnel-lidded pot is very handy for pouring these onto your nails).  As far as I recall these cost me less than £3 each, and as far as I know they're on sale for £2 each at the moment.

There are 5 different types, names after different constellations;

• Leo  purple & light blue
• Pieces  light pink & light blue
• Libra  black & light blue
• Gemini  pink, purple, light blue, silver
• Scorpio  rainbow colours

I purchased the Leo, Pisces and Libra (Gemini is kind-of creatable by mixing the three of these together and I wasn't mad about the Scorpio colours).

Leo
Base colour:  MAC Rain of Flowers

Pieces
Base colour: Illamasqua Viridian

Libra
Base colour: Chanel Black Satin

Leo, Pieces, Libra all mixed together
Base colour: Nails Inc Victoria

These are extremely simple to use:

• First off, wriggle the tip off (it's rubberised so it comes off easily enough), remove the plastic cover between the tip and the container, replace the tip and you're good to go.
• Apply your usual nail polish - 2 or 3 coats as per normal.
• On the last coat of nail polish, and per nail, while the polish is still wet, hold your nail over a bowl and pour the microbeads onto the wet polish (the bowl will collect the beads that fall off and you can simply pour them back into the container later).
• Do this for each finger to which you wish to apply the microbeads.
• When it's had a chance to dry down, you can add a top-coat which can help to prolong the manicure.

These look quite cute but do bear in mind that they will start to fall off reasonably quickly (within a day) and continue to come away over time.  This is not a manicure that will last you ages, but it's fun!  I like the look of a statement nail with these microbeads, I'm not crazy about an entire manicure done this way (but this is my personal preference).

MUA is available in Ireland in Superdrug (there are limited enough Superdrug stores in Dublin and Limerick) - I purchased a bunch of Superdrug stuff in London when I visited pre-Christmas.  Look here for more information (while it's still available!)