By Sophia Hussain
Since 2003, Berlin-based uslu airlines has been en route to more than 200 destinations to over 180 countries (that’s more than British Airways or Lufthansa) – and no EU passport is required. Why not? Well, they’re not exactly an airline, but they can make your nails super-fly.
This is a beauty collaboration between two founders, or ‘’co-pilots”–Turkish make-up artist Feride Uslu and German entrepreneur Jan Mihm, whose luxury cosmetics collection offers innovative trend-setting hues at supersonic speed.
Each nail polish hue or ‘’destination” is named after an international airport code, including the most remote locales in the world. Some of the colours in the collection are inspired by the cities the airport codes represent or abstract objects. The lacquers are available in various finishes including: cream, matte, glitter [both fine and disc-like], gel, metallic, and one special effects topcoat which makes the nail polish glow in UV light. The lacquers are designed to smooth out the nails, hence eliminating the need to either buff the nails or apply a ridge-filler.
uslu airlines has been involved with numerous designer collaborations, including creating limited edition colours for the cool Parisian store, Colette boutique and designer Marc Cain. Feride has also done make-up on German supermodels Heidi Klum, Claudia Schiffer, and Nadja Auermann, and Jan is also the CEO of Shukran Cola, which invests in educational and cultural projects in Palestine, as well as for Art is the Alibi, an incubator for discovering international ideas and realizing them as artistic projects.
Of course the brand is fabulously 5-free from harsh chemicals, including: formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate, toluene, formaldehyde resin, and camphor. They have also launched the aptly named nail polish remover BIO (which is also the airport code for Bilbao Sondica), a water-based nail polish remover that works with microscopic crystals to penetrate the lacquer structure, and is gentle for the nails and skin. Like the polishes, it comes housed in a petite minimalist-designed water bottle too.
Being a socially conscious brand, uslu airlines created limited edition colours where a portion of the proceeds are donated to charity, including a collaboration with Bread & Butter for Charity, and Noble Project, an international charity fashion label supported by artists, designers, actors, and musicians.
Tried and Tested
Although tempted to give myself light purple nails with their LAX shade, I finally settled on three colours: a cherry red hue cream finish (UVF – St. Lucia), a pale bronze hue metallic finish (BGX – Brazil), and a bronzed-hue glitter discs (MAD – Madrid). I applied these colours onto oval-shaped fingernails, and no base or top coat was used.
Before settling on my final design, I experimented first since uslu airlines nail polishes are fabulous for endless nail art creations. One layer of MAD looks like scattered petite bronze sequins, and after three layers, MAD looks like clustered sequins on a haute couture creation. One layer of UVF creates a raspberry hue (as two coats transforms into the intended cherry hue), and BGX is a perfect base for creating a half-moon mani. Apply one coat of BGX to the entire nail, wait to dry, then place a semi-circle tape at the base of the nail, then finish off with one coat of UVF – to reveal the half-moon bronze hue metallic lacquer.
For my final design, I applied two coats of UVF on all my fingernails except on the ring finger, where I applied one coat of BGX, and layered one coat of MAD on top. The colours are pigmented, easy to apply due to the wide brush cap design, and dried to a high-gloss luster. The nail polish remains chip-free for at least five days.
To remove the lacquers, I used BIO water-based nail polish remover in three simple steps: apply, wait 30 seconds, remove. There is a lovely non-toxic scent, like an eau de toilette – just make sure to saturate every nail with the remover and wait the full 30 seconds for easy removal, then rinse off with water. BIO is eco friendly as you only use one cotton round to apply the fluid, and use the same one to remove the nail polish.
Overall, uslu airlines is absolute perfection – but you may end up exceeding your flight luggage restriction as you will want to take them all!
For more information, please visit: http://www.usluairlines.com/ Photo Credit: all photos courtesy of uslu airlines.
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