Proceed with 'Caution' - Gelish

I recently ordered some really nice Gelish colours and due to me having a busy few weeks, this is the manicure that I have been wearing.

Gelish 'Caution'.
I accomplished this look with white striping tape and some gems that I got from eBay (not Swarovski).  

The floral detailing was painted (free-hand) with white acrylic paint after I had put down the striping tape. Usually with gel polishes, you are left with a sticky dispersal layer after curing. You would generally wipe this away prior to adding any art, but on this occasion, I placed the tape on after partly curing my last layer of colour for about 10 seconds. After adding the tape. I cured for another 20 seconds under an LED lamp and then added the top coat. When this was cured, I removed the dispersal layer, buffed LIGHTLY with a white block, painted on the flowers and added another layer of top coat when the paint was dry.

Here's a sneaky peak at my right hand, which is completely unused to modelling! I'll let you into a little secret...this was done about two weeks ago has grown out now although the gems are still intact. I'll probably remove it tonight though, because I'll be manicuring on a nail bar this coming week and want my nails to look freshly done!

If you wear gel polish, how long will you usually wear it before removal?

Have a great week.

x

L does Nails...yes I do!

In case you weren't already aware (admittedly, I didn't make a public announcement or anything), I recently began freelancing as a sessional nail technician...under the name of L does Nails .

When I first started out in the world of nails, it was via this blog which was born three years ago. Back then I was on maternity leave with my second child and it felt like I had all the time in the world, believe it or not. After returning to part-time work, I decided to get a nail qualification so that I could possibly run a mobile nail business as a side line. Unfortunately, the whole idea of being mobile didn't fit into my daily schedule, especially after I returned to working more hours per week and after doing a full day in the office, I'd be too tired to want to get back on the road to do nails.

By chance, I got an email from another freelance manicurist who needed my assistance. It was then that I was introduced to 'event nail art'. I've steadily been booked for work doing complimentary manicures on nail bars for press events, product launches and more recently, festivals. Even though my plans to be mobile didn't quite work out how I'd initially wanted them to, other doors have been opened for me and I'm really quite grateful that I've had such fortune. At this point, I'm insured, qualified, registered, trade and already up and running. If I could do this sort of thing full-time I would, but right now it's not feasible. Oh well, who knows what the future holds, eh?

Here's my logo, designed by Rhonda Brown, whom I 'met' on Instagram a year ago:

I love this so much - Rhonda created it after seeing my ideas in a make-shift drawing I did on a sticky label at my office desk!

At some point I will be trying to link my blog to my website, but that will happen in time.

Please stop by and have a look at my site - let me know what you think?

xx

Sophy Robson's Nail Art Masterclass no.2

Hey everyone.

On 13th July , I went to a Nail Art Master Class run by none other than Sophy Robson 

See if you can find me...I'm the one with the big hair ;)

Here are a few of the nails I was able to do on the day:

The event was a lot of fun. I got to ask some pertinent questions about the nail industry, met someone who I have a lot of professional respect for and also got a few cocktails at the end!

The next Master Class will be a good one. Sophie Harris-Greenslade aka The Illustrated Nail will be there! I got to work with her recently (that's another story) and she's soooo nice.

If you're in London (or somewhere in the UK and fancy the journey) will YOU be going to the next class?

xx

Zoya - Pixie dust!!

I'm pretty excited about this manicure - firstly because these are my first EVER Zoya Pixie Dust's and secondly because I took inspiration from one of my favourite nail artists - NailGurlNYC

 Here is Zoya's 'Stevie'.

And this is 'Beatrix.

These beautiful polishes are *from nailcareclub.com

I used two thin coats of colour on all nails apart from the pinkie - on that one, it was three thin coats and you can see the difference in colour. I didn't bother to gloss this up with a top coat because I prefer it in all of its bumpy glory.

Hope you like them!

xx
*Products sent for my consideration.

Powerpuff nails!

It's been a while since I've been on the blog, but here is a manicure that I'm pretty pleased with.

My eldest daughter likes to pick at her nails and in order to stop her from doing this, I've had to start bribing her...with nail art. During the Easter holidays, I told her that she could have any nail art of her choice, providing she didn't pick and tear at her nails. She chose this:

 The Powerpuff girls! Do you like the way she modelled the Barry M 'Blueberry'?

I'm not the best at painting faces but these came out alright. This was done with acrylic paint and a tiny brush.

Hope you like it as much as my daughter did. This lasted for just over a week!

xx

Alessandro International - 'Espresso'

Hi friends.

Tonight's post is one that is a review of Alessandro International's Espresso. I love that name, Alessandro. Everytime I type it, I sing 'alley alley andro, alley alley andro' to myself. I blame Lady Gaga for that. You do have to admit, though, the name rolls nicely off the tongue...Alessandro...

Anyway, this Monday marked one full week of me wearing this manicure. This is a big deal for me, folks. I never wear a manicure longer than a few days.

 Espresso - a deep coffee brown with a subtle blue/grey shimmer.

 This picture was taken next to a window to show you how it looks in normal day light. This is three layers of colour.

 Check out that shimmer...

 So you're wondering what that thing on my ring finger is? It's a Kiss nail wrap that I found in a copy of 'Nail It!' magazine. Unfortunately it only lasted one day, so I removed it and painted on some more.

Now this is my most favourite topcoat at the moment. No shrinkage!

Here is my current manicure :) As you can see, I've mastered the art of taking pictures with sheer Jedi Force...

Until next time folks!

xx

Nail designs from last month

Here are a few things I've done over the past little while:

 

Water colour effect with outlines.

 My favourite in a long while: Water colour effect with gold border

 Patchwork nails

Hand designed 'Mock Croc'

These were some nails that I was preparing for a photo-shoot, but I'm not sure if I'm going to use them yet.

On that note, I'm off...until next time :)

xx

Maybelline's Chocolate Frost on gel nails

Here are some gel nail extensions that I did for GW recently. I now have a tiny lamp which is pretty powerful, so finally, I was able to capture some pictures of work I've done on others. When I work on clients, it tends to be in the evening and I never get decent photos because of the lighting.

GW trusts my judgement when it comes to her nails and after I had removed some Gellux and acrylic holly (similar to what I am wearing in this post), she wanted to continue with a little length.

The gel system I used was NSI and the polish was a Chocolate Frost by Maybelline. I'm not 100% sure, but I think this one may be discontinued - I haven't seen it anywhere. Don't quote me though. Here it is in another old post picture:

These pictures are pretty old, so feel free to visit the original post

Party menu

Hi everyone.

This is a quick post to show you the menu I had for a nail polish party I did a few days before Christmas '12 (that makes it sound so far away, doesn't it?)

I can't wait until my next party - it was so much fun!

xx

2True 'Shade 3'

Recently I've managed to build up quite a few un-tried. What with frivolous polish buying and taking part in a Secret Polish Santa on Instagram, my second Helmer (yes, I now have another) is now brimming.

Here's one I picked up and have been staring at for a few weeks:

This is 2True's 'Shade 3'.

This is two layers of a blue jelly polish jam packed with glitter hexagons. So jam packed in fact...it was quite thick. I some of the hexagons were standing on their sides - that's how thick the consistency was. I had to pat them into place! Stroking this onto the nail was not easy.

I think I may have to add a few drops of polish thinner before wearing this one again. It's really not bad though because this only cost £1.99 (from Superdrug).

Have a good weekend and thanks for reading.

xx

Mani's I've missed

You know what it's like. You do a mani, you remove it and then you forget to post it?

As I've already said, my New Year's resolution is to be more organised in terms of blogging (and schedule posts if I know I have a busy week). I also need to make more use of my blogging app on my phone too.

Here are a few things I've done recently.

Some press-on's I did for Annie for a photo shoot.

This pattern was created with acrylic paint and Nails Inc's Baker Street.

Black Gellux and glitter.

The acrylic extensions I gave myself for Christmas. I had some staining which I covered with a rose blush acrylic.

That's it for now.

xx

On the grind...

Some of you may already know this, but for those who don't, I've been pretty busy over the last few months.
Thanks to Twitter and my trusty old blog, I've managed to find myself work as a session and free-lance technician. Along with being able to assist David Barton at a show for London Fashion Week, I also work as one of those manicurists that you might find at a blogger press event every so often, lol!
I've also decided to offer my manicurist services as a mobile nail technician - you can find out more at Ldoesnails.com. I'd actually intended to focus on working in this manner, but as fate would have it, I was approached to take part in a photo shoot for a magazine publication and the rest went from there.  Here is a test picture and the other pictures will be published in Black Hair Magazine in January:

I don't know the name of this pretty lady, but her nails are falsies that I pre-designed and applied on the day of the shoot.

More recently, I was on another magazine shoot involving four models... I only remembered to take one picture (slaps forehead):

 This girl was gorgeous - she looked like Pocahontas. Here hair wasn't done yet though, so I only got a picture of her hand.

So, this is why I haven't been as active with blogging, reading other blogs or answering your lovely comments in a timely manner.

Thanks for sticking around, lovelies.
xx

Hello!

Well, hello!!

It's been about a month since I've blogged or even attempted to have a look at my dashboard. After having so many things going on, blogging became a second thought and I didn't want to just churn out manicures for the sake of it. Hence my sabbatical.

I thought that for the next few posts I would just show you what I've been doing.

 I absolutely love this pink. It's a jelly polish so you will need a few coats of it, but this is a colour that will definitely cheer you up. I wore this manicure to The Nails Show...but it didn't last more than one day because I used the wrong UV top coat and the whole thing started to crack!

 

I worked at The Cherished Hair Party the following weekend and wore the below designs:

Here's a set of nails I did at the party:

And here are a few pictures of some other manicures that I've done recently:

This particular design was one I found on Instagram and replicated.

I do have a backlog of pictures, so please bare with me.

Thanks for continuing to subscribe and follow during my absence.

xx