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

Just a bit of glitter and stickers

Today, I thought I'd show you a mani that I have been wearing for about a week. 

This is gel polish, and some Nailtopia nail stickers.

 The stickers are roses and the rest is acrylic paint.

  The lines are done with a very thin detailing brush and the dots? A dotting tool!

Here they are again in a 'negative space' manicure. The polish is gelish this time.

The stickers are thick and raised, so if using them with nail polish or gel polish, you will feel them if you run your finger over them. I suppose that this isn't a bad thing really - the stickers are quite sturdy as a result. I can't really fault them and I have been quietly adding these to my stash since last year...shhhh. It's not just polish that I hoard (muhahahahaaaa!)

xx

Zombie nails!

Recently I asked some of my Instagram followers what sort of nail art themes they would like me to try. One of the themes that popped up was 'Zombie'. I'm not the best at drawing/painting, but I think I'm able to get my ideas across...what do you think? By the way, feel free to click the link and follow me (@ldoesnails)

Zombie nails...macabre, but still fun *insert evil laugh*.

Here's a close-up of the brain nail. There's a bite taken out of it in the top corner, hehehe.

Drippy eyeball nail.

He's supposed to be a zombie, but he looks more like a Scooby Doo ghoul. Meh.

My favourite nail - the dismembered finger and craggy nail!

Erm...Zombie nail.

For the grey base, I used Maybelline Color Show 'Audacious Asphalt' and the rest was all acrylic paint.

I hope you like them :)

xx

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

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

Racer back nails!

Happy Friday, friends!

Tonight, I'm featuring a manicure created by Madeline Poole. I love her work so much because she has come up with some amazing concepts and works in the world of celebrity and session manicuring (something I am also working towards...slowly, ha!)

First, let me show you the polish I used as a base:

Maybelline's 'Audacious Asphalt'.
Two coats, one layer of Toma 45 second top coat (I didn't use a base coat because I'm wearing acrylics which have a uv gel top coat on them).

Generally, I'm not a fan of nudes, greys or beiges. This, however, I do like.

 This is quite a 'bright' grey. It catches the eye because it has a blue undertone.

Another shot of the 'racer back' nails look created by Madeline Poole. You can find a tutorial for this look right HERE.

Have a great weekend!

xx

Strawberries and cream

A few weeks ago I was in the mood for some Eton Mess. Yes, that lovely, simple dessert comprising of meringue, strawberries and whipped cream was on my brain for days. When I'd made up my mind to go and buy the ingredients, there was not a strawberry to be found at my local Sainsbury's!  It was when I was staring at my lonesome double cream in the fridge, that I had an idea...strawberries and cream!!

You'll see that I found my strawberries in the end! I went for pouring cream...made out of acrylic. The white acrylic powder was sent to me along with 17 of it's colourful friends, courtesy of Born Pretty Store. If you've never visited before, please do - and  use the 10% discount code in the sidebar for any purchases.

Out of the 18 tiny pots of acrylic contained in the package, I used the one pot of white powder with a monomer, or acrylic liquid. Because the powder is specifically for creating art structures, it was 'slow setting' and I was able to mold and shape the acrylic without it drying out too quickly. This acrylic is a different consistency (in my opinion) to that which you would use to create a french tip on a sculpted acrylic nail extension. Unfortunately I spilt the little pot of powder after doing these nails, hence why I left the two fingers 'creamless'. Honestly, I could've kicked myself.

The 'seeds' are plastic yellow bullion. No glue was used - they stuck quite well in a clear top coat which was covered in a further two coats of Seche Vite.

Another gratuitous shot of the highly sought-after strawberry.

I loved them so much that I decided to make some false nails...using some white molding acrylic powder (for extensions) which has a different consistency to the previous powder. It wasn't the same, but I had to improvise because having this idea bouncing around in my head would cause me to have sleepless nights. Really.

I'm not usually one for wearing fruit on my fingers (it's not quite office appropriate, is it?), but I thought these were cute.

Would YOU wear food on your fingers??

xx

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

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

2013, welcome...(NYE mani enclosed!)

As I sit here typing at my archaic PC, after a major laptop crisis...which ended up being no crisis at all, I'm pondering over this old year. During 2012 I managed to accomplish several goals I have set myself and also gain from experiences I never thought I'd have.  In terms of the 'nailism', I got my qualifications, insurance, set up a website (which I did not promote, due to my health being fragile) and had the new-found confidence to take my skills and passion to a different level.

Throughout all of this my blog fell to the wayside, because being a mother to small children, an employee, a blogger, a nail art lover, a nail painter to myself, a manicurist to others and a session nail technician became a little overwhelming. The session work came as a pleasant and welcomed surprise, but my love of late nights, early mornings, busy days and a stressful office job meant that something had to give.

This year, I aim to be more organised and actually read the 'to-do' lists that I make at home. Perhaps diarising things may ease the anxiety I've felt on occasion, when I've sat here staring at the 'compose' page.
Don't get me wrong, I still love my blog (hence the little overhaul), I hate that I've neglected it.

I will now post everything I do, my nails and other peoples too. My love for polish and nail art has not changed; I've just been a little pre-occupied.

 What I'm wearing right now...Jacava's 'Blueberry Muffin'*

 Can I just say that I love this shade?? It's a British brand (whoop, whoop!) and it's 4-free, meaning there's no formaldehyde, toluene, camphor or DBP in it to be of detriment to your health.

 I couldn't stop staring at my nails.

 I'm also loving my acrylics...I've missed having nails *sobs*

And to make this manicure more New Year worthy, I threw glitter at it.

 Why the drips? I don't know, I just like drips!

I'll end, saying only that I wish you all the very best this year. Make those dreams work in 2013...

xx
*Sent to me for my coconsideration.

Gellux: Oriental Poppy and Gold Rush

I know I've said that I'm usually not partial to gel nail polish, but I cannot deny that it is really practical for me.  I suppose my main concerns were that I wouldn't be able to find a good variation of colours and that doing art would be too difficult.
Welp, I've proved myself wrong.

This is Oriental Poppy, with Cherry Blossom (pink) and Gold Rush.

This took a little longer to create (not much) than a manicure with normal polish might've...but this is because I had to cure every single layer of gel polish that I applied, before going on to the others. Sound excessive? Well, it wasn't, considering it only took 30 or so seconds for each coat to cure under an LED light (it would've taken 2 minutes with a UV light!)
The only thing I had issue with was the black acrylic paint. Initially, the lines were much thicker, but after curing, the top coat over the thick lines bubbled. After each layer of gel is cured under a UV/LED light, there is a sticky layer left. This is not removed if you are going to continue applying more colours or topcoats - this sticky 'dispersion layer' is what bonds one layer of gel to another. I have a feeling that I covered too much of this dispersion layer with my acrylic paint and this caused the topcoat to bubble in these areas. Had I used a black gel polish, I wouldn't have had this problem. I just picked off the bubbled area, buffed the shine off the polish and then repainted the lines. I always find a work around and I enjoy experimenting to make things work for me. 

I'm going to try my best to stick with this manicure over the next few weeks - just to test Gellux's longevity. Hopefully, if Santa is good to me this year, I might be able to increase my Gellux stash!
I should also say that despite there being reviews suggesting that there have been issues with removal, I've not encountered any problems.  On this occasion I've used Salon System Profile's new 'Easy-off' base-coat...we'll see how it goes.
xx

Nails inc 'Victoria' and Essie's 'St Lucia Lilac'

Here's my first manicure after chopping my nails. I've actually missed this square shape quite a bit, so it was pretty refreshing to wear it again.

The bottle says it all. This is my favourite nails inc polish. It's a beautiful deep, blood red jelly. I can't get enough of it.

Essie's 'St Lucia Lilac'...and a bit of gold acrylic paint. I had to put on three coats, but I still have a bit of a bald spot on my ring finger. Never mind, I still love this polish.

Do you have 'Victoria'? What do you think of it?

xx

Boutique Nails

Okay, so I've finally downloaded an app which will allow me to blog (with pictures) on the go, straight from my phone. I'm really, REALLY hoping this will work, because I would prefer to blog in real time as opposed to whenever I have five minutes to off-load a backlog of posts.

Here goes...

Here are a few pictures of nail set that I painted recently:

I now have a little on-line shop ( boutiquenails.bigcartel.com ) where I'm selling my hand painted nail sets and a few rings. I add new items regularly so feel free to visit and peruse. If you have any questions, ask down below! Have a look here at EpiphannieA wearing my 'Rhino' nail set (and please follow her blog because she's AWESOME...and has a better camera than I *sniff*)

Another picture of a pink neon set.

Whilst I know a lot of you are perfect polishers already, there are a lot of ladies who prefer to have someone polish their nails for them. Some people also prefer the convenience of press-on nails. If you think you know someone who would like a set as a gift, please visit the site and contact me. 

There's a 22% discount on orders, for two weeks, to coincide with what was my second blogger anniversary...in October (shakes head)! Just use the code: TWOYEARS

Let me know what you think?


xx

Models Own - Disco Inferno

Hi everyone.

I have my next Models Own polish swatch. This is Disco Inferno over Rimmel's Black Out:

Same formula - clear jelly with gold, orange and green glitters.

The glitter is a lot more vibrant in real life. My camera seems to be on it's way out...it's not as good as it used to be *sigh*.

 These colours reminded me of Halloween, so three days after I painted my nails (that's right, no chips yet), I did the below:

I was actually in the processes of thinning my detail brush and thought I'd test out the thickness. It's still not thin enough yet though. I need a brush that has about three hairs in it, so I'm back to clipping this one.

If you partake in the Halloween festivities over the weekend, enjoy!

xx