Roses

My nails are getting loooooonngggg - which means more space to put nail art on!

These designs are taken from the Wah Nails Book of Nail Art, which I was very lucky to get for Christmas. It's an exact copy, apart from the colours, so I take exactly zero credit for the design!

I've been putting off trying to do this flowery look for a while, basically because it looks really hard, but the step by step in the book made it look kind of do-able and actually it turned out to be one of the quickest and easiest manicures that I've ever done.

If, like me, you thought "that looks way to hard", please give it a go because this type of nail art doesn't have to be perfect, in fact it looks more realistic if the flower aren't exactly circular and if the detailing isn't completely uniform.

The technique was so simple - I painted the pale pink base coat and then added three different coloured blobs, just using the end of the nail varnish brush. I purposely tried to make the blobs irregular shapes. Then I just created random lines around the blobs with a black nail art pen, trying to make them look rose like. 

This was my first go at using the nail art pen and I was quite impressed with the consistency and precision.

Polishes used:
Pink background - Soap and Glory - Pink Soda
Dark Pink flower - OPI - Pink Flamenco
Purple flower - Models Own - Grape Juice
Dusky Pink flower - China Glaze - Fifth Avenue
Black Details - Primark nail art pen - pack of two, pink and black
Also base and top coat - Seche Vite and OPI

Stripey nails

I had the idea in my head for these nails for a long time from a very strange source of inspiration, which I'll get onto a bit later.

I originally imagined the stripes to be a little wider and to have more pink showing than black, but after doing them freehand and completely failing at doing the stripes in a straight, uniform line, I decided to use striping tape which was really thin but produced really nice, crisp lines. It was a bit fiddly but I think I got better at it as I went on.


Basically I painted my nails pink, added the striping tape, painted black all over my nails and quickly pulled the striping tape off. You need to wait around 10 seconds before pulling the tape off just to make sure that the polish has dried enough that it won't run when you remove the tape and that it will stay in a nice, straight line.

Polishes used:

Pinkink - Model's Own Fruit Pastel Collection - Strawberry Tart (which is scented like strawberries!) Black - Essie.

Oh and the inspiration :-)

Cuticle Tattoos

Anyone remember temporary tattoos from when they were little?
The kind you get free in a bag of crisps or on the front of a comic?
Well, they're back in teeny tiny cuticle form. I've been seeing these for a while now and I can't decide if I hate them or if they're growing on me.

These particular ones are from radnails.com and they are exactly like their childhood counterparts - you peel them off and stick them to your skin and hold a wet sponge against them until they transfer. The only difference is now you're old enough to have the patience to wait until it's transferred and not peel it up too early and ruin the entire design... hopefully.

I think the look in the picture is quite striking but I'm wondering if, after a few days, the tattoos start to rub off and leave that scaly effect that I seem to remember. I would give them a go but until then, I don't think I'm entirely convinced.

Triangle Tips

These I actually did a few months ago but I wanted to share them anyway. They started off as just the pastel green colour and I kept adding to them as the week went on.

For the base, I used two coats of Models Own - Apple Pie which is scented and smells gorgeous! Although, as with most pastels I found that it was a bit patchy in places, I think you can see near my cuticles, maybe an extra coat would have perfected it.

For the triangles I used a small brush to paint on a triangle of OPI - Jade Is The New Black - a beautiful colour in its own right and then an outline of gold to finish it off.

Classic French

My nails have been getting very long recently so I thought I'd see what a french manicure looks like on really long nails.
So many people asked me this week if they are my real nails! - I guess having pure white tips doesn't look very natural.

I am very happy with the results :-) I think it looks elegant and kind of says "look I have really nice nails" without going over the top and is definitely suitable for the office. 

The only thing is that it's getting difficult to type at work and sometimes even hold things normally but I don't want to cut them!

I did the white tips freehand, which I practised a lot during my nail tech course because it was one of the things that we were examined on. It's actually much easier when the nail is longer because with a short nail, I always end up painting the person's finger!

You can kind of see the real tips of my nails showing through the pink just below the smile line that I painted but I thought it was too far down to paint over for the look I was going for. I find that the natural smile line tends to creep further and further down the nail as they get longer which is a bit of a pain.

Which polishes did I use?

I used OPI for this manicure for two reasons
1. the good quality gives a french manicure a professional finish
2. I just love OPI and will get it out with any excuse.

Here I used two coats of Bubble Bath for the pink and then one coat of Alpine Snow for the white with base and top coat. Some people like to do the white tips first and then paint the pink over the top but I think that's just crazy. My personal preference is to have the tips as white as possible.

Olympia Beauty Show

For those of you that don't know, Olympia Beauty is the trade beauty show of the year in the UK and on 22nd September I was very privileged to attend it with one of my best friends Lauriane. We had such an amazing day among the hundreds of companies that came out to show nail technicians and beauty therapists the products and services they had to offer.
It also happened to be the place where for the third time in a row, the annual Nailympics took place so I was very excited about that. It's the competition where nail techs from all over the globe gather to battle out who is the best at eight different categories such as gel manicure, mixed media and salon nails.

We walked in and I was overwhelmed by the amount and variety of stuff going on, there was just not enough time (or money) to go everywhere and do everything. I managed to get my eyebrows threaded, have a henna tattoo, eat a skewer of chocolate covered marshmallows, have my make up done on top of all the nail stuff that I got up to.

Me stuffing my face with marshmallows!

Lauriane trying out a power plate...

... and getting her make up done

Nailwise, there were the big brand companies like OPI, NSI, The Edge and Salon Systems and lots of smaller companies starting out with interesting business ideas, there was a company that would make bespoke nail jewellery out of a metal of your choice - very decadent. I found an amazing nail accessories shop that was basically a poundland for nails that sold all sorts of things like gems and feathers and nail art brushes. I got 5 pots of dried flowers for a pound! There was a stand that re-introduced me to nail stamping, I forgot how simple and quick it is to get such a finely detailed print so I've ordered some plates to get back into it. Basically anything that could be done to your nails was represented. Here is what they did to my nail, which I'd already painted white myself:

We looked all over the place and eventually found the Nailympics at the end of the day where there were still some nail techs working away but it had mostly finished by then (boooo). We couldn't get very near to them because there was a giant barrier, I guess so we didn't distract them, but it was amazing to watch how the best in the business work and to see them create their masterpieces.

These are the nail stations going off into the distance

The nail techs working away on acrylic tip and overlay (little bit blurry!)

I managed to take a few photos of the fantasy category which I think is the most exciting because they create a look for the whole person to provide a background for the nails.

So, did I go round all day and not come home with anything? Of course not! Below is all of the stuff that I managed to acquire throughout the day. I was particularly pleased with my subscription to Scratch magazine and the awesome free gifts that came with it (two pairs of eyelashes, nail glitter, OPI pedicure set, pink nail varnish, matte top coat, two nail files, cuticle cream and cuticle oil). I also got these striper (not stripper) pens for 50p each - bargain, 5 pots of dried flowers and nail glue. All of this equals one happy Emma :)

I obviously had to get something from OPI and I came away with this gorgeous red shade called Big Apple Red - swatch to follow.

Wow, long post, congratulations if you've got to the end and haven't got bored!

Midi Rings

Today's post isn't strictly about nails but I think these rings definitely set off a manicure. 

I don't think these are for everyone - my boyfriend said to me "it just looks like your rings don't fit you" (boys clearly don't understand fashion) - and I wasn't sure about them to start with but after a shopping trip I saw them and then walked away and then two days later they were still calling to me and I had to go running back to Topshop in case they sold out!

At first, when you put them on they feel like they're going to fall off all the time and it's like you're wearing a ring that's coming off, but they do actually stay on if you give them a chance. You have to force yourself to let go of the instinct to hold on to them all the time and after you get over that it's fine, you can forget you're wearing them like any other jewellery.

I don't know if you can see, but the ring with the white circle has a little "E" in it for my name :)
I've been wearing them nearly every day since I bought them and I have grown to love them so if you're not sure I would definitely give them a go! More about the nail design in a future post.