Birthday Nails

For my birthday I actually went to Nails inc and got my nails done. I had their two week manicure which is 2 layers of the Bio Sculpture Gel base, followed by 2 coats of a nail polish of choice. Then another gel layer and finished with their Kensington Topcoat Caviar. I chose to have Pudding Lane Sprinkles polish because I hadn't seen it before and it looked really good. It did last just short of the two weeks. Not because of lifting or chipping but because my nails had grown so much in that time there was a huge gap between my nail beds and the polish. 

But after talking to the nail tech I decided to just paint over the top of the gel. I removed the top coat with acetone free nail varnish remover, then buffed the nail so the ridge between my nail and the gel. I then proceeded to do the base coat and paint as normal.

Because I had received so many polishes for my birthday as well as The Wah Nails Book Of Nail Art (from Hannah), I had lots of ideas to try.  

I came up with these:

Working from my thumb outwards I'll explain how they were created. 

The polish used on both thumbs was Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine. The left one is Watermelon and the right is Blackberry, they both required two coats.. The bows were created using directions from the Wah nails book. Using a white nail art pen, I used a Models Own one, draw the outline of the bow. Fill it in with white nail varnish. When it is dry outline the bow with a black nail art pen. Do as much or as little detail as you want.

The index finger is done by simply painting two coats of white nail varnish and when that is dry apply one coat of crackle nail polish. I used Barry M Instant Nail Effects. 

The middle finger is again a Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine this time Blue Plum. After this was dry draw on the heart with a white nail art pen. Fill in with white polish then when this has dried cover the white in a glitter coat. You could use a nail pen for this but I carefully used Nails inc Kingly Street.

The ring finger is Nails inc new Graffiti polish. I thought a white base would look best for this. On top of this apply one coat of graffiti polish. The left finger is Hoxton Street and the right is Brick Lane. 

Finally the little finger, is simply two coats of Nails inc's Tate polish. (On the right one you can kind of see where the gel is under the nail.)

I can't decide which nail is my favourite, as soon as I decide I look at the others again and change my mind.

Hope you like them as much as I do. Let me know if you try any of the ideas!!

Hello

I'm starting this blog because my best friend insisted that I did. (Yes Hannah that is you) You should look at her blog too. It is awesome hannahsweetpea.blogspot.com. So anyway, I enjoy nail art and painting my nails which is what this blog will be based around. 
Below are some examples of previous nails that I have done.

I liked these because they were really shiny and made the black much more interesting 

These lasted a surprisingly long time even through work where they normally get chipped within seconds. I received a lot of compliments for these too. 

These were done because I was inspired by a style created using Bio Sculpture Gel. These aren't gel. Just normal nail polish with a top coat to make them shiny and last longer. They surprised me how easy they were to create.

These were my favourite. I loved the colour and the glitter and the gems made them look really elegant and different. They also made my nails look longer than they actually were at the time.

If you want anymore information about how to recreate these or products used just leave a message and I'll let you know. 

So there is a sample of what this blog will mainly be. Hope you find it as interesting as me.