nails

New Moyou London Stamping Plates!!

~ buttonnailslovesmakeup ~ 6 Comments

image

Hello my little buttons!!

Just a quick blog post on my new stamping plates from Moyou London. Moyou is my all time favourite place to buy plates, they’re £5 each and have every design imaginable. They also have weekly new releases so there is never a shortage of new products. I noticed they had released some new nautical themed plates!!!! Although I already have a pretty good collection of plates, I love anything nautical so couldn’t resist. I always buy new products with my customers in mind but from time to time I do splurge on some thing for myself. I’m pretty sure they will be popular with my customers too but not gonna lie, they’re for me!!!!

image

Tried them out this weekend and as predicted they were spectacular, each designed stamped easily and looked gorgeous on the nail. I love the detail on some of these designs and find it amazing that with the right stamper you can capture that on a nail.

image

Please excuse my dry skin I’ve done a lot of cleaning this weekend! What are your favourite stamping plates? I’d love to hear in the comments below!

Becca xxx

Great ways to express yourself through nails + lots of pics!

~ buttonnailslovesmakeup ~ Leave a comment

Hello my little buttons! 

For those of you that don’t know I’m a Gelish Nail Technician specialising in nail art. I have a huge passion for nails and my lovely customers, I go into more detail in my recent blog ‘what I love about being a nail technician + loads of pics!’ 

I put my all into every set I do, but from time to time there’s Some really special sets I get to create, and I don’t just mean elaborate crazy nail art. I mean the meaning behind them.  

  
These were incredibly special to this sweet customer, a dedication to her poorlie father in law just to make him smile. As he was in the RAF she thought this would be fitting. We lightened them up with a pale sky blue and clouds, her husband loved them too which just added to her happiness in this hard and difficult time. 

  
   
   
  
Holiday nails!!!! There’s are always fabulous and fun, I do countless holiday nails in the summer. This is a time where even the most neutral girls like a bit of colour. They go bold and bright and I just love it!! It’s so much fun matching nails to a certain evening dress, bikini or even sandals, really bespoke sets catering fully to the customers requirements. 

   
   
 
Birthday nails are also a huge hit and can be really unique. Lots of ladies tend to go all out with glitter for big nights out or a quiet meal with friends and family. Although there are sets that have quite a bit of thought put into them. The rocky horror nails were for my very dear friend for her rocky horror fancy dress themed party, these were really fun to create she knew exactly what she wanted. The next set was another good friends nails for her 50th she had a 50s themed party so we matched her nails to her awesome dress including some tiny pink poodles on the thumbs. The last set was for one of my younger crazy friends who had a pink black and leopard print party, as her outfit was black we did leopard print with bright pink glitter. Nothing better than my customers and friends being happy with their nails! 

  
First date nails. This is a fairly new customer who I am falling in love with already! She’s a real neutral/French kinda gal. When she had a special first date she decided to be brave and go for colour, it really suited her and since then has even had nail art. She’s getting braver and braver which I know she would 😜 

   
   
Work do nails. Wether it’s a bonding day, a trip away or a night out all my professional ladies love their nails looking their best! This mainly involves matching colours or patterns to outfits, or choosing something that will go with anything if they are undecided such as black with super glitter to make them eye catching and special. 

    
 
   
    
    
    
   
   
 
And last but defiantly not least, I call this selection ‘random joy,’ nails that truly express yourself and are made for pure happiness and to make life a brighter place. These are for hardcore nail lovers that are not afraid of colour or pattern or what others think. As long as they love them that’s really all that matters.

I could literally talk all day about this topic but I will stop here! If you would like to see more photos check out my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/buttonnails or on Instagram ‘buttonnailslovesmakeup’ !! I really hope you enjoyed this blog, if you’d like to read more please subscribe! Have a fantastic day! xxx 

What I love about being a Gelish Nail Technician + lots of pics! 

~ buttonnailslovesmakeup ~ 2 Comments

  

 Hello my little buttons!

As you can tell by the title I’m a Gelish nail technician, my nail business is called Button Nails and I work from home in my colourful crazy kitchen. I am qualified in other nail services but now exclusively offer Gelish. I never thought I’d be a nail tech due to the fact I used to bite my nails. Shock horror I know. It had never been on list of ‘jobs I want to do’ so when I decided to train in nails every one was more than a bit surprised.   After the birth of my second child I decided it was time to stop biting my nails, it was embarrassing and I hated people looking at my hands, even handing money over in a shop made me cring. I had heard Gelish was great for growing your nails out, it contained keratin to make them grow faster, it protected them and I thought if they were pretty enough i might resist the urge to nibble. Thankfully it worked and pretty soon I had long strong nails. After having two sets of nails and being fascinated by the whole process I decided to train in Gelish myself. I’m very impulsive as you may have guessed!! I chose to do my training with Catherine who worked for NailHarmony, the creators of Gelish, as I had decided this was the brand for me so wanted to train specifically with them. Training was amazing I learnt so much she was a wonderful teacher.  2 and a half years on and here I am. I LOVE MY JOB. It doesn’t even feel like work, more a fun hobby that I’m paid for. I’ve always been very creative but never had a job where I can really express that. The only thing that’s changed is the size of my canvas! I got into nail art very quickly and soon was testing nail art tools and designs on anyone that would let me. Nothing makes me happier than a customer requesting truly bespoke nails or even better, giving me free reign!  To a lot of my customers having their nails done is their one treat to themselves and they really look forward to it. When they leave relaxed and happy it honestly makes my day. Total job satisfaction. I also have so much fun, not just with painting and creating, but with my ladies! We always have a giggle and it’s been lovely overtime building up relationships  and friendships, hearing the good news and the bad and giving them an hour away from ‘the real world’ I can’t think of a job I would like to do more!  Another plus side is, as I’m lucky enough to be self employed and work from home I get to choose my own hours and work around my family. I love being able to drop my daughter off at school and pick her up again, getting to go to all her assembly’s and sports days. In my eyes it really doesn’t get better! Here’s are a few more examples of my work below, if you want to keep up to date go to http://www.facebook.com/buttonnails or follow me on Instagram at buttonnailslovesmakeup !! 

   

  

 

 

   

   

  

   

Nail tutorial- leopard print nails

~ buttonnailslovesmakeup ~ 1 Comment

Hello my little buttons!

You may not know but I’m actually a nail technician, mainly offering Gelish, which is a gel polish that lasts for up to 3 weeks. A huge passion of mine is nail art, it’s part of the reason I love my job so much. Getting to be creative and coming up with really bespoke nails for my customers. It’s also where the name buttonnailslovesmakeup comes from as my business is called Button Nails! http://www.facebook.com/buttonnails 

One design that is incredibly popular, and a lot easier than it looks, is leopard print nails. Sure you can buy nail wraps but nothing feels better than saying your nail art was hand painted. Achieving this yourself is also something to be proud of, so here are my tips and tricks on painting leopard print. I have used Gelish in these photos but it can be done with polish too you just might need to work a bit quicker. I will explain this a bit later on.

 

  1.  Gently push back your cuticles and shape your nails.
  2. Choose your colours! For this demonstration I chose these particular colours to make it easier to see what I’ve done but u can use nearly any colours.
  3. Base coat.
  4. Paint your nails like normal, I chose white to make the brighter colours really pop. 
  5. Cure in your light or leave to dry.
  6. Pour out a small blob of a darker colour gel/polish onto a plate or plastic lid. Something you can clean away the excess off after. For gel polish your in no rush as it won’t cure without an uv/led light but if your using polish it drys fairly quick so your better off pouring out a small amount at a time rather than wasting large amounts. Also don’t use anything fast drying at this stage as it will make this harder!
  7. Using a dotting tool (mine are £2 from eBay and came in 6 different sizes) use the tiny ball on the end to dab into the polish/gel and place on your nail making small semi circles, bearing in mind you will be adding a dot of colour inbetween. Don’t try and cram to many in, place small dots in between to add to the effect. 
  8. Cure in your light or leave to dry
  9. With your final colour add small dots in-between the semi circles then leave to dry or cure.
  10. Top coat.

Tadaaa your done! This might take some practice but once you get into the swing of it it’s easy and fun! Here are some other examples of how I have used leopard print with different colours and designs. 

  
Here I used beiges and browns but to mix it up painted a ribbon and bow. 

  
Here I used dark and light grey with white and a matte top coat.

 
Here I used yellow with grey to soften the look.

  Pale pink with soft greys is also very popular.  

  
Last but not least to add a pop of colour you can have a glittery colourful feature nail, create what you want to create and have fun doing it! xxx