Nailstori: IBD blogger event

I was lucky enough to have been invited to Grafton International last thursday for their ‘IBD geeks - back to school’ blogger event.

It was a day packed full of practical and theory, learning all there is to know about the simple mani and gel nails.

We arrived to a beautifully drawn poster from one of the ibd nail ladies, and yummy pastries whilst we got to know the other guests. We then met Laura the IBD nail tech who led us into the lush nail room, filled with lots of beauty products and SO much nail polish.

The morning was spent doing a bit of nail theory; learning everything from nail anatomy to the history of manicures. As I have always been self taught in my nail journey, I didn’t know any of the information we were being taught so for me it was such an interesting extra to the day I didn’t expect. It will really help me when doing other peoples nails in the future and definitely widened my overall nail knowledge.

Laura followed by showing us the simple mani; including filing, cuticle care and french manicure whilst answering our many questions.

This was followed by a practical lesson, giving each other mani’s putting our new skills to the test.

The morning went so quickly and before I knew it, it was lunch time. We enjoyed a cup of tea and sandwiches chatting everything there is about blogging, taylor swift and christmas nail collections.

The afternoon was all about the IBD Just gel collection. They have 114 gel nail polishes in their staple collection.

We were shown how to do a french and a plain gel colour. As a complete gel novice I found this part of the day particularly interesting and had so many questions. Laura made the whole process super easy to understand and remember. I thought it was going to be very complicated but it really wasn’t (when taught the correct way!)

We then had a go on each other and were all in awe of how shiny the IBD polishes were… our absolute fave was Smokey Plum - a perfect autumnal colour. Safe to say I had made my mind up about buying it later in the day.

Then onto our lesson in removal - I had the assumption that this was the most annoying - not to mention nail ruining experience. Of course Laura proved my expectations were myths. After putting this to the test and asking lots more nail related questions along with a bit of singing to Taylor Swift’s new album the short course was complete. And by this time we all had our eyes on the products we were going to get our hands on, and were eager to get browsing.

The IBD ladies then came into the salon with huge IBD goodie bags! They were filled with so many exciting things - I couldn’t wait to get home and try it all out!

I feel so fortunate to have been a part of the day and had the chance to learn so much in such a small space of time. I was also really delighted by the generosity of IBD - I absolutely love the products they had gifted to us and cannot wait to try them out/review them and share my experience.

I've included lots of pictures below - so have a good scroll!