Newbie gel polish nail art

Today's post is all about my gel nails for my trip tomorrow. 

I always do gels for trips away and long weekends so that my nails are protected and there is no chipage. However, I didn't want just a plain colour because us nail addicts like to make it a little more complicated than that! 

For this mani I used; ibd - base, Indie Oasis & top coat. And the red colour was Gelish - Plum and done. 

You may already know that I love ibd's products so if you want to read my thoughts have a look at my previous blog posts about their products. 

I borrowed Gelish from a friend because I had such a bad experience with my Sensationail red and wanted a deep red for this design.

I really liked this brand - no shrinkage and had a great finish. However, because I was putting it over another colour it took quick and many applications to get good coverage. But other than that I really liked the brand! They have a great range of colours too. 

This mani was definitely a 'learn from my mistakes' kind. 

At first I was trying to create this with striping tape (as I would with normal polish). I did a whole hand of this and wasn't loving it at all, it was way too messy for my liking.

For my next hand (the one in this picture) (minus the pinkie finger) I did free hand. This worked so much better! I wish I had done this on my right hand as I'm left handed so would have been much neater! 

But now I know - and I know that free hand is so easy creating a great gel nail designs. 

I also used cuter cuticles - cutie guard to ensure any gel polish didn't cure on my cuticles. This worked so well because there is nothing worse than gel on cuticles that you can't get off! 

This mani was a great learning experience and I can't wait to try other gel nail art with other colours! 

I am off to Prague really early in the morning and won't be blogging for a few days but I will be on Instagram still so you can keep up on @nailstori. 

Thanks for reading... Have a great weekend.

xox

Gel Dynasty

Another winner from IBD Just gel. 

For my weekend away, I wore Jade Dynasty - a lovely light green. This is three coats of colour giving almost full coverage. I like this polish slightly transparent as it is a really pretty and subtle green shade. 

I always use gels when I know I'm going to be out all weekend leaving no time for nail care. Is it sad that I think that far ahead? Anyway, gels are great for preventing breakage and gives a good strong barrier. 

These were such a dream to remove as well, so my nails were in such good condition after removal. Ready for some nail art coming shortly! 

Don't forget to enter my giveaway ending February 13th. 

xox 

IBD always

Over the Christmas holidays I've had the pleasure of doing many nails and thought I would share my thoughts of recent polishes I've used. 

After attending the ibd blogger event in October they kindly gave me a gel starter kit and I've been practicing ever since. I've really got into using gels and learning all I can about them.

Using; ibd Peach Blossom and Paint Riot over top.

I impatiently wanted a deep red colour for the holidays so bought a cheap SensatioNail one from Boots. I was so disappointed! The colour shrank when applying and there was lots of unnecessary clean up to be done. 

This is when I realised that like all polish but particularly gels - product quality really matters! 

It became even more clear how great the quality of ibd gel is. The application is really smooth with absolutely no shrinkage. When I had heard that gels can 'shrink' I didn't really understand what this was because ibd Just gel never did this. I now have a very good understanding of it! Just gel lasts as gel polish should and is such an easy process to remove.

Gel polishes are great in the winter months for nail growth as nails are weaker and the gels provide a sort of protective layer, ibd has really helped my nails through December!

Such a fab and yet affordable product - after trying other products I wouldn't compromise the quality of ibd. 

I have already added more ibd just gel polishes to my birthday list!

Much nail love to be had. 

xox 

Twitter: IBDnailsUK

Instagram: IBDbeauty

Oh Smokey Plum

My first experience of using ibd Just gel at home was a successful one.

Using the instruction pack from the training day to refresh my memory, it was a breeze.

This is using three coats of Smokey Plum - such a gorgeous fall colour. 

I decided to do a plain mani to see if my efforts pay off and see how long it lasts to improve on next time. However, I might add some striping tape in a week or so. (I'll report back if I do)

How amazing is the shine too - I cannot stop looking at it!

This colour is perfect for my week ahead as it is quite neutral and goes with every outfit I have planned. I am off to London to do some work experience and won't have any nail art up for a week but will still be instagramming as always. 

xox

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!

Ps - be sure to check out the ‘colour map’ on their website. Using skin tone and nail shape you can try on their colours. Such an amazing idea! xox