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

Hospital escapee

Today's post is a Halloween one - I haven't had a chance to do many halloween nails at all, but I think I got my halloween nail fix from viewing everyone else's nail posts, they keep getting better and more creative every year!

So for my nails:

I used; Sinful colors - Snow me white, elf - Smokin hot, OPI - Natural Base and Rituals - Top coat. 

The splat effect was created with a straw, literally blowing paint through it. Actually harder to get first time than it sounds. But once you get the technique right, it creates great nail art. 

Make up:

My face using; Benefit - Hello Flawless, Estee Lauder Double wear in 2C3 Fresco, W7 - night glow (amazing product) Calvin Klein - subliminal purity loose powder and loreal paris - glam bronze.

My eye make up was; Mac this & that, Maybelline - Expert wear natural smokes and a bit of blackheart from the naked 3 urban decay. Also, a Chanel eyebrow pencil to fill in my brows. 

My bruises; Mac - Texture velvet, Front Cover - Twinkling Grape, Natural collection - midnight and a cheap red lipstick dabbed on. Then a bit of fake liquid blood.

I had no idea how to do bruises, had never done it before just blended a bit of everything!

Finally, I wore Revlon - Black cherry. I absolutely LOVE this lipstick but never wear it because it is so dark and I don't have the guts to wear it in the day! 

My outfit was literally a ripped up hospital gown with fake blood and a bit of eye shadow on it. 

I hope you all had a lush Halloween. 

Now onto Christmas themes ... YAY! 

xox 

Red Zin Mystery

The first Halloween design of the year... Inspired by @ninanailedit. She is so talented, I just had to recreate for the Halloween 'vampire' look. 

Using; OPI - Natural Base, Sally Hansen - Red Zin, L'oreal - Mystery, W7 top coat and Kiko top coat.

First things first, the top coats ruined the colours of this mani. I needed a new top coat urgently and went cheap with W7 which gave a horrible finish on these nails. I then tried to add more shine by adding Kiko and it just didn't work. Waaaah. 

Also, obviously the red was a nightmare to get out of my cuticles, please excuse the messy clean up.

Aside from all that drama - I adore these. 

A colour combo I have never done and studs that I would never have thought to position like that so something different which turned out great. 

This Sally Hansen colour is a great Autumnal colour - I'll be wearing it lots in the next few months.

More Halloween nails to come - I love themed nails! 

xox

My not so halloween inspired come-back

After a well deserved break for my nails I am back! I have been scrubbing them with all sorts of weird home remedies to get rid of the stains. Finally, they are back to a (nearly) normal state! However, all the nails on one hand broke therefore am now on the growth remedies... but my left hand nails are still in tact - there is still hope!

This mani is not one that I spent much time on it was just something simple and fun for last weekend. I used; MoYou, Sally Hansen - Big matte top coat (on top of the white coat) then L'oreal - Pop the bubble. 

I constantly use this L'oreal colour - I just love it and keep going back to it!

Not exactly a Fall/Autumnal colour but I'll just keep pretending it's still summer with my light polish shade choices!  

This polish also isn't a nightmare to get off - providing you know a few techniques to removing glitter it's pretty easy.

The halloween posts have been on my instagram and bloglovin feed in the hundreds and a few of them I am eager to recreate this week! So, Halloween will be making an appearance on Nailstori in the coming weeks of October.

I am thinking of making a light box to take pictures whilst I am at uni because I don't have an easy place to take them outside so find it difficult to get a nice shot. Does anyone have any experience with home-made light boxes? I've been debating giving it a go for ages now. 

 xox

Challenge accepted... Challenge accomplished

If you follow me on Instagram then you will definitely be aware that I've recently completed the Nail It Magazine 30 day challenge because I've been raving about finishing - it recently took over my nail life! Congrats to anyone else who completed a challenge - there were some seriously impressive designs done everyday by some of fellow nail peeps. 

For this post I thought I would put together a little collage of all the 30 nail pictures together - I will continue to do a few separate posts on my particular favourites. 

I have also made one of those cool flipagrams so have a look on my Instagram (@nailstori) if you are interested in seeing it. 

There won't be any new nails up as I am giving my nails a well deserved weeks break - whilst trying to get rid of those dreaded yellow stains. I will hopefully be writing a few short beauty related posts. 

Annnnnnd...

I have some exciting nail related news to share in the next few weeks. 

Thanks for reading as always! 

xox 

Don't just wear a colour wear a cause

I'm nearing the last of the posts from my favourite mani's from the Nail It challenge.

This one had the theme of hearts. 

I combined this theme with the current trend 'Don't just wear a colour wear a cause' which has been circulating the nail community as it is breast cancer awareness month. The designs and awareness created from the huge nail community is amazing and I am glad I can be a part of it. It really shows the positivity that can come from the internet - there are far too many negatives constantly focused on. 

The polishes I used for this mani are; Chanel - Ballerina, MoYou, Essie - Madison Ave-Hue, Loreal - Amazon's Flare and Mac - Dark Angel.

The heart created from dots was so much harder than it looks! I'm glad I stuck it out because it looks pretty cute. 

And Chanel - Ballerina is probably the most stunning colour I have ever seen and it is so shiny! 

A few more designs to come before the big finale of pictures.

Have a happy Monday everyone. 

xox

Overcast

This is my take on the NailIt challenge theme of - today's weather.

I didn't want to do something completely obvious,  so I decided to try drag-marble which is something I've been wanting to try for a while now!

Using; Sally Hansen - White on and OPI - I have a herring problem.

Perfect colours because the OPI turned into a glittery grey when it was dragged through the white base coat.

I chose these colours because the weather was grey and overcast (hence the blog title) 

A top tip that I learned from just winging it instead of looking up a tutorial of some kind is to do two base coats. Let the first dry completely and then don't let base coat number two dry at all so it drags easily.

Apart from that it is soo easy, there is hardly any technique to it and it always creates a cool pattern.

Will definitely be trying this again soon - it is a lot less mess than water-marble aswell. 

More NailIt challenge pictures to come and I only have ONE day left of it.

xox