Learning New Things!

Hello everyone!  Yet again it's been quite a while since I wrote a new post here *slaps wrist*  So what have I been up to?   If you've been following me on Facebook you'll see most up to date pics there!  Yesterday we started doing sculpted gels!  It was actually really good fun and I'm looking forward to trying it with acrylic too.

These were my first 3 tries and I did ok!  Practice makes perfect right?

I attended a ladies night at my local Golf club to do some nail art.  I had loads of interest which was great and manged to fit in quite a few people on the night.   Those pics can all be found on my Facebook also.  The lightning wasn't that great combined with my rubbish camera phone but you can still get an idea of what I did!

I did a set of french acrylic on a hairdresser at the college and ended up adding some nail art!

Cute right? :)  There is silver zebra striped lines over the french tip which might be hard to see in the pic.

I also had my mum come in to college to help me pass my gel marble assessment.

Here is the result and then the nails when I removed it the following week.  If hard gel is removed correctly there is no harm done to the nails underneath!  I have been trying to marble with nail polish, which you can do, but it's more fiddly and I'm not getting exactly what I want!  I've done water marbles in the past too but I have to be in the mood to get messy when I do those!

This is the design I was wearing for the past week.  It was really fun and got loads of compliments!  I had those little diamonds for years (so many infact that I could not tell you where I got them from!) and I wanted to use them in a design somehow so this is what I came up with!


I have been shopping at banggood again so lots of goodies arrived!  Part 1 of the haul is up and I am just finishing rendering part 2 which I think will be posted on Saturday.

These glitters are SO amazing!  I just love the prices on there too.
Also in the shopping theme.....

Yep!  Matching new zebra trolley and brush case!  So excited to finally have these.  I have the trolley nicely packed with my art goodies now :)  I also did a video on it showing it off for those curious about getting one themselves.

In terms of other nail related videos I've posted since my last blog, check these out!

A mini haul from Claire's Accessories

Some funky black and white nails!

A striping tape star tutorial!

*phew*  Think thats the videos caught up now!  I had good fun creating this next nail art which I was inspired by an eeyore tshirt!

Cure right?!  You know, sometimes I think before I start writing out these blogs that I don't have much to talk about.  Then I  go through all my facebook pictures and realise I actually have far too much to talk about!!  I am going to end it here for now, thanks for reading if you got this far!  
Until next time~

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It's February already?!

Where does the time go to so fast?  Here we are into February already!  Soon enough it will be June and I will be fully qualified!  So I have been doing a few assessments recently trying to work my way through what I need to cover for my portfolio.  Yesterday I did this set of acrylics on a nail biter so it was a technique called a dropped smile line.

 I also added some art to the ring fingers.  I painted 4 lines coming from the side of the nail, then a series of dots and to complete it; a silver rhinestone :)

I was playing around with some acrylic colours too trying to find a nice pair to make a blended set and I think I found a winner!  These are NSI It's a boy! and Lilac and I think they go really well together!  I'm looking for someone to come in and have a full set of these done for another assessment :)

This was an acrylic overlay and then painted french finish on top.  The client has weak nails but wanted to avoid having tips on so we did the overlay instead.  I actually still have an acrylic overlay on my thumb which has been holding together a split I got at the side weeks ago that was halfway down my nail.  My nails grow so slowly it's gonna be a few weeks yet until I can stop wearing the acrylic!

 
I was playing around with some gel last week and came up with these designs.  Top down we have: 3 colour marble with painted design, two tone glitter with painted design and rhinestone and lastly 3 colour drag marble.  I'm using the middle one as one of my three designs for a college project.  My main design is going to be masquerade though!  I'm on hold working on that for now as I ordered some items from Banggood that I want to use so can't really do anything until that arrives!

These polishes were a good find!  I always check out the polish selection in the local Poundland (UK shop for those reading my blog outwith) and this is the first time I've seen them stock Sinful Colors.  There was a few different colours but I had to behave and not go too crazy so I walked away with these two and then had to make a design with them!

Everytime I come to update this blog I realise how far behind I have fallen!  I find a zillion things on my facebook I haven't yet shared here and takes me longer than I expect to update!  Video wise I have these for you guys:

This is a small haul of some items I got from Sally's and ebay.  As mentioned earlier there will be another haul soon when I get my banggood items and I also am going to film a quick haul I got at Claire's!

This is my Rita Ora vid that I had shown you a picture of in my last blog!  It turned out really good and I got told it was a perfect recreation!  I am looking for more celeb art to copy but it's very hard finding decent pictures.  I have also recorded a Rihanna one (you can see the design in that haul video above).

More videos?!  How  do I get so far behind?!  I'm really bad at this stuff!  This was my funky bright, in your face, leopard print design!  The camera doesn't do the colours justice, they are sooooooo bright!

Last one I promise!  Here is a valentines design for you guys!  I LOVED wearing this!  So much so I almost considered keeping it on for a second week but then I ended up doing something else :)

Thanks for reading/following/supporting me!  My youtube channel just passed 400 subscribers and I am so happy and thankful to each of you who are supporting and enjoying my work!  I try to update this blog as best as I can weekly but I seem to be averaging 10-14 days xD.  For more regular updates on my work you might wanna consider checking me out on instagram, twitter or facebook as I post my work as I do it on there.

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/lynsnailart
Twitter @nailsbylyn
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Time for an update!

Hello readers,

So last week when I did my nails I made a start on my "How to: Celeb nail art".  I'm quite excited for this series!  I started out with a set worn by Rita Ora and this was probably my most bling design I've ever worn!

 The original picture I found of these I was struggling to come across again when it came time to do these (cos bright spark me didn't save the page like she thought she had!) and it had only 1 hand on show.  I had assumed the other hand was the same and would of done them like that had I not then found this!  So in a way I am glad I did lose the original picture since I found the nails in full as shown here!
I am going to upload this video tomorrow as I have it edited and ready to go!  I am going to also try and have a small haul vid up of a few things I have purchased recently. I am going to show off these 2 new polishes also:

I am so excited to find these in Sally's!  I have heard of this brand before but it seemed to be an American product so I was really surprised to see it.  It was a one off shipment I was told so I picked up a couple to try out!  They were from a cupcake style range and not only do they change colour but they are scented and omg the strawberry cheescake smells so yummy!  The other is chocolate mousse.

Working wise I did my cousin nails for a Wedding she was attending!

Sparkly purple glitter acrylics anyone?!  She's a bit of a nail biter so very short nails to work with especially on the ring finger!  It's really only my second time doing a nail biter so there is room for improvement but I was happy with the end result still.  It's one thing to learn HOW to deal with bitten nails, its another to ACTUALLY do them!

I had a mother and daughter duo come over for what was to be glitter gel toes only, turned into gel toes, paraffin wax and some fingernail art!

The art was just done on the thumb and ringfinger to keep it nice and simple :)  Sometimes simple is all you need!

Nail art related:  I have been working on my creative nail unit design at college and have decided on a masquerade theme!  This is the start of it:

I'm really proud of this so far!  The black nail is full acrylic with sculpted 3D flower and shapes and then I took a silver striper to highlight it as I felt there was something missing!  The other nail has embedded silver holographic glitter and then I sculpted the mask on it, added white detail and a feather finishing touch!  I need to come up with the other 3 nails now.  I think 1 shall be embedded lace, the others I'm not sure yet.

 
This is the nail art I had on last week.  Perhaps not the best picture to show it off but the gold and silver combo was really amazing together!

Lastly here is the vid I put up recently!

And since I am terrible at keeping up to date... here is the other one!

I hope you guys enjoy this post, thanks for reading!  Feel free to join me on any of my social media or become a subscriber on youtube!

www.facebook.com/lynsnailart
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Twitter: @nailsbylyn
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New Year New Post?!

Yeah I guess I do kinda suck at making up titles!  So it's been a little bit since I posted on here.  That's us into the new year.  2014 is gonna be quite a year for me.  I graduate from college in June and I hope then to be able to go self employed as a nail tech with a specialized interest in nail art!  Ah so scary all this big grown up stuff of trying to go self employed.  It's not gonna be easy that's for sure!

So let's see what I have been up to!  If you follow me already on my social media most of this is gonna be reposts for you guys!  (If you don't... why not?!)

This is a really quick and simple design.  I was just having one of those weeks where I was really not coming up with anything super amazing so this was the result.  It's not one that I can say I was overly fond of but I did wear it for the week.  I find myself struggling recently when trying to think up designs and then I get frustrated with myself.  I wanted to try making a little series kind of thing for my youtube; how to nail art: "famous person".  Now the problem I'm having with this is actually finding clear enough pictures to allow me to replicate!!  So far I have found a good picture of a Ke$ha and Rita Ora design so I might do those soon.  If anyone have any suggestions or links to where I can find what I'm after please let me know, it's driving me nuts!

Yesterday I tried out something I had been wanting to do for a while now.

Full 3D acrylic nail!  I was so proud of this even though I see improvements I can do!  I watched this be done by NovaInc and hers is amazing.  I'm considering making a video of me doing it but not sure if it is worth it since this person already has a video on it.  However we might have different subscribers so this could be new to you!  On the right I have a nail with sequins embedded.  I was just messing around here and the shape isn't right on it but I will keep trying.  The nail trainer hand is one of the best nail related items I have bought and worth the money in my opinion.

I'm proud of this set here!  We have been practicing french acrylic for the past few weeks.  Our assessment is to be on a nail biter so the pink shade used in this set is actuall a cover pink.  It's called Rose blush by NSI and I actually just love it as a stand alone colour!  It really compliments a pale skin tone.  My smile lines are getting crisper too so very happy with my progress on this :)

Now this design I did yesterday...and I'm now no longer wearing it xD  It was complemented a few times when I was out and it was well recieved on my facebook page but I just was not overly happy with it.  I can't even fully explain why but I knew I couldn't leave it on as it would drive me nuts.  The myler was a little jaggy even after 3 top coat and some soft filing and that might have been a contributing factor to me not liking it but either way it's not on any more haha!  I still made a video for it thought and I will get round to uploading it.

This was the nail art I had on previous.  I always like the effects you can get using striping tape.  I do sometimes use it as it was probably more so intended (stuck on the nail) but I find that after a couple days the top layer starts to want to come away and thats with a good top coat.  No mater what I do it just eventually peels away taking some of the colour of the tape with it so I find myself only using it to do things like this where the tape goes in the bin after.

This was a cute acrylic set I done for someone!  My camera sucks at picking up the amazing sparkle of the glitters.  Maybe that's the next thing to be on my list!

Well I shall leave this post here for now!  Watch out for my new nail art video tomorrow and come check me out on my social media!
<3<3

Twitter @nailsbylyn
youtube Nala Nails
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Insert Epic Title Here

I actually find it harder to come up with a post title than I do to fill the post with content haha.  So what's the latest in my little nail art world?  Let's see here!  Still having some issues with editing.  I know whats wrong with it now and I can't fix it without buying a new camera and that's not an option right now.  I have a couple videos already edited and good to go with no black spots after trying to render them I think 10+ times.  Its just gonna be one of those things for now.  I will keep trying to edit the vids early and hopefully get them mostly without black spots in them.  In saying that I didn't manage to do it with a slightly different vid I put up for you guys.

I finally managed to get my camera set up in a semi decent way in order to start showing you guys my acrylic and gel work!  After 3 full days of trying to render this on properly I had to just suck it up that it blacked out my clip of me doing the top coat.  Considering all the attempts I had done I figured it was the best I was gonna get and I was at the point of being ready to scrap the video altogether!

Today I uploaded this video (with no black spots!!)

I really liked this design, its not hard to do but it looks really classy and of course it has some bling on it!

This one ended up being my Christmas mani!  I know its not exactly your "traditional" nail art you would expect but I like to be different so here we are!  I had done it in blue but something I wasn't quite liking about it so it ended up being black.

Something more traditional you say?  Ok.  How about this christmas manicure done on a 6 year old? :)

 
 Cute huh?  She was so excited to have it done.  So far my youngest client!  I would like to do little princess parties where I can pamper a group of girls with some mini nail art :)  I am available on request!

Just before college broke for the holidays I did a couple of the girls with some glitter gel toes.

 Gotta love some sparkle!  I still have my pink glitter toenails too :)  Not sure when I will feel like changing them to something different.

I also did some experimenting with colour blending acrylics!  This was really fun to do and I want to do some more!  I will get round to filming a tutorial on this too!

 Well thats it for now guys.  Please join me on any of my social media for more frequent updates of my work!  Thanks for reading :)

Facebook www.facebook.com/lynsnailart
Twitter @nailsbylyn
Instagram @nailsbylyn
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Getting angry at editing issues!

Pretty self explanatory title on this one to be honest!  I spent all day Friday trying to work out what was wrong with my video.  There was a file that when I rendered it would black screen but you would still hear the sound.  I tried deleting the file, re-editing it, I tried re downloading off my camera and then re-editing the new file back in; same result.  I gave up and had to put text in towards the end :(

This is a really simple yet eye catching design to do.  I have also done it in purple before.

My other video that was loaded last week was a simple french that I added a foil flower to.  Check it out here:

Let me know if you guys try any of my designs out, I would love to see them on my social media!  
I am thinking of trying to set up my camera so that I can record myself using the nail trainer to do my acrylic and gel designs.  I really want to share some of these with you!  I need to have a play around with my work station and see what I can do.  Then it's also having the time!  Only one week left at college though, but still got work!

I had a gel infill and recolour to do on this client :)  She is just loving her nails!  She said that she never would of thought to have her nails done before cos she hates her hands but now everyone looks to her nails and showers her with comments!  Its a perk of the job to help people feel good about themselves :)

 
Here is the before picture of my nail bitter assessment!  It was hard work I tell you.  The thing is we can talk through all the correct ways to go about doing a nail biter, but we never physically practice on one cos we don't have any in our class, so you really are thrown in the deep end for this test!

 This was the result.  I felt it could of went better for the finished result but as I mentioned before this really was my first attempt at a nail biter and it just had the added stress of assessment thrown in there!  I added some rhinestones and decals to complete the design and also to cover some of my nail art unit.

 I'm going out tomorrow night so I decided to sparkle up my toes!  This is holographic pink gel toes

I have been practicing sculpting little flowers using acrylic and now that I have myself a decent brush to do it, I'm getting really pleased with the results!

 
 Really cute huh? :)  I'm proud of this!  Now to keep getting better and more creative!
I also worked on this batman design for a client request who in the end didn't turn up for the appointment and then unfollowed me on Twitter when I messaged them about it.  I understand things come up, people can forget etc, but please remember that my time is important too and I make time for you (and in this case also spent time to custom make a design) so please be considerate of this.

I did this cute and simple flower design on another client:

 Your nails don't have to be long to get art on!  Some designs can fit on short nails really well!

That's it for this update guys!  Thanks for reading and thanks if you follow me on any of my social media!  Until next time!

www.facebook.com/lynsnailart
Twitter @nailsbylyn
Instagram @lynsnailart
Youtube Nala Nails

 

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Ohhi December.....

So here we are with another year almost over.  Funny how fast my college time has flown in.  Doesn't feel like I even started college that long ago but its now 1.5 years later!  Looking forward to graduating in June though.  I just hope I can make my dream of being self employed work!

I have been working recently on doing some nail art using gel!  I think its turning out pretty good!  Next step is to use acrylic to make bows and flowers.

I have started to make up a wheel with gel art on it only!  I'm sure it won't take me long to fill it.

Next up is a couple pics of my recent nail art.  This is what I am wearing now (just painted them last night)

I love doing abstract patterns.  They are so simple but they look so wow.

This is design I was wearing last week.  Very simple to do but with plenty of bling!  Remember to check out my youtube every Friday to see a new nail art video.  I also load other videos as and when I can! (such as hauls and how to's)

In relation to work on others I have done recently, here is a couple pics of a clients gel nails and painted toes,

Client requested a gel overlay as she was having some issues with her nails splitting.  We then decided to go for a gel colour on top and to have a nail art accent finger too!  The abstract pattern is done using gels.

For her toes she wanted a colour to match up as best I could with her fingers so we used this really nice shade from Avon and then I painted the black flower on the big toe, popped a rhinestone in the center and then topped it off with some glitter so that extra sparkle!

Finally here is last weeks video.  A really fun and bright animal print design.  I adore this colour!  I kept looking at my hands all week it's that bright :)

Thanks for reading guys!  I hope you enjoying following me and seeing all my work.  Remember you can find me on all these places:

www.facebook.com/lynsnailart
Twitter @nailsbylyn
Instagram lynsnailart
Youtube Nala Nails

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