My First Ever Set of Acrylic Nails

The finished set!

Ever since I started my wee business people have asked if I could do acrylics. I always thought I would just be happy painting people's natural nails or selling them false ones but now that NAILS NAILS NAILS have pretty much taken over my life and are becoming much more of a full time thing, I thought it would be a really good idea to learn how to do acrylics.

I signed up for a Beginners Acrylic course with Nailzone Beauty School in Glasgow. I'd heard really good things about them and although the course seemed expensive at £350, I was able to apply for £200 funding from ILA Scotland (I don't know if England have something similar?). The price also covers a full kit to take home and it's packed into two, 6hour days rather than 10 weeks of two hour classes 40 miles away from where I am. 

I was really nervous on the day and didn't have a model until last minute (thank you Rhanna you wee star) but when I turned up the girl taking the class made us all feel really comfortable. The class was nice and small with six people and everyone was really nice. After a really informative Health and Safety lesson, we were given a demonstration and introduced to our kits. I was pretty glad to see that everything was pink!

Our first lesson was applying natural tips and the first step was preparing the nail by pushing the cuticles back and filing the nails short. I had a bit of a hard time pushing back the true cuticles but after realising I wasn't hurting my model and changing from an orange stick to a metal pusher I got the hang of it! After buffing and dehydrating the nails, we measured up the nail tips and glued them on. I was quite proud of myself because I only had one that was a bit too small but the rest were spot on. Next we prepared the tips, glued them on and blended the smile lines a bit more. Cutting the tips down to size sounded easy but I kept forgetting to hold the tips so they were pinging about everywhere and I kept touching the nail, which is pretty much a SIN when you're applying acrylics because you're transferring the natural oils from your fingers back on to theirs after you just spent all that time getting rid of it.

After a quick lunch to pizza hut we came back and watched a demonstration on acrylic application, our tutor made it look so easy but I knew I would find it hard! By the time I was on my model's second hand I thought I was doing pretty well but I wasn't applying enough acrylic so they were pretty thin and looked flat from the side instead of having a natural curve. This was fixed by just applying more to the middle of the nail (the apex) and the tip (the free edge) and they looked much better! After the nails were dry we were shown how to buff them up nice and shiny. WELL I WAS TERRIBLE! I was honestly buffing for like an hour. There's a knack to it and I just couldn't get the hang of it, thankfully, on my last nail I finally got it so I went back and re-did the nails, shined them up, popped a bit of cuticle oil on and there they were. My first ever set of acrylic nails! The shaping is a bit off but I'll get there in the end.

Still need a lot of practise! But they look ok for a first try!

I'll let you know how I get on next week. I'm doing french tips and apparently they're quite hard, arrrghhh! My friend is coming over soon and letting me practice on her, I'm scared!

From Me to You (with lots of love)

I don't know if you think it's cool to know where the things you buy come from, but I kind of think it is. DIY Nails is anything but a faceless brand and I pride myself on being really interactive with followers, customers and anyone who shows at least the slightest bit of interest in what I do, even if it does take me a while to reply sometimes (sorry!).

Your ready to wear, hand painted false nails come from a lovely little Scottish town called Stirling. It's roughly half-way between Glasgow and Edinburgh and is where the film Braveheart was set! William Wallace is from here don't y'know? We have a castle, a bridge, a monument and a Mcdonalds and a Topshop. I wish I was joking but I can genuinely hear bagpipes outside right now, the perks of living in the town centre on a Saturday! Here are some touristy pictures:

In the future I would definitely love a little office or a studio, but for the time being I'm working from my bedroom! With the magical art of furniture placement and my resourcing skills, I have managed to create a mini studio flat in one room, complete with living room, wardrobe/dressing area, DIY Nails HQ and sleeping area. Here is a photo of my wee work area:

My Frenchie Karl cushion is pretty awesome

When I'm not working elsewhere, I'm sitting here either trawling the internet for nail supplies and inspiration, writing my blog, fiddling about on my websites, replying to e-mails, buying things from eBay and reblogging like crazy on tumblr. I also like to spend a lot of time on Facebook talking to my BFF Emma.

This is a picture of Emma AND the castle

When I get Custom Nail Orders or make nails for photo shoots and fashion shows I just sit at my desk and paint them when needs be. But when it's time to stock up the shop, get started with some new styles or paint up wholesale orders for stockists - I make sure I have one whole day off to start with. I usually have my lovely nail-fairy/assistant Becki booked in for the day. She is the only person I really trust to paint your nails as is as much of a perfectionist as I am.

This is Becki and a horse. I actually stole this off her Facebook.

We tend to sit from 12pm-9pm with a wee break where we take the dog for a walk (I mix up Becki and Betty's names on a regular basis) and eat spaghetti hoops and waffles and later on we eat pizza. If I'm by myself,  I'll start at 8am and keep working until 10pm. So obviously I love the days when I have company! I usually aim for around 50-60 sets in that day. We sit on my couch and use every flat surface available to perch something on, the TV is just out of shot but it usually has Keeping Up With the Kardashians or Harry Potter on repeat.

See if you can spot Betty in there

The next day I usually have work so I get up early to topcoat each set and check all the nails. When I come home I pop them off their wee sticks one-by-one. file the tips and count them into their plastic packaging! I then print off all the inserts, cut them up (badly) and whack them in. I take photos, pop them all in a big box and update my shop. PHEWWWW! This bit of the process usually take around 4 hours. After that, I print off orders as they come, package up the styles and pop them off to my local Post Office in WH Smith. But not until I've stuck a cute sticker on the front of the packet so you know it's coming from me!

So that's it. I hope I haven't ruined the image you had in your head (Hello Kitty and friends painting nails in a magical pink garden that smells of sweets, duh). xxx

KISSES

I love doing Lynsay's nails

So she get's a blog post all of her own

xxx

PUG LIFE/THUG LIFE/WU-TANG

Was pretty happy when Natalie said she wanted pug life nails yesterday! There are the perfect opposite to the THUG LIFE nails I painted on Emma a few weeks ago!

Or are you more of a WU-TANG kinda girl?

I loved doing these nails because they were a nice change from my usual girly bows and polka dots. Not that I don't love girly bows and polka dots.

xxx

Versace Style Nails!

I am actually so proud of myself for doing these!! Lynsay is one of my favourite clients, she always has the funniest stories from the time between getting her nails done and I love seeing what she's been buying every Saturday! I also love her because she has some SERIOUS talons and always has a clear idea of what she wants done. Yesterday she wanted Versace nails, it took me two hours. Mainly because I had to keep looking at pictures for inspiration. I'm always really weary of doing nails that are very "on trend" because I don't want to be too heavily influenced by all the other nail artists doing similar sets. I think I did ok though, what do you think?

I love Scratch Dollface but actually hadn't come across her Versace designs until we were looking for some inspo, they are ridiculously amazing! Just ook at these bad boys!

Scratch Dollface

Scratch Dollface

Isolated Heroes, Kirstin Kerr and Lou Clavé

Last weekend I had the absolute pleasure of working with these lovely ladies on a shoot. The whole day was filled with colour, stickers, pom poms, chains, hair, wigs, braids, henna, PILES of gold jewellery and gems everywhere! But what else would you expect when you're working with Isolated Heroes?!

(Kirstin Kerr)

(Kirstin Kerr)

(Kirstin Kerr)

I love working with Sam because I can really just do ANYTHING I want, it really was amazing to see everyone come together with the same vision and step into her "magic pony land brain" (as she so perfectly called it in her blog post about the shoot). And we just had so much fun! I created two nail sets for the day and wanted them to be really over the top. The first set were black with big, glittery, gold letters, IH for ISOLATED HEROES! I Stuck a big ying-yang button I found on one thumb and a big gold peace sign from a necklace on the other. The right hand had all the fingers connected by a chain and the left just had a chain running from the ring finger to the pinky (attached by a safety pin!). The second set was white and I used party confetti (smiley faces and baby bottles) and lovely iridescent gems to create a more feminine set. I connected the ring and pinkie fingers with a chain and attached some smiley faces to it. I really just wanted the sets to look thrown together, the whole theme of the shoot was so over the top that I just wanted it to look like Ruta and Stevie had done it themselves and stuck on anything they could find.

There was no make-up artist so like 8 of us pitched in and decorated Ruta ans Stevie with Henna (I'm sure Sam's AWA faces will replace traditional designs from now on), while Sam decorated their eyebrows with pom poms and Lou stuck smiley face stickers to Stevie's face as well as working her magic with some colourful wigs and hair pieces!

(Kirstin Kerr)

Athif showing us how Henna's really done! (Kirstin Kerr) 

Kirstin shot the most ridiculously beautiful photos I've ever seen. I can't wait to show you them but for now, here's a wee teaser!!

(Kirstin Kerr)

Oh and Betty came too!

(Kirstin Kerr)

xxx

Isolated Heroes - Insane, genderless designs by Samantha McEwen
http://www.isolated-heroes.com/
http://isolatedheroes.blogspot.com/
https://marketplace.asos.com/boutique/isolated-heroes

Kirstin Kerr - Photographer, designer, illustrator and artist. An all-round, amazing and inspiring creative talent

http://kirstinkerr.com/
http://shycowards.blogspot.com/
http://shycowards.tumblr.com/

Hair for Heroes by Lou Clavé - Queen of hair, wigs and colour, colour, COLOUR! Seriously the most amazing hairdresser around!
http://hairforheroes.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LouClaveHairStylist

Emz Eyeballs!

I did my friend Emma's nails tonight, the eyeball design isn't my own but she'd seen it before and really wanted it. I'll credit the original source when I find it again! The E was my wee idea though, just to mix it up a wee bit, and I love drippy lettering. Have any of you tried eyeball nails before? If so then let me see!
xxx

gh0stparties x DIY Nails giveaway!

I definitely have to say hello to all my lovely followers! I know there's not much to look at here right now but I've got so much to update you on from the past year and so may exciting things are happening in the next few weeks to blog, blog, blog about. Why did I not start this sooner?

So you've all seen the giveaway over on the lovely Kate's blog. I have been a die hard gh0stparties fan/stalker since day one, so when the opportunity to collaborate came up I jumped at the chance. We both love simple, pink, floral, sparkly things so it took approximately 5 minutes to come up with a few sets we both loved. Once the giveaway is over on the 30th of March, all three sets will be available to buy on my wee online shop, exciting huh!

All the details are in this post on Kate's blog but I thought I would just re-post the T&C's for you below. And here is a picture of me and my dog Betty, just so you can get to know us better!

xxx

Betty says " Haaahahahaha your phone cover is ridiculous!"

Terms and Conditions

- The giveaway ends on the 30th March (three weeks time)
- This is an INTERNATIONAL giveaway - anyone can enter. 
- You must follow my blog & Kate's Blog
- There will be three winners, each winner will win one of the above sets. There are three sets to be won. 
- To enter, comment below Kate's post leaving your email address so she can contact you. 
- The winner will be chosen at random, by random.org 

A "brief" history

Before DIY Nails was born

I painted leopard print on my nails for around 6 months, in every colour-way imaginable! All thanks to my friend Beth who showed me how to do it and bought me my first nail pen.

August 2010 - My first ever attempt at nail art! These are still two of my favourite colours but I did use a liquid eyeliner instead of a nail pen. Resourceful huh!

How my tumblr started

I spent a lot of time on tumblr looking at nails on WAH Nails, Sosoflynails and Pretty Nail Swag and loads of other sites but I wanted my own little platform to share amazing designs I found as well as my own nail art. I wanted to create a little place where people could go to find inspiration, learn how to do simple designs and have an opportunity to share their own nails and learn from tutorials, and in Febuary 2011 I did just that!

Here's a few of my early pictures (on me and my friends)!

How I started doing people's nails

I had so much fun doing my friend's nails and thought the best way to do other people's would be at vintage fairs as there were a lot in Glasgow and they were really popular! Thankfully, "Granny Would Be Proud" took me in May 2011 - at the time no-one did this at vintage fairs and I am very proud to be the first person! (To my knowledge). From then on I set up every so often at different fairs like Afternoon Twee and Gin in Teacups! They really let me meet some amazing people and make lots of new friends. Here are some photos.

Kerri from We Are the Robots - My first ever customer! She got moustaches and it still a customer today!

DIY Nails <3's FRANK

I was so lucky to be introduced to the lovely Julia who owns Frank Boutique in my hometown. She asked me to set up at one of her famous fashion shows (where I ended up doing loads of drunk boys nails...) We decided it would be so fun if I came in to do nails in her boutique every Saturday and that's where I've been since the 8th of October 2011! I love working in Frank, you'll find me there every Saturday 12-4 and my falsies are available to buy there during the week too.

My first day!

Collaborations

I've been pretty lucky to work with loads of amazing talent in Glasgow, here are just a few I've worked with over the last few months!

In The Company of Wolves (ITCOW)

I owe a lot of thanks to Claire, Emma and In The Company Of Wolves for asking me to do the nails for their 70's Horror Movie themed fashion show. I painted a set of nails for each model (16 in total!) as well as a special set to promote the event and received an amazing reaction to them! They also used my nails in their Fashion Film, which you can see here.

ISOLATED HEROES

My absolute favourite designer! I met Samantha McEwen through the ITCOW event and we really hit it off thanks to our mutual love of each other's work. Sam is just the biggest bundle of crazy, colourful and creative energy! She really inspires me and I love designing nails based around her collections because they are always insane! I'll be posting a lot more about Sam so keep your eyes peeled!

Amanda Hendrick

How lucky was I to open a message from the gorgeous Amanda Hendrick? She was going to the Scottish Style Awards and wanted a 3D Hello Kitty set of falsies for the event. Obviously she ended up winning "Most Stylish Female" and after posting my nails on her tumblr my following got even bigger! After that we decided it would be really cute for Amanda to design some sets and we could sell them on my Bigcartel site along with my other designs! The nails were a massive hit! Thank you Amanda!

Amanda's nails for the Scottish Style Awards

LA LA LAND

The lovely Sarah, who owns LA LA LAND was the first person to enquire about wholesaling my nails! I launched at the shop's first birthday and had so much fun :) Thanks to Sarah a few other boutiques had the same idea and now stock my false nails too! 

How "Nail Mail" began

There are a lot of people selling false nails on the internet and numbers have increased in the past few months but I like to think I offer a different kind of service! I never intended to start out selling them but when my friend from Uni was going to Ibiza and asked me if I could paint her a few sets for her I thought it would be pretty cool to sell them to other people too.

Moustaches for Tasha! One of the 5 sets for Ibiza.

My Etsy Shop

I sold false nails on my stalls at vintage fairs while doing nails but then decided to set up a wee Etsy shop! The shop did quite well but I was only painting to order AND making handmade packaging -  it was taking up all my time and I was working two other jobs so I had to shut the shop due to the demand!

My first packaging - all handmade!

Bigcartel

My friends over at Abandon Ship Apparel introduced me to Bigcartel and I've never looked back! I set up a new site just in time for Christmas and SOLD OUT OF EVERYTHING! It was unreal! I was so busy up until Christmas. It was so crazy and I actually had to shut the shop again! I'm still so, so thankful for everyone who ordered nails from me, you guys are crazy!

NAIL MAIL!

www.nailmailme.com

So I re-branded, re-opened and just recently got myself a .com! I made 18 orders in the first 3 hours of being open, absolutely mental. My Nail Mail site offers nails from £8 to £12 with custom nails ranging from £15-£20! I'm always adding new styles to my shop and now even sell phone covers. 

I don't know what's in store for the future really, I have one wee exciting project up my sleeve which should hopefully be released in the next few weeks and I'm working  on a few shoots/shows but other than that I just want to keep painting nails an working with amazing people! And if you made it all the way to the end of this "brief" history then treat yourself to a little free p&p (That's like £2+ off every order!) at my online shop with this code: ILOVEDIY