Fancy French - Christmas Twist

I have a client who wanted something subtle, so I went for a lovely subtle Gellux French Manicure with some gorgeous little Christmas tree water decals.

Hopefully if hew boss spots them, she will think they are far to gorgeous to be mad at her :)

wedding hair for my sister's wedding

Last Saturday I got the chance to see my big sister walk down the aisle to her Happy Ever After.
It was a great day and she looked every piece the stunning bride.
here she is with her new hubby - I love this picture of her.

I asked my hairdresser to do me a nice up do, I wanted a french plait round the side and curls on the opposite side.
She did it perfectly . . .

double trouble me and little-big sis

Bridal French with stamping

I was SO excited to do these nails. I had a feeling I was going to be able to do something a little different with this one. My beautiful bride client wanted some French popped on her nails, but when I brought out my MoYou bridal stamping plate - I saw her little eyes light up! It was a total mission to get the tux on straight and took several attempts, but with deep breaths and  Perseverance we pretty much got there in the end. This was a great start to her 'happily ever after . . . ' 

Fairy French

My Fancy French is going down a treat. People seem to be loving the classic french with a twist.

Today I did a lady with Fairies on her fingers.

I used O.P.I. Passion and Alpine White for the french (gel) and some water decals for the fairies.

When looking for water decals - you really get what you pay for. Having said that - you don't need to pay more than a couple of quid for some really nice ones. I find mine on ebay like these. 

ALWAYS look for ones with a white card backing. Some cheap and nasty ones have brown card and they are a total arse to get off the backing card. They are stretchy and completely impractical. 

These kind come on white card and are fab! 

Cut them out, hold with tweezers in water for 15 seconds or as long as it takes to slide easily off the backing card. Place on the nail and dab with lint free cloth to get rid of the excess water and top coat a few times to seal in properly.

VIOLA!

Floral French

One of my regulars wanted a french with some flowers on.

I used Gellux for the French and water decals for the flowers. 

I think this shows perfectly that shorter nails CAN have french and decals on without looking too busy. Just make sure the smile lines are all pretty similar and don't take them too deep.

When nails ARE too short - instead of bashing on and it looking a not

Fancy French

Today I had a client request a 'fancy french' as she now calls them! That to me and you would be french with stamping on the ring finger as a feature piece.

Not bad!

French - Water Decals

I'm a bit of a fan of the old Water Decals. They are quick and easy to use, providing you get the decent ones. I've had ones that are stretchy horrible ones that are utterly useless - normally come on brown cardboard. Utterly crap.

Then there are ones that are really stiff. Just as useless, they don't fold round the nail, and just lay there flat across them and as soon as you think you've bent them round and slopped on enough topcoat to weigh it down against the nail while you cure it, 'pop' it pings back up again. Frustrating the hell out of me.

The good one normally come on White card with plastic over them. Cut the shape out, hold with tweezers into a little dappen dish of water, wait 30 secs, slide off and pop them on the nail. DONE. Simple as that. They can look really effective too . . .

Here's some Bridal nails - with some subtle hearts on the ring finger . . .

Bridesmaids French

I recently did some Bridesmaids Nails - all wanted a shimmery pink, so I used my trusty O.P.I. Pedal Faster Suzi with Alpine Snow. I popped a few layers of the pink on, as they wanted it a deeper colour and more opaque.

I think you'll agree, they looked gorgeous . . .

Fancy French

It just goes to show, things that sound god awful, may actually be nice.

I went to a client's house and she said she wanted French. I died a little inside. Don't get me wrong, I love French, it looks lovely. But, it gets tedious after doing several sets a day.

So, when she said she wanted stamping over it, I was intrigued. Then she said she wanted Black. Hmmmm. I wasn't sure. As soon as I put it on though, jeez, I LOVED it.

Just LOOK at it! Needless to say, no sooner did I put it on my business Facebook page, everyone wanted the 'fancy french with the flowers on the ring finger - you know the one' yes, I did. I got to know it very well indeed.

It is lovely though, and a nice little modern twist to the age old classic.

I used O.P.I Pedal Faster Suzi and Alpine Snow for the French, with Konad Black on the Konad M65 plate.

Here's the plate: