Acrylic & Gel Nails | Cardiff

Let  me introduce you to Danielle.  This lovely lady used to be my neighbour, and one day when I was in need of having some acrylics, I knocked on her door to ask for help. Back then, she was a nail technician for a big Cardiff salon and was being very neighbourly to me :)  I've bee having my nails done by Dani for a good 4 years, and the quality of her work has always been fantastic.  

These days the main thing she does is shellac nails (gel), and in this, she's combined the two, acrylics nails, with gel polish on the top for extra shine and longevity - genius!!!

She had a stack of nail wheels with gel polish on for me to pick from, but immediately I was drawn to one particular combination.  What I really like is that she includes cream shades, polishes with glitter in, and a bit of nail art using a cream shade, fine glitter and a good clear top coat (that's what I opted for).

See that blue shade next to the purple? Yep, that's what I opted for.  Normally I'd go for the purple, but I couldn't stop staring at the blue, so I took it as fate :)

Please excuse the horrible state of my nails.  This is why I needed acrylics done, I'd started biting my nails again and haven't been able to stop - I started again just after Squidge was born.  I've tried and tried but to no avail.  The only thing I've ever found that's helped to break the habit is having acrylic nails.  They also stop me biting the skin around my nails so it's all good.

It's taken a lot for me to share this picture, I hate my nails and fingers at the moment and I've been avoiding filming YouTube videos as they look so horrible and I've felt so embarrassed by it, so please don't judge me too hard!

After prepping my nails, Dani gets to work on my shocking cuticles, I really don't take care of them so she really had her work cut out!

Next, she added the tips which she fitted to each finger and filed down.  When I have acrylics I like to have them as short as possible so they look as natural as possible.  Having them crazy long isn't a look I like that much, and with a baby it just wouldn't be practical.

After that, she topped them off with acrylic.  In the past she's included some iridescent glitter in the mix so they're really sparkly (I loved this!) but this time as I was having tips added, I knew I'd want a nail polish on the top, so there was no point having the glitter in the mix.

After applying the acrylic, she gave them a good file down so they were a better length and nice and smooth, and shaped them and the corners so there weren't any sharp bits.

Next up, gel! She uses the CND system.  A long time ago I reviewed their weekly nail polishes which I was really impressed with.  She had a great selection of shades and finishes (i.e. glitters) and picked the ones out to match my chosen swatch.

I forget the name of this shade, but it's a dark blue with a very pretty but subtle sparkle - this would have been gorgeous by itself, but I was excited to have the glitter addition!

Next up - adding the glitter and a top coat of clear gel polish.

Here's a closeup - now, please excuse my horrible thumb, but OMG how amazing is that glitter!!!?!?! It compliments the navy blue really well and looks gorgeous!

The finished nails!  I adore how these look, she did an amazing job, the best gel finish I've had. She's so good at applying nail polish, she doesn't get it on my fingers, she doesn't flood the cuticle, it's perfectly neat.  It's because of the time and effort she puts in to prepping the nail, that my nails don't get ruined by having acrylics.  She does such a neat job that even though I've tried other places locally, nowhere has been as good.

If you're interested in hiring Dani (if you live in or around Cardiff), you can call her on her mobile or text her here: 07793015777

For more examples of her work, please have a look at her Facebook page, she might be setting up a blog soon to include some tutorials too - if she does I'll update this post with a link :)  If you're in or around Cardiff I really wouldn't recommend anyone else, Dani is fab and friendly, and worth every penny!

The cost for acrylics was £30 (this included a manicure first to prep the nail, and the gel polish on top)

Infills are £20

Gel nails are £20

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Superdrug beauty store Cardiff

A little while ago I was contacted by the PR people for Superdrug and asked if I'd like to pop into their new flagship beauty store and try out some of the treatments they have to offer using a pre-paid gift card.  Always up for a challenge I graciously accepted and went on my way.

When I first got there I asked a member of staff what treatments were available.  All together (not exhaustive) there were: HD Brows (I'd literally had my brows done that day by Benefit), Hair - either having it dyed with a dye I'd bought in store, or having a cut and blow dry, Gel nails, eye brow threading and more.

I opted for gel nails - I'm hoping they'll last long enough to see me through labour :)  Here's my experience:

She started off by taking off my nail polish (you can see in the 2nd pic down, there were still traces of the previous red colour on my thumb and around my fingers) and then filing them. Now, I'm no nail expert, but I'm sure the nail file she was using was one you'd tend to use with acrylic nails as it was very rough.  When I went there, I'd managed to get my nails to a length that I was really happy with, but a lot of length was taken off and I wasn't asked if this is what I wanted - I was just asked 'square or round' - to which I replied square.  The corners weren't filed either, meaning I now have some very sharp edges to my nails.

My nails after filing, a fair bit shorter, and my index finger and middle finger nails are slightly wonky 

 Buffing :)

After buffing :)

First coat on, hand is in the lamp :) 

This is the colour I opted for, 'Diamonds are for me' - she applied 2 coats of this, and a coat of clear

The finished look!  It's a gorgeous colour, a bluey purple glitter, very pretty.

I'm happy with the finished look, the ends were a little rough and I filed them back a little when I got home as they were catching on my clothes.  Coverage is good and applied neatly and without flooding the cuticle (something I really don't like).  While it wasn't a perfect manicure, I would have preferred to keep my nails the length they were, I'd only just given them a mani myself, but despite the short length I am happy with the finished look (apart from the sharp corners).  This treatment costs £15 in store.

With what was left on the gift voucher I made 2 purchases, one was to replace my much loved GOSH forever shadow stick - only because I'm an idiot I bought shade 1 instead of 2, D'Oh!  I also bought my first GOSH lipstick in the shade Night Kiss - I have a feeling this might be a good dupe for the MAC Rebel colour - I'll do a comparison post to see if this is actually the case :)

Overall I love the range of treatments you can get in the Superdrug beauty store like buying a Revlon nail polish, and having it applied for free in store by professionals.  Would I go back and have gel nails again? Yes, but if I don't want my nails filed, I'll be saying so this time - the actual gel mani was great.

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*The treatments and makeup were given to me for the purpose of reviewing Superdrug's beauty store, all opinions are my own

Makeup Revolution nail polishes

Makeup Revolution, the latest big brand to hit our screens and high streets - they've caused quite a stir. Being a super lucky blogger, a little while ago they sent me a package of things to try - being the bad blogger I am, they became trapped in my spare room while we were decorating our bedroom and I couldn't get to any of my makeup collection, boo.

One of the first bits I grabbed was the 2 nail polishes they sent me, a cream shade called 'Devil Inside' - sort of a nude colour £1*.  And a glitter polish called 'Love for Sale' a pretty dusky pink £1.50*.

Remember those tiny £1 nail polishes MUA sell with splayed out brushes in small pots? Well, move over MUA, you've got competition! These beauties are in the same price bracket (with the glitter being slightly more at £1.50) and are much bigger bottles (normal size) with a relatively decent brush.  Yeah they brush may not be as good as Essie or OPI, but then, the price is significantly lower too.

The cream shade I had was a little gloopy, I think the lid may have come loose while in transit, but still worked perfectly fine.  In the pic, that's just 1 coat of the nude colour (2 coats of glitter).  On my weaker nails the nude shade chipped on day 2, it's currently day 3 and the glitter has yet to chip.  For the price, I think that's pretty decent, especially when you consider how rubbish my nails are!

All in all I really like these, yeah maybe they're not totally perfect, but for £1 each I'm more than happy and would definitely buy more of their shades.

Watch out over the next couple of weeks for more MUR reviews - just you wait until I review 'The One' foundation of theirs - it's pretty special :)

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Ted Baker nails

** Ted Baker Nails £8.50* Pretty perfect (L), Midnight Miracle (R) **

How adorable is this little set?  It's from the Ted Baker sweet shoppe, available in Boots.  They come in pairs in lots of different shade combinations (they also do nail wraps for £7.50).

They're decent sized bottles with square lids and standard brushes.  The applicators aren't exactly of the quality of Essie, or OPI for example, but they're not in the same price range so that's to be expected. They're pretty broad, unlike the BarryM nail polishes (I hate the applicators on them, far too narrow!), much better quality than the MUA polishes which have really splayed bristles.

On my nails I have 2 coats of Pretty Perfect, they coverage is pretty decent, it's not the kind of shade that will be fully opaque with 2 coats and I'm fine with that - to me, these soft pinks are more of a 'your nails but better' sort of shade.  The black (Midnight Miracle) has great pigmentation - the dots on my nail were done with one tiny blob and they're proper opaque black.  They dried nice and quickly and didn't chip ridiculously fast.

All in all I think this is a really cute set - ideal as a gift for someone thanks to the cute packaging :)

This months Biggest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Ash from A Beauty Moment

 

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RH Nail designs

A few weeks ago I was approached by the lovely Rachael to see if I'd like to try out a set of her hand painted stick on nails - I don't know if she'd read or noticed that my nails were super short and bitten down, or just that I was nail obsessed but clearly I jumped at the chance!  My nails were looking horrific and I needed all the help I could get, so I headed over to her blog to have a look at which nail design I wanted.  

I wanted to go for something I felt I couldn't do myself, so no polka dots as that's kinda my signature nail art thing to do (because it's super easy!)  I have to say, since I picked my pattern (cherry blossom) she's done some other amazing ones (clouds, cherries and an AMAZING cookie monster!)

The nails came numbered so you could see which was supposed to be for which nail, there was a tiny bit of damage to a couple of them (silly me had them delivered via work which meant they got squished between heavy boxes & parcels, despite them being wrapped in bubble wrap, but the cracks were easily fixed with a bit of nail glue).  They were pretty long, I prefer short nails, especially if my nails are really short underneath as they'll last longer, so after putting them on I filed them right back to a length I was happy with.  How cute do they look!?

** before filing **

Such pretty nails :)  She doesn't send them with nail glue, but that's fine, I tend to keep a bottle around anyway, I just love how they were custom made and painted just for me, such a personal service. Rachael was so lovely to deal with too.  The nails came within about a week which includes her hand painting and drying them, numbering them and posting them etc which is pretty good.

** after filing **

Here they are after I've filed them down to a more comfortable length for me.  The nails themselves were quite pliable which meant they stuck to the nail well - I hate it when they're really stiff and don't bend to your nail, they never last well then.

All in all I was really happy with the service I had from Rachael (aka RH Nail designs), you can find her blog here with all her custom nail designs on (http://rhnaildesigns.blogspot.co.uk/), prices vary depending on the design but are roughly £5-7 and inlcude 1st class Royal Mail delivery - if you're outside the UK it may be a little more than that, I'm guessing the more complex the more expensive.  If you're reading this outside the UK you'll be pleased to know she ships internationally too :)  Just send her an email if you're interested in buying a set: rachaelharman91@gmail.com. 

This months Bigest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Karen from Liverpool Lashes

 

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Revlon nail enamel in moon candy

I've actually been meaning to review this for a while.  Revlon released a few different combinations of these double ended nail pens, this shade is Moon Candy.  It's navy blue at one end, and a bright sparkly blue top coat with shimmery holographic flakes in the other end.

As you can see, the blue is very dark, but not quite black dark.  This photo was taken a couple of months ago in the height of summer when my nails were in better shape :)

Every time I've worn this, I've had so many people comment on how lovely my nails look, and I know a couple of people who've bought it themselves after seeing it on.  Sometimes it's hard to know if something will work until you've seen it on someone else in situ.  The durability on this was decent, much as I've come to expect from Revlon's nail enamels.  I had a good 3+ days out of it before it began to chip, and even then it was only very small chips.  It wasn't too horrible to remove either, you know with glitter it can so often be a horrific nightmare to remove?  Yeah well this wasn't that bad :)

Sorry this is such a short review, but I don't really have anything else to say about it :P  I picked up mine in Superdrug for £7.99.

This months Bigest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Karen from Liverpool Lashes

 

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Pink fun nail art

I've had my nail art kit for what... 2 days?  Already addicted!  As you may or may not know, I have a very arty background, so nail art is something I've been really keen to get into but until now I never had the tools.  But now I have this amazing nail art kit (the one that was in the blogger goody bag from Saturday) I can create all sorts of nails!  If you want to know which nail kit it was, it's by Rio and it's the Ultimate Nail Art, Professional Nail Art Collection - it's £29.99* and available on their website here.

** Excuse the quality of the photo, but this was taken late at night and with a flash **

I was sitting down last night to write today's blog post and I felt inspired not to blog, but to paint my nails.  They're horrifically weak at the moment and varnish is barely lasting 1 day, so I don't expect much out of these, however, I couldn't resist :)  I did forget to photograph the base coat, but it's the one I recently blogged about, Essie's Off the Shoulder.  So, as much as this isn't a 'step by step' guide, I'll try to show you how I did it :)

To do this look, you will need the following;

Step 1 - I should have used a base coat (clear) but I didn't (far too impatient!) so I used two coats of Essie's Off the Shoulder.

Step 2 - I took the white nail art pen (it's a long thin brush) and painted candy stripes down my thumb nail starting at the centre and working outwards.

Step 3 - Polka dot ring finger - I used the same brush and pot (white nail art pen) and simply dotted it on my finger, again starting from the middle.

Step 4 - I picked out 3 different pinks from the rhinestone wheel, dotted the adhesive in a line down the centre of my middle nail and placed each one on each dot, I started with the darkest pink nearest my cuticle.  I pushed down on them to help them set.

Step 5 - French mani - I took the same white nail art pen and drew a line across the tip of my little finger, filling in the very tip.

Step 6 - Glitter!  From the nail art kit I picked out a mini glitter in a snowy shade, covered my index finger in clear nail varnish and used a brush to pick up the glitter from the pot and add it to near my cuticles.

Step 7 - Cover all nails with a thick coat of Essie's Good to Go clear top coat which helps the nails dry quickly, gives them a glossy finish and helps the varnish last longer (unless you have horrifically weak nails like me!).

So there you have it, it really wasn't very difficult, all you need are patience.  It took me about an hour, but that hour went super quickly :)  And, to be fair, half that time was spent deciding what to do on each nail :)

If you decide to have a go at re-creating this look, please send me your pictures on Twitter so I can re-tweet them :)

This months Bigest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Stacie from Life is worth the fight

 

Written by Georgina Kent

Keeping it local: Gel nails

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you may be aware of the condition my nails are in.  About a year ago I stopped biting them.  On and off I had acrylic nails done to help me stop biting them when they got all weak and short and eventually I felt I had it under control.  Scroll back about two weeks ago and I was posting lovely pictures of my nice long strong nails.  Then, I don't know what happened, but they got really weak and flakey and then short, very short.  I kept filing them and filing them back when they would tear or get a bit long, and to stop me wanting to bite them.

So I put a call in to my usual acrylic girl, she knows the drill by now!  I wanted them done ready for London yesterday but she was fully booked up until the first week of August.  Then I remembered that my friend Charli (from Charli...) had gel nails done in the village I live in and loved them, so I thought I might give that a try instead and hopefully save my nails more than if I had acrylics, especially as I tend to end up ripping them off (I know, that's really bad...).

Let me introduce you to Jodie's Luscious Locks - she specialises in hair extensions and gellish nails, of course, I was there for nails :)  She fitted me in with only a couple of days notice and for a reasonable price (£15, compared to when I get acrylics done for £30).  Here's a bit of a photo diary of it :)

The awful state of my nails before hand, they were seriously weak and bendy :/

Base coat a go-go :) 

Colour being set (I went with a nice teal) 

Silver and holographic glitter being expertly added to the half moons of my nails (and faded upwards) 

Voila! They've grown quite a bit in the last week since these were done!

At the time of writing this I've had them on/done for 6 days - by the time you read this though, it'll be more like 10 days (writing this well in advance as I'm away) :)  So far, there's been no chipping or anything nasty like that, just one nail has a scratch in it (which was my stupid fault) but that's it, they're looking as perfect as when they were done, just slightly longer :)  I'll be interesting to see how long they do eventually last for, or whether I end up just getting bored of them and fancy a different colour, but I am using this in place of acrylics as a way to help me grow my nails again.

Jodie was really lovely when I was there, despite me being late!  She was chatty and professional, I'd definitely go to her again, especially as she's walking distance from my house :)

If you live in the Cardiff area and are looking for gel nails or hair extensions give her shout :)

If you're based in Cardiff I'd really recommend her, here's where you can find her and get in touch:

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This months Bigest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Stacie from Life is worth the fight

 

Written by Georgina Kent

Nails of the week

Happy Saturday guys!  Just a quick post today as I'm heading to a wedding and I'm super excited!  I haven't got all dolled up in ages (probably since my wedding which was 4.5 yrs ago!), how time flies!  So I thought I'd throw together a post on all the different ways I've worn my nail varnish over the last week - a couple of the pictures you may recognise from my nail art post :)

This is from my nail art post from a couple of days ago :)

Azature nail polish in Blue Diamond - there is a black diamond in ever bottle :)  Review coming soon!

My favourite combination, Revlon Cherries in the Snow with Max Factor Fantasy fire over the top (the camera does not do it justice)

Sorely disappointed with this one, I had high hopes but one coat was totally sheer and streaky, and the second coat was much the same :/  So I took it off and did my nails as in the picture below :)

Zoya nail polish with Essie Fiji for the dots :)

What was your favourite nail pic?

This months Bigest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Shang from The Feminine Crusade

 

Written by Georgina Kent