Japanese nails

At the weekend,my boyfriend Andrew and I went to Birmingham to visit his newly wedded cousin James and his wife Claire. They had invited us to this Japanese restaurant. The food and the atmosphere was amazing, highly recommended. If you want to check it just click here

I wanted to do my nails to match the surroundings. After a good hour of searching images on the Internet I found a clear and simple image of numbers 1 through to 10 have a look The decision was made, I just needed to keep my hands steady and not make any mistakes because it took me soo long to find the image I wanted. I only had 1 hour left to paint, top coat and get ready. I was up against the clock.

 I used my favourite black polish, Collection 2000, 1 Liquorice and a bright and bold red polish by Models own, Red Alert, NP019 on alternatives nails and added the number detail with Models own Nail art pens, in white and black then finished it off with Rimmle 5 in 1, Base and top coat.

Pinky = 1. Ring = 2, Middle = 3, Index = 4 and the Thumb =5. 

Thumb = 6. Index = 7, Middle = 8, Ring = 9 and pinky = 10

Black and white models own nail art pens. (The flash has made the ladle on the white pen almost disappear, it is there I promise! )

First attempt (Guinea pig)

My wonderful sister Ellie has very kindly let me use her as Guinea pig to practise my acrylic tips.  This means in essences, I can spend hours and hours faffing about on her nails desperately trying to get them to look right.

I have this idea in my head of how they should turn out but in reality I'm not even close :(

My first attempted had a few problems. Selecting the right size tip and then secondly blending the tip with the natural nail. The tip selection is a simple thing yet I made several silly mistake which were very clear when you see the finished nails.

Blending is something I though would take longer to master, I think, I hope, I have kinda got it now. I just need to more ruff with the file on the nail and not with Ellie's skin!

The main challenge that I'm faced with is the big one. I understand the theory behind applying the acrylic. I've watched lots of videos on youtube but yet I still can't get a nice neat 'smile line' and when I do, the top layer of pink is either to thick or not spread out evenly. When I do concentrate too much on the 'smile line'  I then don't seam to place enough white onto the tip which makes them look thin and just not right.

This is why I've started this blog, I need feedback, I need tips and kind words of advise :)