Gelish: Mixed Roses

Xiao Ting, a first time customer of mine contacted me on Saturday night in hope of booking an appointment for Sunday. She was extremely disppointed when I told her that I was fully booked for the late morning/early afternoon. I informed her that I had slots in the evening only to realise that she actually needs to do her nails for a wedding dinner on Sunday night. A while later, the customer who was originally scheduled for the 12pm slot had something urgent to attend to and had to postpone her appointment. I contacted Xiao Ting immediately to tell her about it and she was thrilled!

She came by the next day and was extremely nice. She was delayed for a little while and made the effort to sms me before that informing me that she'll be late. In actual fact, she was only late for 10 minutes but I really appreciated the fact that she bothered to inform me about it. That makes a responsible customer! Xiao Ting had quite a tough time deciding what to do as she loved my roses and flower designs. After much deliberation, here's what we came out with:

Xiao Ting did half moons on every nail except for the thumbs and the ring fingers. Initially, she was concerned about the growth of her nails over time. That was when I suggested doing half moons to prevent the obvious nail growth.

A final look:

Thank you Xiao Ting. It's customers like you that make the entire manicure experience a fruitful and accomplished one. (:

Nail Art: Sweet Polka

Melissa was pretty sure about having polka dots on her toes, but wasn't too sure what to do on her big toes. I showed her some of my nail art mags and she saw something she liked on one of my Nail Max issues. Forgot to take a picture of it though. Here is my take on it.

This picture was sent to me by Melissa and I edited it. Common mistake for me: Forgetting to take pictures of my customer's nails!

Here's another. (:

Gelish: Purple Roses

Hui Han is a perfect role model for new customers. She was on time and knew what she wanted. She liked my swirled roses and opted for them to be done in a purple colour scheme. Hui Han wanted a light and shimmery base and set her eyes on Gelish Vegas Nights.

The roses were done with dark purple and light purple acrylic paint before painting the leaves in light green.

I love the feminity of roses and how they never go out of trend. (:

Gelish: Glitter Tips

Glitter tips seems to be the trend for many! I've had countless requests for glitter tips, so much so that I'm gonna combine some into this post. Probably because Gelish lasts 2-3 weeks, most opt for a design that is wearable and not too loud.

After painting a Gelish colour of their choice, I sponged on Gelish Waterfield on the tips. Some prefer it to stay on the french tip, while some prefer a gradient. Many of my customers were pretty amazed to see that I sponge on the polish instead of painting it on. Well, I've tried both ways and realised that sponging it give a more subtle and softer look with a gradual gradient. Since then, I've always used the sponging method when it comes to glitter tips.

Charmaine's Gitter Tips

Gelish Make A Difference

Jeanette's Glitter Tips

Gelish Hot Rod Red

Lynn's Glitter Tips

Gelish Make A Difference

Samantha's Glitter Tips

Artistic Colour Gloss Fierce

Wan Xin's Glitter Tips

Gelish Night Reflection

Gelish: Slanted French

Lynn came over for a Gelish removal (glitter tips) and opted for a slanted french. She requested for a light and shimmery colour for the base so that the growth will not be too obvious. We settled for Gelish Vegas Nights as the base with Gelish Queen Of Hearts for the slanted french. She initially wanted a french manicure, but decided against it after realising that her nails were too short. I suggested doing a slanted french or a half-moon instead.

I lined the slanted french with my Art Club's silver glitter striper. Lynn suggested adding 3 swarovski crystals in the center of the thumbs and a crystal on alternate fingers.

My first try doing slanted french with Gelish wasn't too bad. (:

Gelish: Bridal Roses

Angelia was pretty sure of the nail art she wanted after looking at my nail art wheel. The original design was done with OPI Passion as the base and OPI Black Onyx as the french tip with the roses lining on the french line. Angelia twisted the colour scheme to the opposite of the original and was done in white instead. It gave off a very different feeling - it very much portrayed a set of bridal nails instead of the original mysterious look. Interesting!

With the diamond ring and Angelia's slim fingers, she is definitely ready to be a model for a bridal shoot. =p

I used Gelish Waterfield for the base with Gelish Sheek White for the french tips. Somehow, I find it easier to work on french manicures with Gelish. Gelish is a lot more forgiving as compared to normal polishes. The french tip was lined with solid silver acrylic paint before swirling bouquets of roses of each individual nail.

Angelia also requested for Swarovski crystals on both her thumbs (beside the roses). Looking at the pictures, I feel that the crystals were too big and I should have used something smaller. It's no wonder they say that every set of manicure you do is a new lesson learnt. (:

Here's a final look. Definitely a wearable set of nail art while bringing out Angelia's sleek fingers.

As these were her nails for Chinese New Year, she was so sweet to send me a picture compilation that she did. It'll be great to work with such wonderful customers all the time. However, the reality is such that we don't meet such understanding customers who are always willing to go the extra mile. In fact, some of them are always late for appointments, don't bother to inform when they're not coming for their appointment, and the list goes on. That's what happens in the service industry I guess. Makes me quite skeptical about taking in new customers sometimes.

Here's Angelia's gelish manicure after 2 weeks! Still looks as good as new except for the signicant nail growth. I was really happy that the nail art stayed on as good as new. Previously, I used to have challenges with making the nail art stay on Gelish, especially when the nail art is done with acrylic paint. But this set of Gelish manicure has proven that nail art is able to stay for 2 whole weeks! Wendy's Gelish manicure stayed on well too! Read more here

A close-up. So to all customers who have spoken to me about their worries about nail art's ability to stay on Gelish, I hope this is able to reassure you that you can integrate pretty nails into your daily life. Angelia and Wendy are perfect examples who have held on to their nail art for 2 whole weeks and have been using their fingers for "tough work" too such as housework, regular work etc. If they can, you can do it too. (:

Gelish: Polka Dot Lace

My colleague's daughter, Lee Yee came over with a friend to get her nails done for CNY. I was so happy when I saw the length of her nails and I said to her, "These are nails every manicurist love painting!" She asked, "Why?" And I replied, "Cause they are long and easy to paint!" Nevertheless, that doesn't mean I turn away those with short nails okay. (:

She opted for Gelish Queen of Hearts and initially wanted to draw flowers on them. However, after seeing her friend's pedi, she decided to do the same design with a different colour scheme!

The thumbs and the ring fingers were the accent nails while the rest just had polka dots on them. I suggested doing that as having the focus design on every nail would make it too overwhelming.

She was really nice to send me pictures of her nails when she reached home~ (:

This set costs $32 inclusive of Gelish, Nail art and extra Gelish top coat.

Inspirations: Nail Max, Nail Up

My accounting paper marked the end of another semester. It was quite a tough paper for me. Though I attempted the questions, but I'm not 100% confident about it. Nevertheless, it's over and it's now time to enjoy!

Since it was a morning paper, I was excited to rush home and work on my nail wheel with more designs! These 3 designs were done quite a while ago.

Not perfect definitely. But who is? What matters is to never stop trying. (:

Continued on with these designs and was happy to have completed half of my nail wheel! Designs were taken from various Nail Max and Nail Up magazines. For now, I'm only trying to replicate designs that I see from these mags. Definitely not capable of coming up with my own designs as yet. I'm actually very interested to do these designs on actual nails. So... if you have long nails and you're willing to lend me your nails to work on my nail art, do leave me an email at valerie.gmh@gmail.com! As I'm keen on practising these designs, I will be offering them at promotion prices. Email me for more details.

Worked on a Gelish French Manicure this afternoon. Wayyyyyyy from perfection. No pictures cause it's not up to standard yet. Hope to be trying more of it! You'll probably hear me doing french manicures over and over on my own fingers. =p

Christmas is around the corner. Will be doing up some christmas designs. For those who are still not aware, we're open for Xmas bookings already. Email be if you're interested! Will be offering nail services in the evenings from 7-9pm. I'll be opening up bookings for CNY pretty soon too. Stay tuned! (: