PRIDE AND ICE CREAM

Pride is approaching and we've been preparing our themed designs at the salon this week. If you live in Brighton keep an eye out for flyers as we have a special 10% off voucher being printed and distributed on Monday for our pride menu here are some of the designs I did earlier in the week:

I've been doing more colourful, cartoon like designs recently which is not my style but I keep getting requests for more animated nails. Today I tested out my take on the Ice Cream nail which I switched up by adding two tone ice cream and glitter: 

I think they came out cute for my first attempt I will be posting more styles like this once I finish the menu I'm working on . Here is another I did with a similar cartoon style, a girl came in who wanted something feline so we thought this up: 

I don't know why it's taken me SO long, but after admiring from a distance forever I wore my first reverse French this weekend! I also did another variation with a heart inspired shape:

I received a lot of compliments on this style and am thinking of other colour ways to try although I limit myself a great deal because I'm addicted to such classic colours ugh. 

This post has been a mix of everything do to keep with the theme here is a photo from a hen party I did nails for last week: 

I will post more frequently this week, remember to follow my Instagram to get more nail pictures! My username is valentinelane 

VLXO

HOLOGRAPHIC GLITZ

I saw a look similar to this with clear tips on naominailsnyc Instagram, I LOVE her work she uses texture so well! I remembered that I had some holographic nail art paper that was sent to be instead of some nail wraps I ordered from eBay so I thought FINALLY something to use this for! 

This is the foil I used you can find it on eBay if you just type in holographic nail foil :) 

Cut tiny triangles from this and set them in glitter polish. The first polish I applied to the bottom half of the nail was one by a company called BW that was a gift from Thailand. I placed the foil pieces onto this then put a coat of Blizzard by models own over the top. 

Then I put a blue Essie polish called Who Is The Boss on the tip and used the BW glitter to blur out any straight edges to give a perfect fade.

I put a second coat of blue in any parts that required it as Essie polish is very thin. Then went in with my current favourite top coat by Rimmel. 

This look is very easy to achieve I want to try it with lavender tips next time!

To see how sparkly they are in daylight there us a video on my Instagram: valentinelane

VLXO

KAWAIIPRINCESS, LADY DOTS + THE MARBLED EFFECT XO

Today my girl Dodo told me she was in town and wanted to come get cute at my salon, I was excited because she wanted some kawaiiprincess nails and I had been waiting to do something cute like this for a while. In the end we came up with this mix'n'match look with lots of glitz:

The thumbs had her D initials in the Olde English font featured in my PRINCESS post, also in black. She broke a thum nail but I couldnt bare to make all of her nails short too so I thought well if you can't hide it: DECORATE IT!

 We have had lots of 3D bows in the salon and I've been waiting for somebody to ask for them, Dodo chose one pink and one black bow with a jewel in the centre, we also have some that are totally jeweled and silver which I might try out tomorrow.

The polka dots she asked for have been quite popular. I often talk to people who have faced the dilemma of wanted polka dotted nails but don't want it to look too childish or 'toy' as I call it. To make them look a little more lady like and grown I make the dots much smaller and spaced out, avoiding super bright colours also helps, here are some examples:

I got lots of compliments when I wore this style, lots from people who usually hate polka dots (I usually hate them too,) so I deemed this look a success!

Another style that I have been asked for more times than I can count is the marbled nails. I love doing them it makes me feel like I'm painting a Claude Monet painting or something even though I'm just mixing colours. The trick to getting a perfect marble is to use as many thin brushed polishes as possible. I tend to use one normal polish to drop a thick spot oof colour then two thin striper poishes to blend the colours together.  I might make a video on this design as it's super easy and I believe anybody can do it once the know how.

Here is a pink marble I did last week for a birthday girl:

I did my own marbled nails shortly after as it's something quick to do and I was going to thebeach wsith my boyfriend after work. The next night I was geting ready to go to the club with two of my best friends and she had an amazing glitter polish I wanted to try,  (I can't remember who it was by :( sorry) I put the glitter over the marble and it came out sooooo cute!

I definitely need to add this glitzed upgrade to my design menu!!

VLXO

HE LOVES ME HE LOVES ME NOT: DRY FLOWER MANICURE

Today a lady came into the salon who wanted something for a the Hampstead Court Flower Show where she was going to be reading from her new gardening book. I think it was 'meant to be' because just hours before she called I was researching how to use dried petals in nails. 

I wasn't sure if my flowers would dry in time but luckily 3 days under 4 coffee table books in the hot weather was enough and they were ready to use. I was shocked when I found out that dried petals will last on nails preserved in top coat (a layer underneath and a layer -or two- on top,) I had no idea that it would be so simple!

The flowers are just ones from my garden that I pressed myself, when you dry flowers they get darker so the magenta flowers I had turned a much nicer combination of violet and a darker purple. To contrast this we decided to set them over a pale blue colour by Essie.

I love this manicure and now that I know it works I plan to do some more complex designs with flowers and leaves.

VLXO

SPELL IT: P R I N C E S S

Whenever I want to try out a font or feel to have lettering on my nails my go to eight letter word is always princess. It's the first thing that springs to mind so you'll probably see me post it a lot. Today I decided to continue my pink/black obsession that's unveiled itself this week so I did a new princess manicure.

I originally had it pink on pink (neon on pale) but I didn't think it stood out enough so I decided to go over it in black letting the neon behind serve as highlights: 

I think it looks super cute and need to think of new things to write I might have TRUE DIVA next time. 

Here is an old photo of a different word manicure that I did for a babe a few months ago: 

This particular diva always let me add as much glitz as I wanted which I loved although it got out of hand sometimes but that is another post in itself! 

I also have a client who regularly gets her boyfriends name ('the boyfriend manicure') which obviously I have done too because as I said in my first post: I'm a tacky girlfriend.

When she ditched him we updated her manicure to B R U T A L 

I love when people want this style it's always fun to see what 8-10 letter word or phrase they come up with, it's safe to say I'm PISSED that B O M B S H E L L won't fit :'( 

Anyway it's so sunny I'm going to hunt down my BFF and get cocktails 

VLXO 

DIY DIVA DAY: REVAMPING THE SALON

Needles and Nails has always looked cute but today Lilly (nail genius, queen of acrylic, Instagram: nailsbylilly) decided that it needed a 'ladies touch' to bring everything together. 

We set up a cute coffee table (I need to bring in some of my 40000 magazines for variety) and went shopping for cute glasses and mugs:

 

We also spent time framing our favourite designs from our many nail wheels and mounting frames (d.i.y in heels bitches) 

I LOVE that I can add photos as I type on the blogger app without having to take them in advance!!! Blogging between clients is seriously going to be my new obsession! 

We can put the hammers away now I think 

VLXO

VLXO: INTRODUCTIONS, NEW YORK DOLLS AND HOW TOS

Hello Beautyqueens! I'm Chani/VL and I'm a nail artist. This blog is for sharing my nail tips and designs that I do working in the salon Needles and Nails in Brighton, UK and possibly some other things. 

Today was a quiet day at work so I took the opportunity to do a themed design on my own nails that I had been thinking about this week. My boyfriend, Jerome, is having his first rehearsal for a tour that starts on friday lead by Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls alongside Gary Powell of The Libertines. They will be playing songs from the New York Dolls discography and some of Sylvain's own records too. So in the spirit of this, combined with my getting used to wearing pink nails recently, I did a New York Dolls themed manicure: 

I put the New York Dolls logo on (minus the lipstick) and the transparent/glitz hearts were inspired by a nail diva i only discovered yesterday, known on instagram as thisisvenice, she is awesome! Then I added pink bandanna print to go with the glam rock look the Dolls were known for and then a J in olde english for Jerome (tacky girlfriend club must! I have a J phone charm too I'm not ashamed!) I love the look of black on baby pink <3

All polishes were models own, the pink and black are both nail art pens (yes I painted the backgrounds with a striping brush as we ran out of the normal size of this pink shade :(! ) and the glitter is called 'Blizzard'.

I also (occasionally) do nail tutorials on youtube, I must do more it's just hard to find people to film them for me because whenever somebody comes to help we get distracted catching up and/or drinking and listening to Beyonce! But here are the few that I have done so far:

It's annoying me that all 3 of those videos were filmed when I was on my break from acrylic nails I definitely need to film more now that I have divaclaws again!

I hope you enjoy the tutorials <3
VLXO
instagram: valentinelane