Giraffe Nails

This evening I painted a giraffe design on my clients nails. It was inspired by a design she found online where the giraffes neck is stretched across all of the nails with the face on the thumb. There are a few variations on this design that other nail artists have created so you could look on google for similar ideas if you like this design! It is a fairly simple design to paint as all you need is a blue base polish and yellow, brown and black nail art pens. If you don't have nail art pens in those colours you can just use normal nail polish with a nail art brush. The blue polish I used was Can't Find My Czechbook by OPI, the yellow and black were nail art pens from Wah London and I used a brown polish by Barry M with a nail art brush to draw the giraffe print.

If you live in Beverley and want to book a manicure with me you can see my price list here.

If you like my work you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @KathleenEmilyy

Strawberries and Cream

Wimbledon started this week and everyone eats strawberries and cream when they go to watch the tennis competition so I decided to paint strawberries on my nails. The women's final is on Saturday 11th of July and the men's final is on Sunday 12th of July so hopefully I can last a couple of weeks without chipping my polish!

If you're not into the Wimbledon theme and you just like the strawberries you can do this design without the splashes of cream for a cute nail design - the strawberry design also looks good on your toes if you want a fancy summer pedicure design.

(Strawberries & Cream glass bowl is from Emma Bridgewater)

How to get this look:

Start by applying a base coat and then two coats of red nail polish.

Using a nail art brush and green polish paint the strawberry leaves at the base of your nails next to your cuticles.

Next paint the splashes of cream using a white polish. I did this using the normal brush from your white polish by smoothly moving across the nail to create drippy shapes and then going back and doing a second coat to make the white polish opaque. If you don't have a steady hand you can use a nail art pen or a thin brush to draw a wavy line across the nail and then fill in the tip with white polish.

Finish off the strawberries by using a yellow nail art pen or a fine nail art brush to draw rows of seeds across the nails.

Apply top coat by dabbing the brush onto the nail. Don't drag the brush across your nail or the red polish will smudge onto the white tips.




Let me know if you like this design or have any design requests by messaging me @KathleenEmilyy on Twitter and Instagram.

Palm Trees

I love wearing brightly coloured nail polish in the summer so this week I wanted to do a nail art design with a bright coloured gradient. I decided to put palm trees over the colour gradient to give it a summer holiday feel so it looks like a sunset on a tropical beach. 

I used four colours and a makeup sponge to create the gradient base. The pink polish is Strawberry Margarita by OPI, the coral polish is Access All Areas by Ciaté, the orange polish is Speed Dial by Ciaté and I don't actually have a yellow bottle of polish so I used the polish from my Wah London yellow nail art pen. I drew the palm trees using my black Wah London nail art pen.

The best way to create a gradient like this with four colours is to start with a white base polish. Use the rectangle end of your makeup sponge and draw a stripe across it with each polish so you have four different coloured stripes on your sponge. Then lightly keep dabbing the sponge onto your nail until the colour gradient transfers onto your nail. If it is too light just apply more polish to the sponge and dab again. Draw on your palm trees using a black nail art pen and don't forget to add a big yellow sun setting behind one of the trees!

Let me know if you like this design or if you have any design requests by messaging me @KathleenEmilyy on Twitter and Instagram!

Swarovski Pedicure

A few years ago I had a Swarovski crystal pedicure done for my birthday. I absolutely loved it and I've been wanting to get it re-done ever since. Now I am qualified in gel nails I decided to give it a go myself.

I used a whole pack of Swarovski crystals from Charlie's Nail Art - they cost £1.25 for a pack of 100 crystals. If you are looking for crystals or other nail art supplies I would recommend this website because their prices are great and all the supplies I've used from there have been good quality. 

The crystals are super sparkly in the sunlight so this pedicure is great for the summer when you will be wearing sandals all the time. It would also be great for special occasions like weddings and looks really glamorous with a pair of matching sparkly shoes.

I will soon be offering Swarovski Pedicures as a treatment for my mobile nail clients in Beverley, so let me know if you are interested!

You can follow me on Instagram and Twitter @KathleenEmilyy 

Colour Changing Nail Polish

I went on a gel nails training course this week so I can start doing gel manicures on my mobile nail clients. I have been using gel polishes from Blue Sky - this is a fairly cheap brand of gel polish but it is good to practice with while you are learning. I will be investing in some more expensive gel polishes to use on clients but for now I have been having fun with Blue Sky's colour changing polishes from their Chameleon range. 

I was skeptical when I purchased this polish because I have read reviews of colour changing polishes before which said they were rubbish and hardly changed colour. I was amazed with this polish because it works great and it changes colour all the time when I am wearing it. In the bottle the polish is a dark purple colour but when it is applied on your nails it either turns bright pink when it is warm or dark purple when it is cold. I find that most of the time throughout the day it creates a great ombré effect between pink at the cuticle and purple at the free edge of the nail. 

I have created a video of the gel polish below which shows it changing colour in hot and cold water:

I'd love some gel polish brand and colour recommendations so let me know your favourite gel polish colour @KathleenEmilyy on Twitter and Instagram.

Ciaté Orange Choc Pot Review

Ciaté have got some new chocolate scented nail polish remover pots. You can choose from: dark choc, mint choc, orange choc and white choc. Today I am reviewing the Orange Choc Pot nail polish remover.

I really like using nail polish remover pots because they are quick and easy to use - you just dip your fingers in the pot one at a time and twist them on the sponge to remove your polish. They are really useful if you are travelling as they are small and compact and you don't have to worry about spilling a whole bottle of liquid nail polish remover in your bag.

When you open the Ciaté Orange Choc Pot and smell it, it does have a very strong chemical smell which doesn't really resemble chocolate orange. But smell your hands after you have used it and it does leave a lovely orangey chocolate smell on your fingers.

It took about 5-10 seconds to remove the nail polish off each finger. It was a very speedy process to remove the polish and it definitely worked quicker than any other brand of remover pots I have tried. I was surprised at how dry the sponge felt at first as most other pots I have tried have a very wet sponge but this did not seem to be an issue as it removed my polish perfectly.

I really like the Orange Choc Pot and I would love to find out what the other pots smell like. You can buy the nail polish removers from Ciaté's website here. If you have tried out any of the other chocolate scents let me know what you think and send me a message @KathleenEmilyy on Twitter and Instagram.

Pink Hearts

I created this design using striping tape and a nail art stamp for the hearts. The stamping plate and rubber stamper I used were from MoYou. Their stamping sets are good quality and easy to use so I would recommend this brand if you have never used a nail art stamp before. Also, if you are not familiar with striping tape it is very thin tape that you put on your nails as a guide to create bold straight lines - it can be bought from any nail art supplier.

(I apologise for my random short thumb nail in the first photo... I had an accident last week and broke it, oops!)

How to get this look:

Start by applying a base coat and allow this to dry.

Place two pieces of string tape on your nail starting at the nail bed and moving inwards towards the middle of your nail to create a triangle shape. Repeat this on every nail.

Paint two coats of white polish inside the striping tape - don't worry if you paint over the tape as you will be removing the tape later.

Using pink polish paint onto your heart stamping plate, remove the excess polish with the scraper and then pick up the design with the rubber stamper and apply this to your nail over the white triangle. Repeat the stamping process on every nail.

Next, paint two coats of the pink polish from the striping tape to the ends of your nails.

Use tweezers to peel the striping tape off every nail.

Using a pink glitter polish and a fine nail art brush, paint a line of glitter where the striping tape was so your triangles are outlined with glitter.

Finish by applying a top coat.


If you try out this design send me a pic @KathleenEmilyy on Twitter and Instagram.