The Nail Files : a blog of my studies

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My best state board practice hand EVER. From L to R; sculpt, wrap, blended tip only & tip with acrylic overlay. So pretty. That's a damn PERFECT sculpted nail!

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Playing around in class one day last month. Spring-y sculpted nails.

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Old set of gel nails with damask-esque art on tips. Did these on my classmate, Anna.

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Had the hubby snap this one for me, to show both hands I did.

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These are a few months old. Did this mani on myself. Gel nails and strawberry accent art.

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Did acrylic nails on one of the cosmo students today. These were so fun! OPI absolute acrylic, acrylic paint for zebra stripes and OPI gel topcoat polish to finish perfectly. Wish all my clients wanted wild things ;)

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Did some natural style acrylics on this client for her graduation a few weeks ago. Almost forgot to snap a before picture.

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Well, I've not done a very good job of keeping up with my nail blog lately. Of course, I knew from the beginning that I probably wouldn't.

Anyway... I am trying to learn to hate acrylic less.

Here is a corkscrew/spiral sculpt that I did today. Just for fun.

In other news... I get my work permit in about another month and I already have a job waiting for me at a great local salon!

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Today: we did mini manis on some teachers @ the local elementary school. It went well - I did 4 or 5 women. One client is supposed to come see me at the school on Wed for a matching pedi - hope she shows.

I did a gel overlay on one of the night students (first pic). She had lovely nails, though two of them had broke. I put tips on the short ones & just did overlay on her natural nails on the others. The tip on her middle finger is entirely too long... I'm going to have to shape them up better soon. She wanted a dark tip painted on afterward, that is just done with regular polish on top.

Isn't her ring so pretty!

Anyway.... I also messed around today & did some nautical designs on my left hand. I thought the anchor was super cute. I probably wont wear this long though.

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I didn't go to school today - but I did give myself a new nail design.

It's kinda a little Valentines-y and/or Christmas-y, but I still like it. ;)

My nails are tips w/ gel overlay (done by myself). The red polish is a LED gel polish made by Red Carpet Manicure. I used acrylic paint & very fine loose glitter for the design, plus a few layers of top coat, of course.

The tips are SO shiny & sparkley in real life - photos don't do it justice.

I also did a set of simple gel nails for one of my classmates on Thursday. I hope that they are still doing alright - I'll see her on Monday to find out.

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I've been playing with my own nails a lot lately.

Gave myself a gel fill this past Friday (a little early for a fill but there were areas that needed attention) - I am really happy to be maintaining my own nails now. It makes me feel good to be able to do it myself.

Got some cute porcelain flowers in the mail the other day & my 15 pc. set of nail art brushes finally cam in the mail today. All on the MAJOR Ebay thrift.

I played with some of my kit polish & embellishments on my ring finger over the weekend - then added some Vtips and glitter to them while I was at school today.

Decided to succumb to the under-the-nail color trend too...

I think this makes for some cute Spring time nails. ;)

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I practiced some acrylic w/ inlays today. Ignore the janky rubber practice hand, it looks like crap around the cuticle area.

I have a long way to go with my acrylic work - so prefer gel.

I was reading somewhere [I don't remember where] that 10 years from now, acrylic should be pretty well phased out. I can only hope. LOL

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Not the best before/after photos - but it's better than nothing.

I had already applied the tips to her other hand before I remembered to take pictures. She was getting nails for prom this Saturday. I just hope that hold up until then!

This is hands down the most troublesome set of acrylics I have ever done. They look alright, but I am seriously worried about them. Everything that could go wrong did & I think I ruined one of my brushes too.*sigh*

Moving on....

Other than that, all has been well in nail tech school world.

I did a pedicure on an elderly man today, his wife had gotten him a gift certificate to get his toes done, because she didn't want to do it for him. Kinda sad, but sweet at the same time, I guess. lol.

Aaaaanyway... that's it for now.

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Did my nails today/tonight. Shaped the tips & did the gel overlay all by myself! Little miss ambidextrous. lol. I'm pretty pleased. There are a few nails that cold use a bit more filing, but overall I would say that I kicked ass. ;)

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Ketchup...

...too busy/lazy to be making decent updates.

Tests are gong well. I'm on the clinic floor now. Had my 1st official client today. Don't think I did a very good job on her overlay though. I kinda wrecked shop on most everything I touched today. Not terribly though.

The sets I did on students are all dong pretty decent. The girl I was most worried about has fared better than any of them. Ha!

picture post coming next....

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This is all the stuff that came in my kit. [except for my practice hand/fingers & sanitizer jar] Approx $600 value. So much goodness.

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Got my kit today. Beyond words. <3 [detailed inventory to be posted shortly]