Xmas Nail Art Design No 4 - Pink and Black Snow?

Normally with Christmas nail art we get inundated with glitter but my next Nail Artist Jacqui Jamieson  has stepped out of the norm and created Christmas Designs with no glitter and no normal Christmas colour!:-

Jac has overlayed Pink Gelish Gel Polish over acrylic extensions and has painted random black snowflakes on each nail with acrylic paint.

A great design for those that want Christmas Nail Art that is just that 'little bit different'.

Contact Jacqui here on Facebook for all your nail needs in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire.

Thanks for the design Jac x x x

Xmas Nail Art Design No 3 - The Xmas Jumper Design

Todays Christmas Nail Art design of the day - I just love as it reminds me of that jumper you used to get every year as a gift from your Nan - and I see that retro look is back on trend right now!

These fab nails were created by Sian Marshall of Take 2 Hair & Beauty in Sittingbourne, Kent here in the UK.

Sian used Gelish Gel Polish for the base and Crystal Nails one move paint for the design work.  Fabulous intricate design work from a great nail artist!.

 Check out Take 2 Hair & Beauty for your Kent hair and beauty needs.

Thank you Sian x x x

Xmas Nail Art Design no 2 - Velveteen Sparkle

Not much time to discuss this evenings xmas nail art design but just had to show you the fabulous Velveteen Glitters!

These fab pictures were done by 2 of my Be Creative Artisan buddies Cheryl Ogden and Sam Biddle, who is also a co founder of Be Creative.   Available in a set of 6 colours and I can see these going down a storm at Christmas!

These of course are available from me at Beauty by Theresa or sambiddle.co.uk for professionals, or for you that like to do your own nail designs at home it is also available at originalsugar.com .

Enjoy - keep looking for Christmas design number 3 tomorrow x x x

Xmas Nail Art Designs No 1 - Be Creative Sowman

Its been a while since I published any nail designs so thought this time of year would be appropriate to show you what fantastic nail designs there are out there for Christmas.

So which better to start with than one of my own fantasy designs all created using the Be Creative Nail Art products that I use to teach to my students Nail Art here in the UK:

The nail display base itself was created in UV gel using an Arabella Fantasy Nail Forms that is great for practicing and creating fab nail designs without having to rely on having somebodies finger!  I will do a separate blog post at some point discussing the Arabellas in more detail. The blue sky colour was done using Colour Gloss gel polish by Artistic Nail Design.  

The Snowman was all done using the Be creative Gel Paint, which is great to work with as you can achieve colour blending that cant be done with traditional acrylic paint but also doesn't dry until cured under UV or LED light giving time to perfect the design.

The stars were done quickly and easily using the Be Creative Nail Art Pen, which again I will do a separate blog post for at some point.

The snow effect  was done using the Be Creative Velveteen which gives a real velvet feel to the nails.

All Be Creative products are available from Beauty by Theresa to buy and will all be listed on the professional products to purchase tab soon. 

So - what do you think?

Look out for a  new Xmas Nail Design every day between now and Christmas Day.

x x x Enjoy x x x

Shellac, Gelish and Other Professional Gel Polish Products Update

It has been over 18 months since I did the post on What are Shellac and Gelish Nails? and in that time over 30,000 of you have viewed that post!  Wow, Wow, Wow!!!!

During that time an abundance of other professional brand gel polishes have come on the market some of which are listed here:  (but there are too many for me to list).

I only discuss the professional use products on this post here and not the use at home stuff as I dont believe that this type of products should be used by the untrained:

• Gelish from Nail Harmony
• Shellac from CND
• Colour Gloss from Artistic
• Polish Pro by NSI
• Axxium by OPI
• Mani-q by Young Nails
• GelColour by OPI
• GeleSSe by NCO London
• Colour Lock by Kirsty Meakin

etc, etc, etc ....................

My fingers got tired of finding the most popular ones as I could go on and on and on...............

A few points to mention (in my opinion) on some of the above:- Shellac is easiest to remove and very well known. Gelish and Artistic are popular due to celebrity endorsements and marketing. GeleSSe is unique as the colours can also be used with regular polish base and top coats to enable at home removal easier, plus I have found it is the easiest to do nail art with and has great colour pigment coverage.  Colour Lock by Kirsty Meakin can be used with no base coat or top coat, just the colour to give the speediest application.

So, although some are said to be the same product (Gelish and Artistic Colour Gloss as an example) and others said to be unique (Shellac from CND is the nearest to polish, where as many of the others are more Gel like) they all pretty much do a similar job in that they act as a semi permanent polish that can last 2 or 3 weeks.

All gel polishes are light cured (so are dry when the treatment is finished) and can be soaked off for removal.

Some will  suit other clients better than others as with my clients, one brand suits some people better than others and visa versa.   So in essence I am saying that there is no one brand that suits all - lots of people will tell you that 'this brand' or 'that brand' is better, but my experience has shown that in using many of these I still cannot stay which is best as each client is different as each of these products are.

What I will say is each brand will use clever marketing methods to convince you that theirs is the best.  Do your own research when deciding which one (or more) is for you, your salon and your clients.  

I always recommend that which ever you decide that you at least attend a workshop (or as a minimum have a very thorough conversation with the supplier) on how to get the most out of that product as each one has little differences that can make the treatment work for your clients or not.   The number of forum or facebook discussions I have seen where people have had problems and eventually worked out it was because the method they used was what they were taught as best for another brand.  A 'few tweaks'  later on how they should be applied or used and hey presto they were getting success!

Many of these now appear for sale to the public via ebay or similar 'non authorised' web sites.  All I can say is only buy your products from the authorised distributor!  It has been proven many times that the products you end up with are fake copies and not what they say on the tin!  Just not worth the grief and you will get no support from the suppliers if you go through that route!  I have learned many times the suppliers support is worth its weight in gold!!!!!

Talk to your clients to find out what they want from a treatment as this can help you decide which products to look at in more detail.  The amount of clients that have contacted me saying they want a shellac manicure but when questioned they want a semi permanent polish treatment and are open to discussion as to which is best for them!

Please feel free to contact me if you want more of my opinions on each brand (as I could go on for ever about each one) : - theresa.bloor@gmail.com  

Happy reading and I look forward to your questions. x x x

Be Creative With Nail Art Training Course - Stoke on Trent 4th December 2012

Create salon viable nail designs which are quick and easy and profitable.

Find out the secrets to working smart with the amazing Be Creative Gel Paints, create nail art like the pro’s using the fabulous and ingenious Nail Art Pen and let me show you how to make fast and effective embellishments with the Arabella Forms. 

Let me inspire you with our stunning pure pigments and give you a whole new range of nail design ideas to offer your clients.

We will be working on examples with gel, acrylic and gel Polish designs, which can be tailored to suit your preferred products but this class is non biased and open to any product range you prefer. We will be working with the be creative products, which are available to purchase on the day.

Cost £ 95.00
Time 10 - 4
Deposit of £50 to secure your space, non refundable.

Please contact me for further details or to reserve your place on this workshop.

If you are unable to make this date please let me know and I can arrange a further suitable date for you. 

Be Creative Nail Art Workshops

As mentioned in one of my previous posts I am now an official educator for the Be Creative range of nail design products. YAY!

Our first run of workshops will introduce the Be Creative products to nail technicians to get you all to 'Think Outside The Box', showing and helping to inspire on how to incorporate the products into their favourite nail brands/products.  A fab workshop to give ideas and to inspire all involved to help their business and skills grow, giving great designs to the clients.

The Be Creative products include acrylic nail paint, gel paint, a unique nail art pen, velveteen, pigments and many more.  I will update the blog soon on some of the great designs you can achieve.

If you are interested in attending one of these workshop across the country let me know as there is a great team of educators on board from north to south so please feel free to contact me on here or by email to theresa.bloor@gmail.com and I will get the correct contact for your area.

Have a great week!.

Educating Nails News

As many of you know I have been a big fan of the Be Creative by Sam Biddle Nail Design products for some time now and I am absolutely thrilled and delighted to announce that from October 2012 I will be an Educator for the Be Creative by Sam Biddle Design Team.

A number of workshops will be launched and details of each workshop will be added on here as and when they become available.

I hope I can do Sam Biddle and her team proud and cant wait to attend the Educators workshop at the end of September. x x x

Update on Shrinking Violet Fat Loss Wrap Treatment

I know it's been a while since I told you all about Shrinking Violet but as I have now started with this treatment on clients I thought it was about time to tell you all about the results. Many of my distant colleagues have been reporting great inch losses so although I am incredibly busy with my existing clients treatments I just couldn't help but want to take part in the buzz that is going around the beauty world with Shrinking Violet.

 I have trialled a few cases with this treatment but went live recently with new clients booking in. The results so far are as good as the talk and great immediate results are showing with losses ranging between 5 and 16 inches!

I will add more to this blog soon but wanted to let you all know the results so far - a great treatment all round I say!

Velveteen Nails fro Be Creative by Sam Biddle

I know its been a while so thought I would show you some pictures of nails done with my nail art toys:

This design is done using the Velveteen Nail art products from Be Creative by Sam Biddle .

It is a great way to add something a little different to your clients manicures.

Enjoy x x x

New Nail Innovation Ideas - Velveteen Nails and Mica Nail Pigments

Just a quick post to tell you all about some new nail products I am current testing:

Velveteen Nails and Mica Nail Pigments.

Velveteen is what it says on the tin - makes you nails have a velvet finish.  Very weird I know and I just couldn't imagine how it would feel so I just had to get hold of some.  And yes - it does feel like velvet on your nails!     lol.   I am yet to put it on an actual nail design and not just a colour stick but I will post a picture when I do.

Available from  Sam Biddle at Be Creative   "is proud to announce the arrival of Velveteen to the UK, an innovative material which sits on the surface of your nails, it is completely water and solvent proof and extremely hard wearing. What’s so special is that it feels soft, like velvet. Wearing Velveteen is an inexpensive way to create a rich, luxurious effect, and applying to the whole nail or incorporating it within nail art means it takes nail art design to the next level. "


This revolutionary new product can be used on natural nails or enhancements, and needs nothing more than a UV lamp to cure the gel sealer required to bond the fibres. To apply, simply sprinkle this fine material onto the wet gel and then cure for 2 minutes. Brush away the excess and return to the jar. You can use Velveteen with any gel sealer, but it must not leave an inhibition layer. You can also apply Velveteen with regular top coat over polish. 


I am looking to combine this Velveteen in my next nails design so keep checking back to see the results. 


Mica Pigments - Mica mineral is commonly found in make-up and has been widely used in many cosmetics for years.  Mica can be found and applied in loose powder form, pressed powder form, and even mixed with other agents to become a gel, oil, cream, or liquid. Because of the versatility of mica's consistency, you can easily and professionally apply  in a variety of ways.

Some of my colleagues have experimented in using it with gel nail polishes and as you know, me being a massive fan of anything different with gel polish I too am currently experimenting to see how they can be used in nail designs.  I believe that CND are actually due to launch 'addditives' later this year which seem to work in the same/similar way.    So I can see the use of mica pigments in nails becoming really popular.




I will soon update you all on my findings with these exciting new ideas!  

The Future for Beauty by Theresa

For a while now I have been working on a plan to further develop my career in the Beauty Industry - really its like merging 2 of my past careers together.

Some of you know in a previous life I worked in Human Resources - in fact gaining a post graduate qualification through CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development for you none HR people out there).  My biggest passion in HR was the training and development side and am not boasting when I say that the awards and accolades I received during that career showed that training and development was a natural passion and flair that I excelled at.

So now my next career step is to combine my 2 career passions and become a trainer within my current work in the Beauty Industry!

In recent years the government has specified that:-

"to train in the Adult Sector From September 2007, all new tutors, trainers and teachers in England have needed to meet qualification requirements described by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES)"

 - basically, despite my post graduate qualification previously gained I now need to hold a 'PTLLS' (Preparing to Teach in the Life Long Learning Sector) qualification so I am currently beavering away getting this award.

As well as continuing to carry out Beauty Treatments to my ever expanding client base I will be teaching as a Freelance Trainer in Beauty, to train those who also wish to follow my career path in the Beauty Industry.  Freelance Training will hopefully enable me to train in the products and treatments that are amongst the best in the industry and using my skills to ensure that the newbies in the industry follow with the same professional passion for the treatments and clients as I do!

I will keep you all posted when my training courses start but I feel lots of exciting times ahead!

Artistic Gel Polish Colour Fade - Step by Step

Many of you Professional Nail people out there have been asking how I achieve the colour fade look that so many of my clients are having this season.  So, with the kind permission of Louella Belle, UK Artistic Colour Gloss Distributor I have done some simple step by step photos and video to show you how I achieve the look:

 The colours used in this example are Lovely, Trendy, Diva Chic and Princess.  I dont always use this number of colours as it all depends on what finish the client is looking for. 

The recommended preparation/application guidelines given by the manufacturer for all products must be followed on all occasions to achieve that professional look. 

Step 1.  Apply the  Bonding layer as normal and cure for the recommended time.
Step 2.  Apply the first coat of colour as you would for a normal overlay and cure - in this example 'lovely' was used.  As the  colour stick was clear I applied 2 coats of this colour and cured in between each layer.  

 Step 3.  This is the first stage that is different than a normal colour overlay.  Instead of applying the next colour with a brush I actually apply it with a sponge.  In this example I used a make-up sponge but have tried different sponges which each give a slightly different effect.  Try different ones yourself and see which you prefer.   The colour I used here was 'Trendy'.

Cure after sponging this colour on.

Below is a brief video showing the technique to apply this first colour:

This image shows how it looks after this colour has been applied.

Step 4.  Apply the next deeper colour using the same sponging method, but only apply over the tip of the nail where the darker colour is needed.

This shows how the fade looks after the last colour has been applied with the sponge and cured.

Step 5.  Apply the sparkle colour 'Princess' over the whole nail as normal with the brush and cure.

Step 6.  Apply the Glossing Gel layer as normal over the whole nail and cure to seal the design and add that fabulous shine!

This is the finished look used with the above steps and give you a brief guide.  However, this step by step is just a great introduction to the 'Artistic Design Class' which will give you even better hands on experience for learning this technique and lots of other designs too.  

This method may vary from that in the Artistic Design Class and I also vary the method I use depending on which colours the clients would like and the finished look they want.  So, go ahead and experiment and find a way that works for you.

Thank you to Louella Belle for your permission in allowing me to publish this 'step by step guide' .

If this proves popular let me know if there is a particular nail design you would like to know how to do and I will see what I can do.  Please feel free to add comments on here.

For that added bit of giggle - lets see if you can guess what I was watching whilst recording the video and what other multi-task duty I was also doing at the same time!?!?! (hit - you may need to turn your speaker volume up)  . . . . .   Answers on a Post Card to Beauty by Theresa x x x    lol

Artistic Smart Gel - Training Day

Just a quick note to tell you all about a training day I went to on Sunday.  It was for the Artistic Smart Gel product that has just been launched in the UK.




So - you may ask - what is Artistic Smart Gel?

 Well its a 'Buff Off Gel System' that is designed for adding strength to the natural nail or you can use to tip/sculpt an extended nail too! Louella Belle (UK distributor) states 'The LED Smart Gel is beautifully formulated to create the perfect nail extension while utilizing LED light-curing technology with immense durability'.  This also provides the perfect base for any Gel Polish Shade too.

So far I have only played with this product on the training day so I am yet to 'truly' test the gel and its capabilities but of all the 'buff off hard gels' I have used (and believe me I have tried many) this was by far the nicest, self levelling, but stays put hard gel system to date.

This product is only available to trained/qualified technicians so you need to know you stuff to be able to get it - I will keep you professionals updated on how it goes or contact Louella Belle for further details.

As normal you clients will soon be able to get this Artistic Smart Gel Treatment from Beauty by Theresa in Staffordshire/Stoke on Trent.

Inch Loss Body Wrap - Shrinking Violet

Just got to tell you all about a brand new treatment that is going to be launched soon - The Shrinking Violet Body Wrap!

Create by Tibby Olivier (fab creator of the Faith Lift System) - Shrinking Violet is reported to be a highly effective body wrap that breaks down FAT and gives longer lasting results in inch loss.  It is around 3 x more active that other body wraps as it contains Phosphatidylcholine (lyposis) that really targets fat cells, not water like other wrap treatments on the market.


It is said to be perfect for those who wish to squeeze into that 'Little Black Dress' for a party or a great confidence booster for those undertaking a weight reduction programme.  A course of treatments is recommended to optimise the results.


Body Sculpture and Arm Sculpture home care products will also be available from Authorised Salons which should help to maintain and prolong your treatment in between salon appointments.

Although it has been tried and tested by the creator it is yet to be launched in Salons (will be a Professional Wrap Treatment) but you can be assured that as soon as the results of this treatment have been tried and tested (by me of course when it is released) this will be the first place for me to tell you all about it!


It is being distributed by Tibby Olivier - Therapists will need to be qualified to offer this treatment and they will be looking to add this products to their website as soon as it is available.

So pay a visit back soon to see the feedback as soon as it becomes available.

Nail of the Day - A Bit of Glam

Was time to change my nails again so here is my latest:

All done using Harmony Gelish Gel Polish - Starburst and Sheek White colours.  I just love the thought of 3 weeks of none chip design.

Easter Theme Nails

This year I have gone for quite a simple design for my Easter nails and they are very wearable for anybody!

I have used Artistic Nail Design Colour Gloss gel Polish for the base colour and also the spots - and the number of clients that have requested this design since I started to wear them has been incredible!

For details of this manicure see www.beautybytheresa.co.uk

New Gel Paints

My My My!  What a neglected blog this is!

Anyhow - I have been a busy busy bee as of late with all those clients on the run up to Xmas and the usual Xmas illnesses I seem to end up with every year, but I am now back to the land of the living!

Well a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending a Gel Polish Design workshop on Birmingham held by the fantastic Sam Biddle.  We had the benefit of learning more about different designs that can be achieved with Gel Polish (those of you that know me well know what a big fan of gel polishes I am) and we also got to have a play with the new Gel Paints that Sam has recently launched.

Now, I am not an artist at all but the fab thing about these gel paints is you can play about with them for as lon as you want - and they wont dry(or cure as they are a gel) until they go into the UV or LED lamp.  The hardest thing to get used to is they are a paint and need to be used like a paint but they feel like a gel.  But once you get your head around that you have the best of both worlds!

Here is a picture of my first attempt at playing with them - more practice is needed but as a complete none artist I am quite chuffed with my efforts!   I certainly need to have a few lessons on light and shade thats for sure - if there was ever a time I wish I had paid more attention to the art classes as school it was now.

I am trying to get a clearer picture of this to show you but this gives you an idea for now.

I also loved some of the different design techniques we learned with gel polishes - the great thing I liked about these designs is they can be used quite easily on salon nails - without being too much of an artist!

I will do a separate update on the gel polish designs - hopefully a little bit quicker than this blog.

Bye bye for now. x x x