Strike A Pose

Early May has always been really busy for me, personally. Three close family birthdays within the first week of May, two of which are that of my beautiful boys who turned 2 and 11 this year; there's always been lots to plan and organise. So when I was asked to be the session tech for an editorial in shooting, I knew that the beginning of May was going to be even busier than usual, and I actually could not wait!

After nail blogger B Nailed To Perfection posted some totally awesome swatches of our We Heart Nails UK glitters, I was contacted through Instagram by stylist Lauren Rose and asked if our glitters and I would like to join the all girl team that would be heading up a super special photo shoot incorporating a pastel, holographic and iridescent theme throughout. I jumped at the chance and so began preparing for my first ever photo shoot.

Lauren sent me some great mood boards for inspiration and also introduced me to the all girl squad. The team included the two models for the shoot Christina Nadin and Yolanda Thein, photographer Ayesha Hussain, MUA Heather Lines and hair stylist Betty Westerman. Lauren also posted links to the at the time confirmed brands whose clothes would be styled for the shoot: Ragged Priest, Indigo East, Sacchashrine, In Your Dreams and Rosa Bloom. The clothes were absolutely amazing!

My job then was to come up with two different designs that would carry through the entire shoot. There were going to be several style changes and so I needed to create two sets of nails that could easily be worn no matter how demure or full on the outfits were going to be.

I'd never really considered that I would get the opportunity to be a session nail tech, even just as a one off thing. Having closed my nail salon earlier in the year to concentrate on my nail art store full time, it certainly never crossed my mind that I would even be asked. And to be honest, it wasn't something I'd even considered doing. I liked my paid work and as long as my clients were going away happy with their nails, I couldn't ask for more. But this was a real opportunity for me that I didn't see coming. It felt like it tied my working nail tech career off with a pretty little bow, but at the same time I was getting the chance to showcase our glitters in a professional photo shoot. And our glitters couldn't have been better matched for this shoot!

I tried a few designs out first, but chose this final set, and so I emailed this image off to Lauren for her approval. I'd researched catwalk nails, pastel inspired nails and looked up other editorial pictures to get an idea of how simple or elaborate the design should be. I noticed that a lot of the editorials that pastels featured in, the nails were often just one or two colours. As this shoot had a lot of different textures and the pastels were of a more iridescent or holographic nature, I decided on this simple glitter fade over a glitter base as I felt it complimented the mood board of images I'd been sent and the style of clothing that was being worn for the shoot. I personally felt that the nails didn't need to be over elaborate as the make up and clothing were more what the eye would be drawn too and there was going to be several make up, hair and clothing changes, so it was important that the nails could carry through each change seamlessly. 

For this set I used a French pink base by INK London iLac in i-1. I then burnished Mellow Marshmallow We Heart Nails UK white/pink/green iridescent glitter in to the tacky layer and sealed it in with the gorgeous i-Lac i-94, which is a gorgeous clear fine glitter coat with a purple/blue hue. From here I pressed a chunky pink/purple holographic and iridescent glitter (yet to be named and released) and faded from the free edge down and then top coated twice. 

The second set Lauren requested a silver holographic theme. I must admit for this set I struggled. I knew I was going to be using our bright silver ultrafine holographic glitter Ice Ice Baby, but how was I going to work this into a design that wasn't similar to what I'd already created? I couldn't fade again and I didn't want too much faff on the day as I'd be working on the models own nails whilst hair or make up was being done. I tried a few designs out, but none of them were really hitting the spot. So I decided that I'd purchase some Empower Nail Art film and mask off areas of the nail and contrast  the silver glitter with a pastel lilac shade from the INK London i-Lac range- which I'll admit is one of my favourite gel polish colours.

This was a really quick design to create and so simple to do. I was using i-Lac i-32 for the base but I sometimes find I need three coats to get a really good coverage with this shade. This can sometimes mean that the application is a little thicker than I'd like, so I used my trusty french pink base in i-1 applying super thinly and topped it with two thin layers of i-32 for full coverage. I then cut the Empower Nail Art film in to strips, applied it to the centre of the nail and smoothed it down with my tweezers. At this point I pressed Ice Ice Baby in to the tacky inhibition layer that hadn't been masked off and burnished it in to create a gorgeous linear holo that hasn't quite been picked up in the picture above. After sweeping away any excess, I removed the Empower Nail Art film and thinly top coated just the glittered areas and cured. I then top coated the entire nail. 

Unfortunately on the day I wasn't able to recreate this design as the model couldn't wear gel polish due to her attending another shoot which required her to have bare nails. Originally the models had both agreed to gel polish, but these things happen and so we decided on a nail polish glitter rockstar which actually looked amazing against all the different colours and styles on the day. I still used Ice Ice Baby, but pressed it in to the tacky layer of nail foil glue which had been laid over a silver holographic polish base. I completed the look with a clear slightly chunkier glitter polish to add even more depth and then applied a liberal amount of glossy top coat to finish. Our glitter absolutely popped, especially in the sunlight.

I didn't get to stay for the entire day unfortunately as I needed to get home for my eldest son and we live some distance from where the shoot took place. My husband and youngest had driven me up to London and mid afternoon we all headed back to the coast and to our little home by the sea. I would have loved to have seen the shoot in its entirety, but Lauren will be sending over the photos once they've been edited and finished. From here, Lauren will be submitting the photographs to several editorials and she is confident that they will get picked up quickly. 

Despite the fact that session work has never been something I was particularly interested in, I would definitely recommend trying it at least once. One of the things I've always loved about the nail industry is that it truly is a multifaceted one. From starting out as a mobile nail technician, I created my own nail salon studio and then my pretty cool little online nail art store. Whilst I am by no means a session tech, I did get the chance to taste just a little part of it earlier this month, and ultimately that's what will always excite me about this industry, you never know where it's going to take you next. 

Until next time folks...

Laura x

I'll update this post when I receive the finished images. You can also purchase our glitters by clicking the Nail Art Store tab in the menu above.