A simple French

So my second improvement post!

I remember doing this design last march and thinking they were of a really good quality. Looking at this photo it's crazy to think that was my opinion back then, and that I happily went round with them on my nails!

As you can see I was still wearing the skin-drying false nails, which had a lovely ring of polish from the old manicure around the edge where the nail varnish had managed to get underneath. Oh, of course the claw pose continued, looking over my photos I kept on with this horrendous hand poisition for at least another 3/4 months!

My latest attempt I would consider to be greatly improved, but this time I've had much more practice since I've done a few different coloured French manicures in the last year and a half.

Everything in this photo is of a higher standard. The lighting is better and the hand pose is a far cry from the original. And stepping away from false nails has done my hands a world of good! I no longer have residual polish around the edge of my nails (unless it's particularly difficult to get off)! Removing the false nails has allowed my natural nails to grow well in terms of length and strength.

As I said in my previous improvement post, it's really encouraging to be able to see how far you've come by doing this; I would recommend anyone who feels like they have hit a bit of a wall with their nails, or in any other aspect for that matter, to look back at old work and try to recreate it. It definitely spurs you on to try even harder.

For this manicure I used Essie "Help me Grow" as a base coat, it's a little more expensive than I usually spend (Essie always is in England!) but I really like it. The white tips were created with Rimmel "White Hot Love" and nail vinyls from Linda over at www.nailvinyls.com (teismom on Instagram). For the gold strip underneath I used my brush from Stylishnailartshop, www.etsy.com/shop/Stylishnailartshop and "Fool's Gold" by Collection Work the Colour. The top coat I used was Glisten and Glow by HK Girl, as if you couldn't guess by the photos!