Glitter for winter, florals for spring, brights for summer. For autumn, it’s tortoise shell nails you need to be asking your nail tech for.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a muted burnt orange for October – in fact, my last autumnal set was deeper shades of orange and green with fall flowers.
Of course, there are no hard and fast rules to manicures, except get them regularly and look after them. Trends come and go, but there are themes that remain classics – like how, in fashion, leopard print is a neutral. For manicures, tortoise shell is a year-round go-to, it’s how you wear it that makes the statement.
After my Cruella inspired nails and two sets of French tips on the trot, I was really undecided on what to have on my next mani. I trawled the Instagram accounts of trend-setting nail techs and screenshot half a dozen vastly different designs and told Leanne: “I love all of these, I think its a tortie/pink/glitter/gloss/matte theme. I know none of the colours, patterns or finishes match – but I know you can make something work.”
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When I arrived at my appointment, Leanne got out her OMY etc Nail Its to doodle out a design idea. The little pads have a hand of blank nails that can be drawn on with different coloured crayons so you can see the design before your nail tech gets to work.
Leanne then handed me a card to open which was from my lovely friends Gemma and Gavin, whose little baby’s christening I’d photographed a few weeks earlier. The couple had called my nail tech and pre-paid for my appointment as thank you for the photos – and I honestly could have cried at their thoughtfulness.
After gushing over Gemma and Gav’s kind gesture, Leanne got on with my removal and prep, taking my almond shaped nails shorter, and using The Gel Bottle builder gel in Teddy to create my base. To tick my glitter box, each hand featured a holographic glitter nail in the shade Rosy Cheeks by TGB, and to satisfy my pink preferences, each hand also got a block colour of Rhubarb.
So, how was Leanne going to tie these all in and tick the tortie, gloss and matte boxes? The remaining three fingers on each hand were designed with gorgeous swirls, with a large tortie chunk followed by Rhubarb and Rosy Cheeks swirls. Leanne went in with a matte topcoat on these nails, and then just over the tortoise shell with a gloss topcoat, adding a swirl of white with Glossify One Coat to finish the look.
Leanne finished off my manicure with the NAF Stuff x Navy nail oil and I was left with yet another incredible set of nails that I’ll never want to take off. I’ll never know how she manages to pull all of my obscure ideas from my head and put them into cohesive and complimentary artwork, but she not only understood the assignment, but nailed the brief, too.
If you’d like to recreate this look at your next manicure, ask for a medium length almond shaped nail with tortie swirls with hints of pink and glitter. Or, save this photo and show it to your nail tech who should be able to shade match!
Be sure to follow @Leannehaycocknailartist for all your manicure inspiration and tips!
