Friday 4 September 2015

REVIEW - NAIL ART - DAZZLING DESIGNS WITH STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS BY DOUGLAS SCOTTI & ALESSANDRA PELAGOTTI

Title: Nail Art
Authors: Douglas Scotti & Alessandra Pelagotti
Genre: Entertainment, Crafts & Hobbies
Publisher: Dover Publications
Release Date: 28th August 2015

BLURB from Netgalley
With this book's illustrated advice, you can not only give yourself an ideal manicure but also use your fingernails to express your moods and creativity. Discover how to add musical notes, flowers, snowflakes, animal faces, and other dainty designs to your nails.
Each style features a color photo and step-by-step instructions. The designs are graded according to difficulty, from simplest of styles to those requiring expert skills. With these guidelines and a little practice, anyone can learn to create the most sophisticated nail art.


PURCHASE LINKS

INITIAL THOUGHTS
As I did a some Beauty which included Manicure at college (lots of years ago) when I did my Hairdressing & Beauty Course. So I do enjoy keeping up with the latest nail trends. My daughter also is now a fully qualified level 3 Nail Technician and can do nail extensions along with nail art and other techniques to, so I was really looking forward to checking this book out.

MY REVIEW
I saw this one on Netgalley and downloaded it for free to read and review for my blog, and decided to give it a go both from the point of view of a Do It Myself viewpoint, and also from the position of someone who is also able to do nails professional to.
The first thing in the book is the basics of a home manicure. The book begins with a list of items you will need to do all the different types of nail art contained within the book. They are mostly items that anyone who enjoys doing their nails would have already really. The book has images of the nail art finished and then the book gives step by step separate instructions on how to reproduce the nail art. It also gives you suggested colours to use together for the nail art and also lists any extra items you may need for example nail art stickers or a fine nail art brush etc. The instructions are quite clear and fairly easy to follow, there are types Nail Art to suit most tastes and technical abilities. The Nail art is done using normal nail polish that you can buy from most stores that stock beauty products etc. or like most people do these days online!
There are some quite interesting ideas that would suit a "beginner" or young teen who wishes to experiment with nail art. I also think an experienced Nail technician could maybe pick up an idea or two from some of the designs within the pages of this book.
Some of the nail art designs don't look extremely neat but I guess something like that depends of the technique and ability of whoever is doing them. There is also one image that shows an extremely ill fitting false nail/ nail tip stuck onto a natural nail. The problem is that you can see the actual natural nail at either side of the stick on nail/nail tip. This could cause damage to the natural nail and I personally feel that nail extensions, tip stick on's etc should be left for only a professional to carry out to minimize any possible damage to the nail.
So did I enjoy the book? It was okay, though I wasn't really inspired to do any of the nail art within the book. I think it would suit a much younger audience than myself, like perhaps "tweens" or young teens or someone with an interest in nail art.
Would I recommend the book? Yes to young teens, tweens. An ideal stocking filler book for Christmas.
Would I like to read another Nail Art book by the same people that did this one? Probably not unless it was a more professionally aimed one. I guess I'm spoilt in that I have my own professional nail technician on hand to do my nails when I need them to be done.
Would I like to read other Nail Art books by other author.publishers? Yes, from my own point of view and from my daughters position of being a nail technician too.

FINAL THOUGHTS
So to sum up really I think this book would make an ideal Christmas stocking filler gift for a 8+ aged girl. I think perhaps even young teens would like the book too. I think if the price was a little cheaper, within the price range of a pocket money purchase it would be even more appealing to youngsters within the tween market too.

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