#NowTrending: 90’s inspired pierced nails by Aimie Wheatley
By Callie Iley | 25 May 2021 | Feature, Tech Talk
Scratch chats to Aimie Wheatley of AimieVee Beauty Studio about creating a safe space for women in her salon and how she created this 90’s pierced nail design…
I began my journey into nails over 10 years ago. I started with gel polish, and loved it, and then moved onto acrylic and gel enhancements, and in the last couple of years I’ve introduced builder gels to my services, which my clients adore!
My signature style is a beautiful, natural, nude base with nail art then incorporated on top, usually in a pink or gold colour.
Naio Nails has an amazing range of nude and pink coloured acrylic powders that are my go-to bases for extensions. I’m obsessed with The Gel Bottle’s Builder Gels – the shade Dolly is my favourite! Never before have I used products so long lasting and reliable with the most beautiful range of colours.
I created the nails shown using some pinched square tips, as this particular client loves that look. I then overlayed them with a nude acrylic powder. Once I had refined the acrylic, I began by painting the red swirls with gel polish, curing as I went. Once complete, I then painted the white above it, using the red as my guide. I cured again and repeated the previous step with the baby pink. I then top coated them with a high gloss, no wipe top coat. To finish, I used my very small nail drill tool to make two holes in the tip of the ring fingers. I then inserted the gold hoops into the holes and closed with tweezers to create the nail piercings, which give the nails a fun retro finish.
I love the community and creativity that is really thriving in the industry at the moment. The pandemic has really brought technicians together and showed how resilient we are.
I’ve made some amazing nail friends during the time we have been out of work, and everyone was so supportive in sharing tutorials and helping others succeed. I’ve seen so many people up their nail game since 2020. Some amazing new talent has emerged, it’s been incredible to see and it’s making the industry a very exciting place to be right now!
Challenging times
Shortly after leaving my salon job and becoming self-employed three years ago, I started becoming really unwell. I was diagnosed this year with endometriosis and had surgery to help ease my symptoms. I used my social media platforms to document my journey as I wanted to raise awareness for a condition that hugely effects women’s health and goes largely ignored. I’ve had an overwhelming response from talking so openly about it. It has felt amazing using my business and social media presence for the power of good. I’ve tried to turn my own personal negative into a positive, which in turn, has allowed me to provide a safe space for women to talk openly about how they feel without fear of being judged in both my studio and inbox.
In the future, I would love to work with my favourite brands and become an ambassador for one. I currently work one day a week as a lecturer in a nearby college. I’d like to move forward and offer accredited training courses within my studio, specialising in all aspects of nails for current and upcoming nail technicians. This is something I hope to have achieved by the end of 2021.