#NOWTRENDING Beautiful blue butterflies by Ellie Rama

Ellie Rama, of Nails With Ellie, chats to Scratch about her love for the nail industry and her passion for creativity…

I’ve been interested in doing nails ever since my teens. I started out by doing nail art on my friends and family, decorating their nails with funky designs. When I left school, I moved on to college and studied beauty therapy, which was when I began doing gel nails and extensions on the nails of my friends and family, whilst also working a full-time job. I had two children, the first in 2017 and then the second in 2019. When my youngest was six months old, I began craving some adult interaction and my Auntie, who was a beauty therapist, suggested I come to work for her at weekends, offering nails. On the 1st September 2019, I started advertising for clients. By March 2020, just before lockdown, I moved to a new salon to work more hours.

I’m obsessed with anything and everything nail art related and it’s definitely my signature nail style. Currently, I’m really into and love doing marble nails, but I’m also obsessed with any galaxy, gemstone inspired nail designs, too.

The blue butterfly nail art design was a natural nail overlay using Silcare Base One Gel UV Cover in the shade Medium over the natural nail. To create the foil cuffs, I used Lecenté Foil Gel alongside gold foils. The butterfly was hand drawn using Magpie Gel Paints and Silcare Flexy Hybrid Gel.

I love working in the nail industry so much. I adore all of the love and support that us nail techs have for each other, as well as the social media aspect of my job. I’ve always been a creative, artistic person and I love creating my own designs so I’m honestly just living my dream life. I would do it for free if I could!

I think the highlight of my career so far is when I moved into my beauty room in the salon ‘Grace Beauty’. I see it as my own space where I can be creative with the freedom to make my art.

In terms of my hopes for the future, I want to continue doing nails for as long as I can. When my boys go to school, I’ll have the ability to work more and more, giving me the flexibility to try out new brands and also new styles. I love the social media side of my job and would love to continue to grow my social media platform, as this would allow me to inspire other nail techs, especially as I get a lot of my inspiration from all of the other wonderful nail techs online!

Follow Ellie’s nail journey on Instagram here.