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I invited my salon team to create nails for Cannes Film Festival

By Lilly Delmage | 3 June 2025

The Nail & Beauty Lounge owner, Julie McCabe, takes us behind the scenes of her Cannes Film Festival experience, where she and her salon team delivered manicures and pedicures. The team at Poulton-le-Fylde-based salon, The Nail & Beauty Lounge, were called upon by owner, Julie McCabe, to provide the manicures and…

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Nail Tech Talk: Rachel Foreman of Effy Nails

By Callie Iley | 29 December 2023

With a wealth of experience both on set and in-salon, nail artist, Rachel Foreman of Effy Nails, shares how her colourful career in the nail industry began and offers an insight into her day-to-day life… Returning to education in 2008 to train for two years in make-up artistry, the year…

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My Other Life: Nikki Boulton of Nails by Nikki Boulton

By Callie Iley | 25 August 2022

Scratch chats to Nikki Boulton, a nail pro who’s busy juggling her nail career alongside a very different role… Session manicurist, Nikki Boulton, started a second business; creating beautifully shaped wax crayons for children, while the nail industry was under lockdown restrictions. Initially keeping her venture under wraps, ColourMe Lincoln…

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Nail Tech Talk: Nikki Boulton of Nikki Boulton Nail Technician

By Callie Iley | 21 May 2022

Session stylist, Nikki Boulton of Nikki Boulton Nail Technician, chats to Scratch about session tekking and her business she runs on the side… “I’ve been in the industry since around 2008,” Nikki shares. “I love how no matter how long you’ve been in the industry, you can never stop learning.…

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Robbie Tomkins reveals how to find your nail industry USP

By Sophie Nutt | 19 November 2020

When I was first introduced to nails, it quickly became apparent that, as far as the session world is concerned, there seemed to be a distinct lack of men. I had met manicurist, Mike Pocock, through working at the nail brand that I was a PR manager for and of…

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Dancing On Ice: Nail Designs – Week 6

By Guest Writer | 12 February 2020

Hey Scratch readers! This week the theme for the Dancing On Ice performances was ‘dance’. Each couple had a different genre of dance to perform and I created the nails to match, alongside my amazing assistant, Hannah, of @bananasbeauty_. Here is an in-depth look at two of my favourite looks created this week… Vanessa…

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Britney Tokyo on working with A-List celebrities

By Sophie Nutt | 31 January 2020

Hello! I’m Britney Tokyo, I began my career as a manicurist in a nail salon, which was around the same time as I started my Instagram account on which I posted photos of the nail art I was creating every day. At that time, nail art definitely wasn’t as popular as it…

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Dancing On Ice: Nail Designs – Week 3

By Guest Writer | 22 January 2020

Hey Scratch readers! This week’s theme for the Dancing On Ice performances was musicals! There is no better theme for me as I love a good old musical. This week I had my assistant @thehouseofbeauty_brentwood with me. We really had to get our creative juices flowing in order to bring you incredible nail art to…

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Robbie Tomkins on how to deal with pressure

By Sophie Nutt | 14 November 2019

The session world is a weird and wonderful beast as, for the most part, I’m a Lone Ranger. There are times when I absolutely love this part of my job as there isn’t any pressure from a boss telling me what to do or monitoring my work to check it’s…

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GERmanikure launches customisable Session Belt System

By Sophie Nutt | 30 October 2019

GERmanikure has introduced a customisable Session Belt System for session manicurists and techs on the move. Utilising high quality leather an innovative customisable design, the GERmanikure Session Belt System boasts a comfortable wear and versatile structure for pros to house their tools and have them readily available at all times.…

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Robbie Tomkins on maintaining a work/life balance in the session world

By Sophie Nutt | 17 October 2019

As I’ve mentioned before, working as a session tech is unlike any job I’ve had before. Working in an office, salon or even as a mobile tech usually involves some sort of parameter as far as time is concerned, such as working hours and days of the week. I found…

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Michelle Humphrey scoops Glamour Beauty Power List 2019 award

By Sophie Nutt | 20 September 2019

Session tech, Michelle Humphrey, has scooped the Glamour Beauty Power List 2019 award for Best Nail Artist/Influencer. The Glamour Beauty Power List 2019 saw nominees across 100 categories chosen by the Glamour beauty team alongside a panel of beauty experts and influencers including Diipa Khosla, Gary Thompson and more. The…

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Robbie Tomkins on how to build & maintain a positive reputation

By Sophie Nutt | 19 September 2019

One of the most frequently asked questions in the session world is without a doubt, ‘have you been busy?‘, and the truth is, the workload can vary massively from artist to artist. As anyone who knows me will confirm, I have worked in lots of different jobs in my time…

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Robbie Tomkins on working with celebrities

By Sophie Nutt | 22 August 2019

When I tell people I am a session manicurist and explain what the job entails, one of the first questions they ask is, ‘which celebrities have you worked with?‘ or my pet hate, ‘who is the best/worst celebrity that you’ve worked with?‘. I always find these questions rather uncomfortable and…

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Your session styling questions: answered!

By Sophie Nutt | 1 August 2019

Session stylist and Scratch columnist, Robbie Tomkins, invited you to ask him any questions about the session world. Here, he answers those questions with the help of session techs Michelle Humphrey and Michelle Class. Kaycie Kyle asks: What career level do you need to be at to start session work? RT: I started…

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