We’re doing films for the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas group, and I chose to use my new hēhē plates for a Harry Potter-inspired Hogwarts’ houses skittle manicure.

Four of the hēhē plates are themed around the Hogwarts’ houses. I don’t know how accurately they represent the house flags and crests as used in the films. Although I’ve seen all the films, I don’t recall much about the crests and flags. But the images I found online seem to be fairly similar to the ones on the plates. Certainly the badges in the centre of each plate, which depict each house’s mascot, are accurate.

So, I painted a nail to represent each of the houses, as a bit of a skittle:

• index finger: Gryffindor – Barry M Blood Orange, stamped with Barry M Foil Effects Gold using hēhē 026
• middle finger: Ravenclaw – Barry M Blue Grape, stamped with Sally Hansen Shiny Penny using hēhē 028
• ring finger: Hufflepuff – Barry M Lemon Ice Cream, stamped with Konad Black using hēhē 029
• little finger: Slytherin – Barry M Spring Green, stamped with Barry M Foil Effects Silver using hēhē 027

This manicure took some planning. I stamped the emblem first and got it centred well by using my Clear Jelly Stamper. Lots of places seem to be selling these now. I bought mine from Clear Jelly Stamper itself – I’m not sure, but I think the vendor was the person who also invented these stampers. I believe she’s patenting it too. I’m not sure it will stop any rip-offs though.

I then top coated and waited until my nails were completely dry. Before stamping over the nail with the rest of the design, I covered each emblem in liquid latex. It worked really well and it was easy to pull off the latex afterwards with some tweezers.

I have stuck faithfully to the colours of the houses, although Ravenclaw should be bronze and I’ve used more of a copper colour. And I have used something from each plate that comes as close as possible to the designs I’ve seen online for the individual house shields.

I’m really pleased with these hēhē plates. I probably won’t be doing a lot of Harry Potter manicures, and I can’t really see me having the need for a badger image very soon! But the other patterns on the plates are great. I know a lot of bloggers have been sent hēhē plates by a nail accessories online shop, myself included. But please note that these are fakes and they definitely aren’t as good quality as the real thing. Outside of China, you can currently only get hēhē  plates from aiyoohēhē itself.

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