In 2012, Allie Baker-Bennett earned the number-one spot on the NAILS Top 25 list. “I’m very competitive and for the last three years have been competing regularly,” she says. “The industry is always changing and I love learning new things. Education is huge.”

Eighteen years ago, Baker-Bennett never imagined she’d end up being an educator for a worldwide nail company. For the last 13 years, Baker-Bennett has found herself traveling often as a global educator for Ez Flow. “Being an educator was something I never imagined when I went to beauty school,” she says. “I love being able to share my love and knowledge of nails with people around the world. I’ve seen places I never thought I would have the opportunity to see and have made some amazing friends all over the country and the world.”

When she’s not traveling the globe, Baker-Bennett calls Medford, Ore., home. She sees clients at her salon Nail It! “I’m always learning from the people I meet and love being able to bring what I learn back to the salon and to my clients.” Getting to know her clients is one of the best parts of her job. “I have such a wide array of customers, there’s never a dull moment. I love that I get to create nails to fit each person’s style — with a little bit of my own style thrown in, of course.”

Cover tech Allie Baker-Bennett (right) was no stranger to NAILS. Shown here with NAILS editor Hannah Lee, she placed in the number-one spot on the NAILS Top 25 List in 2012.

Cover tech Allie Baker-Bennett (right) was no stranger to NAILS. Shown here with NAILS editor Hannah Lee, she placed in the number-one spot on the NAILS Top 25 List in 2012.

Being the mother of two teenage boys might seem to prove difficult to travel, but she says her sons are both very supportive of her career as a nail tech and as an educator. “Even though I’ve missed things they’ve been involved in due to my travel, they’ve both been very supportive,” she says. “One of my sons has shown a huge interest in doing nails and plans on going to cosmetology school.”

When she’s not doing nails, she loves spending time with her boys, her husband, and riding her Harley.

For this month’s cover, Baker-Bennett created these beautiful watercolor flowers out of EZ Flow acrylic. The ethereal effect is stunning and definitely worth recreating.

 

Here’s how you can do these nails:

1. Using Ez Flow Truly White powder, sculpt the base shape. Cover the entire nail, keeping the product very thin. This creates the “canvas” you will be working on.

2. With Aspiring Hues from the Ez Flow Watercolors collection, start to create your flower using small beads of acrylic and pressing them out into a petal shape.

3. Add more petals over the first layer to create dimension and finish your flower. Try to keep everything as thin as possible.

4. Shade and add detail to the flower with Mind’s Eye, also from the Ez Flow Watercolor collection.

5. Use Aquarelle, Painter’s Palette, and Brushstrokes in small wet beads to fill in empty space around your design. Fade each color into the other by slightly overlapping them.

6. Cap the entire nail in Ez Flow clear powder, building in the structure of the nail.

7. File and shape the nail. File carefully so you don’t file into your design. Buff to a high shine.

8. Apply Ez Flow Essential Oil Plus to the cuticles and massage into the skin.

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Cover Look: Acrylic Watercolor Floral Nails (video)

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