A Nelson nail artist has shared her excitement after she was commissioned to produce nails for the Eurovision TV advert for the BBC.
Rachel Shuttleworth, owner of Betty-Rose Beauty Boutique in Marsdenhall Road North, is best known for hand-painting jaw-dropping realistic portraits of celebrities and Disney characters.
After overcoming a life of unemployment and debt which forced the Nelson mum to start working multiple jobs and years of hard work, Rachel has achieved her biggest career milestone yet.
In March, Rachel received a message on Instagram from Sarah Cherry, a TV and media makeup-artist working with Freddie Stopler Hair and Make-up, who asked her if she could paint Graham Norton on a set of nails.
Rachel said: “I was absolutely ecstatic. It was quite funny because I initially just thought she was a Graham Norton fan but the next day she called me to explain it was for a Eurovision advert.
“I started the Graham nail and she showed it to the people and they loved it and were over the moon. This was on Tuesday and then on Thursday, I got a long list of what they needed including all the flags on the countries and the 12 points logo with Swarovski crystals.
“They needed the nails by Sunday so I had to move all my Saturday appointments which my clients were fine with, they’ve been so supportive it’s amazing, and was working on them until midnight on Thursday and Friday.”
A single portrait takes Rachel around four hours to paint and a full set with a few accent nails can take up to eight hours to complete but Rachel, impressively, completed all 60 nails by her deadline.
The Eurovision advert, produced by Outsider TV for the BBC, has aired and features closeups of the intricately painted nails created by Rachel.
She added: “It’s a standard 57 second advert but I got six frames out of it so I was really impressed by that. I still can’t believe this has happened.
“I was really nervous when I got asked because the flags are detailed and obviously nails are quite small so it was hard to do but I’m happy with them.
“When you work for so long and something happens it’s amazing. Just making it in the newspapers was massive for me so Eurovision doesn’t feel real.
“The fact that this is the year the UK is hosting the contest is brilliant as well, I love that. People watch from all over the world and I can’t get my head around it, who knows where this will lead.
“It’s been amazing, and my clients have supported me throughout, when I told them some of them were nearly in tears. It’s just amazing to get recognition for your work.”
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