Those who have been reading my blog for a while know that I have a huge love for over the top Japanese style nail art. I just love it everything about it. When I did a review of some products from the Born Pretty store a while ago, I requested these little candy, sweets nail arts. I knew when I used them I wanted them to last, and I paint my nails way to often to use them on my hands. So I got with my awesome local nail salon POLISHED NAIL SALON, and Samantha created this wonderful pedi!
She was worried she was putting too much stuff on my toes, but I assured her, I wanted every inch covered! I wanted the most over the top, tacky, fun pedi we could do. I think she accomplished my goal and then some! Thanks Samantha and all the girls at POLISHED NAIL SALON for making my toes the talk of the town, lol.
WOW! I can't believe all the guesses I got on my little skull teaser pic! Thanks to all who took the time to make a guess. And I must say I did have to smile at some of the comments made by my fellow Halloween lovers (JAMIE and NICOLE), lol! I figured it would at least drive them nuts :)
So for those of you who guessed 3-D acrylic moulds, you were correct! I got my moulds from 3D NAIL. These things are just awesome I tell you! This is like acrylic 3D nail art for dummies! And by dummies, I mean people like me! I rec'd five moulds from them. The moulds are a flexible, rubber mould that you fill with acrylic, let dry and then pop out. You then place your newly formed piece of 3D nail art on your nail. Below is a short video for the goldfish mould (which I got, squeeeeee!)
See!! How easy does that look?
Here are the moulds that I got:
You will need to enlarge the image to really see all the cute designs on the moulds. I got: The Goldfish, Skulls, flowers, dragonfly and bee, & butterfly bows. They have almost 100 different moulds, so these five are just a fraction of what they offer. (Including a pumpkin one I was really tempted to get.)
I just had to use one of these last night, so I picked the skull one. I just got a little starter acrylic nail set from Sallys to use, that came with a little brush as well as the acrylic stuff I would need. This is the first time I have ever used this stuff and it was a little difficult to figure out how much liquid I needed on the brush, and it wasn't really picking up a little ball of powder like I have seen when I get my nails done. SO I think I need a little practice as far as that goes. Luckily my kit came with a acrylic nail how to DVD, so I will watch that for some pointers. I also noticed when I was done that I did have a few air bubbles in my disign, so I don't think I packed it into the mould enough either. I only got two skulls done when the BF started whining about the smell, so I stopped. So here is my first attempt: I was literally squealing with delight over this! When I say I squealed, that's what I did, you should have seen Dinky pop her head up from under the covers and cock it sideways at me, lol! I had to show the BF what was causing all the stink. Who then asked, why did I stop . . . . . blank stare right into his eyes, uh weren't you just going into dramatics over the smell?! I swear, at times like these I could star in the next episode of SNAPPED! So I only have this one to show you today, but I plan on putting these moulds to good use, very soon!
I also wanted to point out that I got excellent, personable service on these! I had a few emails going with King, and he was most helpful to me. He was extremely prompt and very courteous with his responses. These came from Taiwan and were shipped on Thursday Aug. 20th and I received them Wednesday Aug 26th!!! That is like super duper fast!
So tell me ladies, what do you think of these 3D acrylic nail art moulds? Something you would purchase or have purchased? I would love to hear all of your opinions on these.
Last night I removed my fake nails I had on so I could put on some more fake nails, lol! Really I removed my fake nails so that I could try out my Dinky Nails that Jen from Never Too Much Glitter sent to me.
I used the "repeating glue" that she sent me. You basically just paint the glue on your natural nails and the backs of the nails that you are going to put on. It goes on white, and as it dries it goes clear. When both nails are dry, you place the fake nails on your nails and they stick! This stuff really did work, what a great idea! Then all you do to remove them is soak your hands in warm water and they come off. It was pretty awesome stuff.
Jen is in Japan, so I really don't know where this repeating glue is available. I checked on Ebay and it came back with no matches. Anyway, here are the pics:
Nail Venus magazine is one of many Japanese magazines dedicated to nail art. These magazines are literally page after page of nails and nail art. I finally found a site where I can view these magazines in full, but I can't embed any of the images from them on here, so I will just have to provide the links. These were just a couple of the nails that really stood out to me.
The first link is a page that has REAL diamonds on this lady's tips! I don't know if that is really what you are buying (it is in another language) or if they are referring to diamond "strength", but it sure looks like the diamonds are for your nails! Either way what girl wouldn't like this? Can you imagine having money like that??
This next link is just some purple nails that I really liked and I might try to imitate the look for you guys later. The nails on the page I am referring to are the large image nails on the left side of the page.
The third link I have is for some plaid nails. What really impressed me about these is that the magazine shows you how to make the plaid design. I never would have thought that this plaid design was done by hand. The directions make it seem fairly simple, however I don't know how simple it would be doing it on your own hands. I might give this plaid design a shot in the near future though. It kind of looks Christmasey to me!
The last link I have for you is totally not nail related. I was shocked though when I saw this ad. From what I can tell it is for a diet "item" of some sort. They have before, during and after pics of two girls, and I don't know if it is just me, but the after pics these girls look way to skinny! There is so much space in between their little thighs and their little knobby knees just look so sad. I don't know if that is the popular look over there, but it seems even more drastic than the standards that Hollywood has, and I thought that was pretty extreme.
I would love to hear what you guys think about the links that I put up. What do you think about the plaid nails, do you think it is something you might try? Love to hear from you guys, it makes a blog so much more interesting :)
******UPDATE****** Cynthia has told me that YES, all the designs are hand crafted by her directly onto the nails using powder acrylics.
Talent, I tell you, T-A-L-E-N-T!
******update #2 ********* Cynthia is located in Singapore
I came across Cynful Nails yesterday, it is a blog by an at home nail tech. I believe that she is located in Japan. How cute is her blog name??? Her name is Cynthia, I thought it was a very clever little name for her blog. She posts lots of pictures of the nails that she does. And a lot of them are some of the more simpler designs that most women here in the US tend to like.
When I got on her blog today, and saw the cutest Christmas nails she did, I almost DIED! They put my little Christmas themed nails I did last night to shame (more on my Christmas nails post later today)! I just have so much respect for the artistic ability that nail artists have. Please please please if you like jazzed up nails & nail art check out her blog! You can either click on the link I have on the right side of my blog or click here to get a taste of some Cynful nails ;)
Here are her Christmas nails she posted on her blog today:
I believe that all the flowers, stocking, holly and Santa were HANDMADE by Cynthia using powder nail acrylics! I have left a message in her comments asking if that is how they were made, if it is something different I will post an update.
*******UPDATE - Please participate in the poll I have at the top of the page, telling me what you think of this style of nail art.
Look at these cool nails! Nail art in Japan is crazy!! They have taken nail art to a whole different level! I hope it starts spilling over here soon, because I totally LOVE these nails. They have some of the cutest little appliques that I just can't seem to find. From what I could tell from the website that I got these pics from, these are pre-made sets that you pick from and then just apply them to your nails. The website is in Japanese, so of course I wasn't exactly for sure how these work. To me these are little pieces of art work that you wear on your nails.
They even have some for toe nails, lol! I believe that some of the appliques are hand made, as in the picture above. The two bows and hearts look as though they were made from acrylic. I would love to learn how to do stuff like that. These nails are right up my alley!
I would love to hear from you all! What do you think of nail art like this? Is it for you? Do you like it, just not on you? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Everyone has opinions and I would love to hear yours.
ALSO - If anyone reading this knows more about this style of nail art I would LOVE to hear what you know. I am trying to find out what I can, but most is in Japanese. Please either send me an email or leave the info in the comments section, I check both regularly.
They even have some for toe nails, 
