In October I spent two weeks traveling in Japan - first time since my exchange student year there. And it's been six years since then. I expected the country be changed, but surprisingly I didn't find any dramatical changes in the way the people look, walk, eat, live and so on. The fashion is remained very Japan-like, and that concerns the nail fashion as well.
Six years ago I spotted the infamous nail art monsters on girls there with tons of 3d decoration:
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| Japanese nail art. Spottet in some train between Nagoya and Osaka in March, 2007. |
I wondered every time how on earth do they anything with these hands/nails? I wouldn't be able to button my shirt up...
Anyway this time I didn't see such pasted up nails, but maybe I didn't pay enough attention being busy with other impressions. Still you'll find lots of nail art goods in every drugstore and drug department.
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Dazzling array of nail stickers in one of the shops in Tokyo "Solamachi".
October, 2013 |
First of all there were many nail art stickers, small and full nail seals and rhinestones. Japanese girls like it sparkly. :)
I just had to buy some of the cute stickers.
Every time I see that weird slogan "You be quality" I wonder if google translate sucks that much...
Apparently gel nails are very popular these days in Japan, so that the manufacturer of the nail products have already thought about soaking off: here we are the little bags for each nail. You don't need to wrap your fingers in foil and can do something useful while the gel is soaking off.
One more thing... As I entered some department store in Shibuya (fashionable district of Tokyo) where the nail products were very close to entrance, I was surprised to see a guy at the counter who promoted nail polish strips Incoco. He had got long nails and showed on them how to apply these Incoco strips. I couldn't refrain from asking why on earth would a guy do this job? The idea behind hiring a guy was not less surprising as the situation itself: "It's so easy, that even a man could do it!" Well, I wouldn't come to this solution myself... But maybe it's just European stereotype thing...
I didn't buy anything of the pretty strips, because they were not Japanese products. I didn't dare to ask about taking picture of him. Somehow I cannot imagine an European guy doing this job, could you?
Polishes didn't impress me much. I didn't see anything extraordinary what I'd like to buy. No holographics and chromes... I still bought four sparkly (!) polishes.
What a bummer! Only now I studied the bottles closer and had to discover that all of them are made outside Japan!
Glam Nail dodo is produced in Korea,
Homei comes from Taiwan and
pa is made in France! They are manufactured for Japanese market though...
On my way back to Germany I was in Dubai and what I saw there - was KONAD shop! Till then KONAD existed for me only online, but they apparently do operate shops outside Korea too. The shop assistant was ahh... kind of ... not really helpful, but I guess the reason was inflexible sale "program" in her head. She tried to promote the stuff in the shop as for customers who don't know stamping. Even as I said I already own many of plates myself. Unfortunately there weren't the newest plates (numbers 90 and above), which I may have bought. I found two polishes, one small stamping polish and one green metallic. And it wasn't cheap at all! I don't know why people would call Dubai a shopping paradise...
Now I have to find time to wear all the stuff I bought. :)
