Haul from Japan

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:

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.

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. :)

Christmas Traditions

This time I had a hard time to find what to make... Subthemes like family and dinner didn't give me a picture I could place on my nails. But caroling did.
I found some nice pics on the net, but I was sure my freehand work sucks, and I still didn't get decal paper to transfer the pictures. So I just kept it simple.

First I did a gradient with three polishes by p2: 110 ocean lady, 920 up in the air! and 010 frosted mint. Then I stamped the G-clef with notes (stamping plate MoYou London Roxy Collection 02), and "snowing notes" from the same plate. 

Then I paintes the singing faces with acrylics. And added some glitter from essence effect nails (flakes I'm so dreamy).

Holiday Colours

Christmas Winter Challenge - Day 3.
Today's theme is holiday colours (red, green, gold)

Just the day before I found a green glitter by Rival de Loop. 

 This green glitter has a translucent base and thus is good for using over colour base.
Other colours for the mani were:

 I used the Voyeuristic Green by alessandro for the accent nail. The other nails are red with red grained by Maybelline ColourShow series Vintage Leather. Vintage Leather has a matt finish and red glitter inside.

 Then I painted with the greens ( Voyeristic Green, p2 green palm tree, and Rival de loop Effect Green (the new glitter) to paint the christmas trees and the wide stripes on the accent nail. Also gold (Goldfinger by catrice) decorates the trees and Glitz and Glamour by Orly makes a Christmas tree top.

On the accent nail I applied the fimo pieces from essence Happy Holiday series. And a load of top coat, to keep fimo in place.

 

Daylight version:

Did it turn out christmas-like?

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Catrice Celtica

Haul of the day! It's still "Preview" on the homepage of Catrice, but the new limited series "Celtica" is out! Found it today in "Müller" and I just had to snatch them up. Not everything, but some nice shades of lilac and light lavender.

Catrice brought some new for them nail art stuff: flake. I expected them to be fine and small, but the flakes look like broken mother of pearl, and they are pretty large (unlike the things in the video on catrice homepage) and thick.

I've got two shades from four: C04 LOVEnder - light lavender tone with very small glitter particles:

and C01 Paralilac - obscure lilac with shimmer and fine glitter particles as well.

Two coats of polish are enough to cover the nail.

Catrice suggests to sprinkle the flakes over still wet polish or dip fresh painted nails into jar with flakes. I tried to pile on with them:

It looks interesting, but I don't think the ring finger will survive the showering tomorrow.

Winter Nature

It's supposed to look like my nails are frozen windows. "Windows glasses" are p2 frosted mint as base, then one coat of China Glaze Isle See You Later.
I painted "frosting" with acrylic white colour and let it without top coat, because the surface of acrylic paint is matt and contrasts the glossy "glass" beneath.

With my warm scarf

Three Blues

Challenge on Adventures is Stamping: Mani using three blues.
Man, was that hard to choose only three of blues! Blue is one of my favorite colours anyway, I've got many shades, but not every of them qualifies for stamping. First thought was about some snowy motives, but I already used them for an other challenge, so I took just some paisleys and filled them with colour.

Base: 010 frosted mint by p2 from Snow Kissed collection. Stamping: Konad ultramarine, Konad light blue and essence 158 if i were a boy. For two accent nails I prepared stamping decals with Dashica SdP-39 plate. There are also if I were a boy, Konad light blue and IsaDora 684 Dazzling Acqua in decals. The other motives are from three essence plates (it's a shame they don't have any serial numbers, no idea how do distinguish them...) And some glitter. Blue, of course.
For decals I used also Catrice Gel Like top coat. It was pretty good, but still a bit smearing images... I hoped to find a substitute for Seche Vite, but Seche is still the best top coat in terms of stamping.

White Christmas

After some time of absolute desinspiration to write I hope to be back. ;) Meanwhile I increased the stock of polishes and plates in times and did some nice manis, but was to lazy to take pictures of it.
But I got motivated to take part in the Christmas winter challenge:

I used Color Club lumin-icecent (I think the shade is called so, but not sure), then 2 coats China Glaze "Isle See You Later", then essence snowflake topper from Happy holidays series. I spared only the accent nail from the two "topper", then stamped everything with Sugar Bubbles Special 02.
Let it snow!