Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Green, Black & Blue....

After years of doing my nails & trying to show them to as many people as I could find, I figured the easier way was just to start a blog.  So here it is. Apologies in advance for the crappy/blurry pictures.  I'm still figuring out my new camera & the best angle to photograph my nails.

Anyway here's a short history on how my addiction to doing my nails started. I moved to South Korea to teach English in 2008 & received a set of Konad nail plates, stamper & scraper for my birthday.  After struggling for a few months on how to use it, a fellow Korean teacher finally showed me how to use them & I've been stamping my nails (and many other people's) ever since.  My collection of polishes has grown to about 30 & due to nail accessories being so cheap in SK, I have a ridiculous amount of stickers, jewels & nail art pens.  I also picked up a few more things while in the US last winter & the other week ordered 25 new plates from Monster Bundle (also in the US).

So without further ado here's my first manicure.

Here's what my nails looked like at the beginning of the week


As you can see they were starting to chip after a few days at work.  The blue you can see underneath is Gelish (goes on like a polish but you cure it under a UV light & it wears like a Gel or fake nails).  I've had that on for just over 4 weeks & am slowly loosing the battle to keep it on - working in fast food is NOT a job where your nails stay long for long. 

For these nails I used this greenish-blue colour I brought for bout 4000W ($4 NZ) from Missha (one of many beauty shops in SK).

Then covered my little fingers in LA Girl Cracked I got from a beauty sale for $10NZ (pretty cheap for polish here!).  It works just as well if not better than the OPI shatter polishes. Tried to get creative with the tips of my other fingers (hit and miss there as I'm less shaky with my right hand than my left).


Finally I sealed it with Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Nail hardener & painted Revolon Calcium builder stuff under my nails (helps to prevent breaking, a tip I stole off someone else's blog ;)

Then on Tuesday my package from Bundle Monster arrived - I was so excited I was skipping down the drive from the mail box.  I'd ordered 25 knockoff plates that were the same style as the Konad ones I already had but had heaps of different designs for 1/4 of the price. After reading a few positive reviews I crossed my fingers & got out the credit card.  They did not disappoint.  Here's all 25 plates


Its pretty far away I know but you can check out Bundle Monster for a close up (cost me $33NZ including postage. Took 7 days.)

So after much admiring & peeling off protective plastic on top I chose my pattern & nail polish colours.

After a base coat I used Calvin Klein Crushed Rose (which is a strange name considering its blue), which is alot darker than the picture shows.


The plate I used was BM-205 & it was the flower pattern at the top.


I used Konad special Nail polish in White (and yes those are bite marks, sometimes its really hard to open the bottle, ok).


Vola! the finished product.


And a close up.


I think they came out pretty good & can't wait to start trying the rest of the plates :)

Nikki
:o)

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