❽❷: Vintage Floral Nails

Did this set of bridal nails for Hadley’s photoshoot (:

Base was gradient done with a subtle pink shade. Embossed flower on the ring and thumb nails, and a little vintage ring lined with gold beads on the middle nail! Also added random rhinestones to complete the look.

Close up of the middle nail. She chose another design from the nail magazine but was chose to forgo that design due to her little nail bed, hence I created this little floral design for a lil’ vintage touch. My first attempt on doing something like this, glad that it turned out to be what I imagined and am quite satisfied with the final result! 

Cheers,
Kate

❽❶: Simple designs

Queenie and Stef came over to get their mani done last week and I did a simple set for them!

For Queenie it’s orange base (again) with french. My first try on Gelish Candyland colour!

For Stef it’s the classic gradient nails again in silver (: Ultra bling as I added extra glitter into the gel for shine! Only 1 picture bcos’ I used Queenie’s cam..

Cheers,
Kate

❽❍: Subtle Half-moon with Kitty Bow

Haven’t been doing normal polish for a while now! Did this set of design in OPI for Valerie as she complained of weak nails due to the last hard gel extensions I did for her lol.

Apologies in the overly bright photos as I had the light too close while taking them.. Zz.

What I did was half moon design for 3 nails, polka dot on alternate nails, 2 cute lil’ kitty bow and added rhinestones for shine! Okay it was supposed to be 3 beautiful nude shade colours but I couldn’t capture it properly due to the light….

Close up. I added a layer of gel top coat over the final design and it managed to stay on longer than she had usual polish on! Even the ribbon and rhinestones remained intact until she removed it (: (+$3 for gel top coat)

The 3 gorgeous hue I used were: OPI Samoan Sand, China Glaze Heaven and this colour from Dior. I didn’t have the name of it as it’s a small bottle of sample colour my friend gave to me. ):

Cheers,
Kate

❼❾: Paddlepop Nails

My sissy-in-law came to me to get her nails fixed for her cousin’s wedding and she chose this colourful design! The original design was more fanciful with embossed art and hand drawn flowers but she opted out the additional and here’s what I did:

Close up. Loving the combination! I painted a white base first before sponging on the rest, starting with the lightest colour – OPI Fiercely Fiona, OPI Got A Date To-Knight and China Glaze For Audrey. Ring fingernail painted with 3 coats of gold glitter from P.A.

And after completing the design, I thought it looked like..

Hahahahahahaha, isn’t the colour similar?!

Cheers,
Kate

❼❽: Nail art III – 3D nail art & Design Sculpture

What we learnt during our last few lessons were: creating 3D nail art using acrylic powder + monomer, and design sculpture.

For those who’re unsure, the correct term for the usual ribbon/flowers I do are called embossed nail art and not 3D nail art. You can only call it a 3D nail art when it’s so humongous! The below illustrates 3D nail art:

After sculpturing it on the back of nail form, remove it and glue onto your own nail. But of cos’ we don’t usually do it bigger than the customer’s nail bed so that it wouldn’t look too exaggerated. 

Also learnt how to sculpture a flower. 

And the leaf! I know it looks like Plasticine right LOL

An idea struck me to re-create it as a ring! Will do so when available, sounds fun just by the thought of it!

Our work!

The next lesson was on design sculpture – we learnt how to sculpture this gorgeous flower and inlay! I love how it looks so 3D-ish even when doing inlay. Of cos it requires skills like Joe to achieve that.. -_-

Joe also demo-ed a 2-toned colour sculpture on a classmate.

After the demo we were supposed to try it out on our own and I thought I did horrendous. So early next morning, I did a full set of extensions with flower inlay for myself! I think I spent 3hours on one hand itself.. Couldn’t do my right properly so I got PS to help me with it hehehe. Life rocks when your bf can do your nails for you!

And that was the condition of my nails due to doing embossed art with normal polish base. Uber sad but a lesson learnt, so I had the stain filed them off and now my nails are ultra weak and thin. But whatever hahaha.

Before. (I know the background is weird, I took this picture at the edge of the window to show the yellow-ness of the stain hahaha)

After filing and cleaning of cuticles! Very clean but ultra weak zzzz.

After a painful 3hours here’s the end result..

Extension base was done with Harmony’s light pink glitter dust, hence the pink hue at the tip! FYI I’m still wearing this set of nails now. Super love it please!

Side view – the arch. When attending acrylic extension lessons, we were taught that a good extension should have a nice c-curve and arch. It should bulge in the middle and thin down at the tip as this will create the strongest nail combination so that it wouldn’t break nor chip.

Lastly, shall end off this post with this set of cute Avengers nail my sis did! Super cute and she’s wearing 10 Captain America on her nails now lol!

Cheers,
Kate

❼❼: Pink Infatuation

Did a series of Pink nails lately hence the combination of the below!

1. Stripes and lace

Kelly wanted something lacey, so she chose from 2 of my designs and had them combined as 1! Sticker lace on the ring and thumb fingernails, and hand-drawn lace on the rest.

She has really long and slender fingers hence making this design so demure with a hidden sexy tinge!

Reallyyyyyyy love this hot pink pastel shade from AnGel Pro!

Thanks to the feedback that my customers have been giving me, nail art was drawn using gel instead of acrylic paint so that it will last until removal. No matter how layers of top coat I applied onto, the tips will always chip if painted with acrylic. The lace was drawn using acrylic though as I want the lines of the lace to look stronger and fierce to bring out the look. And it usually don’t have chipping problems at the middle of the nail.

2. French with swirled roses

For her friend, we did french floral with lace! I added 2 embossed ribbon for her thumb and ring fingernails, and sticker lace on the rest. Initially she showed me a similar design, the rose was hand drawn instead of swirled roses but I thought it looked more feminine with swirled one.

Close-up.

3. Pink Rocketeer

Up next is my favorite customer, Sharon! Bcos’ she has got the best nails out of all the nails I did! She chose this set of rockstar nails, and again requested for it to be done in pink. I suggest she go for hot pink since she always chose light and baby pink colours!

Close up. Nail art was drawn using acrylic paint to show the sharp edges of the star.

Cheers,
Kate

❼❻: Poisonous Barney

Did this set of nails for Ching a few weeks back for her birthday. After completing the design, I realized that the colour looks so Barney, but the blue dots makes it seem like it’s poisonous hahahaha. I should try to sculpture an embossed barney one day… Lol.

Did the exact same thing as the picture she showed me, but added embossed art. I’m really into embossed art lately, so I did 2 hearts and ribbon on the middle fingernails for her!

Close-up.

Cheers,

Kate