Nail Art Adventures in Japan - Nail Salon Experiences

Wow...it's been 3 years since I've been on this blog. Where has time gone? Last time I was on here I lived back home in New York and did my own nails. Things have changed, my friend! Now I live in Japan (and have lived here for the past year) and recently moved to Tokyo. Japan is the land of beautiful nail art and I have spent my time going to various nail salons and getting my nails done. Since January of this year, I have consistently gotten my nails done at the salon versus doing them at home. I made this decision because I truly do love the beautiful art that nail artists do here. Since I don't know how long I'll live in Japan (initially it was only supposed to be a year...but my plans changed), I want to enjoy Japanese nail art as much as possible. So I thought it'd be a good idea to put together a guide on how to get your nails done in Japan as well as catalog the designs I get. So without further ado, let's get started!

My Nails - What I get done at the salon
I have natural nails. I don't get extensions, although most Japanese nail salons do offer the service. I always get gel nails. Most salons here work in gel and not traditional polish. This is because it's much easier to do designs (on top of longer duration) with gel polish. I usually get nail art - designs, characters, studs, etc. I don't usually get 3D nail art because I'm not gentle with my nails and I don't want pieces falling off or bothering me during the day. I usually go to the nail salon once a month (yes, they last that long). I always get the gel removed at the salon versus doing it myself at home.

My first Japanese nail art experience from a visit in 2014. This salon was near my hotel.
This was one of the most expensive visits I've ever had, despite being quite simple, costing well over $100.
It pays to do research!!!!

How much does it cost?
This depends on what you get done. The more intricate the design, the more expensive it is. If you like bedazzled nails with a bunch of rhinestones and studs, expect to pay more. Most salons charge a per item or per nail fee. Hand drawn characters also cost more. The longer it tastes the artists to do your nails, the more expensive it is! Basic designs are usually between $50-$70 and more complex designs can be well over $100. You can also expect to pay a fee to remove your previous gel polish. This typically ranges from $15-$20 and some salons charge more if you had the gel done at a different salon.

My second nail art experience in 2016. I did my research and paid less than $60 for these!
Done by @etars.nail

How do I find and book a nail artist in Japan?
One of the best ways to find artists that you like is to go on Instagram. Follow nail art hashtags. Some popular ones Japanese tags are:
#ネイルアート
#itanail
#指甲
#美甲
#個性派ネイル
#インスタネイル

Most artists will have the name of the salon in their bio or their email. Sometimes they even have the link to the salon's Beauty Hot Pepper link. Beauty Hot Pepper is a booking service for salons (nail, hair, spa, etc.) in Japan. You can book appointments directly through the website and it will tell you if the salon accepts credit cards, general pricing, and which dates and times they have availability. You can also use Beauty Hot Pepper to find a salon in your area and can pick one from there. Most salons offer a coupon on Beauty Hot Pepper for first-time visits, so make sure you select the coupons before making the appointment. The site is only in Japanese, however, you can use Google Translate to help you. I don't speak Japanese and I've never had an issue!

What if I can't speak Japanese?
Most people in Japan do not speak English (or they're too shy to) so you can often feel scared to go to a salon out of fear. My suggestion: Use Google Translate! I use it to talk to artists through email or DM and just advise them that I don't speak Japanese so please bear with me. It does help to know a few keywords. They are:
Color - Caraa (カラー)
Thank you - Arigato Gozaimasu (ありがとございます)
Sorry - Gomen'nasai (ごめんなさい)
Excuse Me - Sumimasen (すみません)
Is credit card ok? - Caado daijobu desu ka? (カードだいじょぶですか)
Do you speak English? - Eigo o hanasemasu ka? (えいご お はなせますか)
Do you have a point card? Pointo caado arimasuka? (ぽいんと カードありますか)
Also learning color names is a good idea, although they usually understand English names for colors.
This is in very simple easy Japanese. It may not be perfect, but it's easily spoken and understood by native speakers!

From March 2018. Completely hand-drawn (and still cheaper than my first experience).
Done by @fujiiiiiii_

How can I save money at the salon?
One easy way is to use a point card. Most salons (and business in general) have a point card system in Japan. They will give you one on your first visit and you bring it back each time. Once you get enough points (depends on the store), they will give you a discount. It's usually quite a big discount ($10-$20 off) and it's completely free. You get an extra discount and they get a loyal customer - works out for everyone! Other ways include simplifying your design. It's usually a lot cheaper just to get a design on one finger on each hand and keeping the rest of the nails with just a gel color versus a design on each finger. You can also ask the artists for a quote if you're budget conscious! They are usually happy to provide one for you and you can adjust your design from there.

Should I tip the nail artist?
NO! There is no tipping in Japan. Tipping is considered rude in Japanese society. So that's another way you save some money and why you're paying a higher price for quality work.

What if I don't have a design idea?
That's ok! Most salons have a "menu" with their designs on fake nails. You can ask to see it (simply say "menu" or "nail menu") and they will show it to you. From there you can you point to which design you like. The prices will also be listed so you know how much it'll cost beforehand.

I think that's all the tips I have for now! I'll be posting my designs and thoughts each time that I get them done. I just recently got my latest set so I will be posting up my review for these shortly! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer them!

Glisten & Glow - Winter Nights in Indieland

Hi everyone! It's been super long since I posted! There's just been so much stuff going on in the "real" world that I haven't felt motivated to take photos or put up a new post. But I'm planning on changing that and getting right back to making bi-weekly posts! So for tonight's post I have Glisten & Glow's Winter Nights in Indieland.

This polish was released as part of Llarowe's A Box, Indied, however I acquired it through their A Box, Indied Grab Bag. This polish is a beautiful dark blue holo. I have never tried Glisten & Glow's nail polish line but I do really like their HK Girl Top Coat. Therefore I was really impressed with this polish in both color and formula. Even though I used both a base coat (OPI Nail Envy) and a top coat (Poshe), the holo rainbow effect really stands out.

I was actually distracted at work today when the sun hit my nails and there was rainbows! I remember when I first used holo polishes (Layla Holograms to be specific) and how you couldn't use either base or top coat or else it would completely dull the holo and I thought that was such a pain in the ass! So I'm super duper impressed with the beautiful holo that I got with this polish.

Today's prop was a Hello Kitty chapstick because you already know my love for Hello Kitty! However, there is also a dual purpose to using Hello Kitty as a prop because I will be visiting Hello Kitty's birth place next week, which is.....JAPAN!!! That's right: I'll be flying off to Tokyo in a week and I can't wait. It's my second time visiting and I can't wait to go shopping and visit so many places (hopefully Sanrio Puroland, which is a HELLO KITTY THEME PARK!!!!). A Sailor Moon cafe also just opened up in Tokyo so you know I'll be visiting that!!! Hopefully I'll be able to pick up a bunch of nail goodies and then I can share them all with you!!

First Ever Gradient!

Good evening readers! I'm especially excited about tonight's post because it's the first ever successful gradient manicure that I've ever done! I've tried doing gradient manicures so many times and always failed. I tried a wet sponge, a dry sponge, white base, colored base, you name it! I could never get both colors to show up on my nail. However, I was determined to succeed and finally did!!

The colors I used for the gradient were Lime Crime's Peaches & Cream and Once in a Blue Mousse. I started off by using two coats of Peaches & Cream with a base coat underneath. I waited for that to dry. Then I used a dry makeup sponge and painted both colors horizontally on the sponge allowing them to overlap. I sponged it on the nails a few times and kept adding more of Once in a Blue Mousse onto the sponge and just focused on the top part of the gradient.

I found that if I squeezed the sponge a little more, that the polish would come out more opaque and thus helped the blue stand out in the gradient. I also recommend switching to a new sponge after one hand. Once I finished all my fingers and let them dry, I added a coat of China Glaze's Fairy Dust to make it stand out a little more (because who doesn't love glitter?!).

I love this manicure! It's so pretty and reminds me of a sunset! I know it's not perfect, but it's my first successful one! With practice, I know that I'll be a gradient pro! I was also dealing with staining from Orly's Kristoff He Goes from the previous post so that was annoying and didn't help in achieving the perfect lines that I want to have. How do you feel about gradients? Do you love them or want the trend to go away?

Orly Elsa Collection

 Happy Saturday everyone! Today I have on the blog four of the polishes from the newly released Orly Elsa collection.

This collection is exclusive through Walgreens, so you'll only able to find it there. I had been on the hunt for these polishes for a few weeks until I finally found them! There's a total 12 polishes in this collection. They can be purchased individually or in packs of two. It's actually cheaper to purchase them in the two pack because they're $11 in the two pack and $7 individually! On to the swatches:

First up we have the movie's name sake polish Frozen! This is a frost polish and I'm wearing one coat of Frozen over a coat of OPI's Black Onyx. I'm not using a top coat in this image because when I tried putting on a top coat the polish started wrinkling! I'm definitely not a fan of frost polishes because of the difficulty that comes in applying them, so this one definitely wasn't my favorite.

My second least favorite was Free Spirit. The color is a gorgeous magenta and would be perfect for warmer weather! However, the formula wasn't the best. It was a little too thick for my taste. You'll need very light coats with this one.

Kristoff He Goes is a beautiful dark teal blue. I love this color! I swear I probably have a million bottles that look exactly like this one, but the colors is too beautiful to pass up!! The formula was great on this one and could probably be a one-coater if a thicker coat was used. I'm wearing two coats in the photo plus Glisten & Glow HK Girl top coat.

My favorite of the four was definitely Watch Out, Or Elsa!. It's also a magenta but this time there's little gold flecks! The formula on this one was also excellent and again I'm wearing two coats in the photos. I love how the flecks give the color more dimension and make it a little more magical, which is befitting for Elsa!!

All in all I liked the collection. I wish it was more Frozen or Elsa themed, since there seems to be a lot of Summer-y colors, but there is a pretty wide variety of colors. I also wish that these were sold other than Walgreens, mostly because Walgreens is so wishy-washy as to when they stock which stores, and also because Walgreens doesn't even carry Orly! Will you be picking up this collection?

EDIT: Turns out that these colors are not exclusive to Walgreens. They are actually already part of Orly's Color Blast line that is sold in multiple stores. It appears that they were only renamed in order to create a Frozen/Elsa theme.

Nicole by OPI - Scarlett & FUN Stamping Plate #9

Good evening everyone! Up on the blog today I have a nail polish that had zero expectations from me. This polish is Nicole by OPI Scarlett. I actually received this polish during Secret Santa this last year and put it away in my Helmer to be forgotten. The only reason I reached for this polish was because I received my FUN #9 Hello Kitty themed stamping plate. I wanted to do a pink and white manicure with my stamp to embody Hello Kitty's colors. When I looked in my Helmer to pick out my pink, this was one of the first polishes I saw and I thought, why not? Turns out, this is a gorgeous polish!!

The name of the polish is Scarlett, which I would assume to be red, but it's actually more pink in reality. It has these beautiful shimmer flecks that reflect in the light and gives the polish this really beautiful dimension. This color was part of NOPI's Selena Gomez collection from 2012. I used two coats of Scarlett for these photos. The white polish that I used was Wet N Wild French White, which is my go-to white.

As for the FUN stamping plate, this was my first time trying this brand of plates. I was shopping on Llarowe.com when I realized that this plate was Hello Kitty themed. Those of you who know me in real life know that I am Hello Kitty obsessed, so I obviously had to have the plate! I was also wonderfully surprised by this plate because it stamped really easily and the image was super crisp and clear. The stamp you see in the photo was on my first try with this plate. The black polish that I used was from Mundo de Unas. The only unfortunate part of this plate was that it was a bit pricey coming in at $18. Why are all the awesome stamping plates so expensive?!!?

All in all this is definitely one of my favorite manicure's that I've done this year. It pays an homage to my Hello Kitty obsession while not being super obvious. The color was also a really unexpected surprise and I can safely say that this one is staying in my collection!

Revlon - Whimsical

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been a while since my last post! I'm trying to do two posts a week, but I was super busy last week. Last week was Lunar New Year and on Sunday there was a big parade in Chinatown. I stopped by and had lots of fun watching the dancers and dragons pass by! 2015 is the year of the Sheep and I managed to pick up the cutest little sheep plushy! Sheepy is going to help model tonight's nail polish, which happens to be Revlon Whimsical.

I've had this polish for about three years now and never tried it on. The color in the bottle is a mint crelly with blue and pink glitters. I thought it looked really pretty in the bottle which led me to keep it for as long as I did. It's even supposed to be a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Glitter in the Air. The polish on my nails, however, did not look as pretty. 

I ended up with more of a greenish hue than mint. The glitter's were pretty but they were a little sparse and did need fishing. I used FOUR coats for these swatches and you can still see my nail line. These swatches might have looked better if I had used an undie instead of using this polish solo.

Right after I took these photos and started writing tonight's post, Whimsical smudged everywhere and I decided to just take it off. Sadly this makes this polish a dud in my book and will be going in the destash pile.  

I'm a little saddened that this color didn't work out for me. I loved the name and felt that the color in the bottle looked really cute. It might have even been a great color for Easter! Hopefully Friday's manicure will work out a lot better for me and I think that I'm going to just rock my naked nails for the next couple of days!

Sinful Colors Nail Junkie & Rise and Shine

Hello everyone! Did you have an excellent weekend? I had an extra day off yesterday so it feels like Monday! Up for swatch today is Sinful Colors Nail Junkie and Rise and Shine. I love Sinful Colors! It is such a great budget brand. The formula is for the most part excellent (there are a few dudes here and there) and the price can't be beat (retail for $2, but are usually on sale for a $1). There's also a great array of colors and they're always coming out with new collections! Today's colors are part of their permanent collection and they're both beautiful, together and separately.

Rise and Shine is a beautiful green creme with shimmery flakes. Nail Junkie (which I am!) is a glitter topper in a blue base. The blue base really doesn't show up unless you wanted to layer this a thousand times. My bottle of Nail Junkie was a little thick, but I've also had it for a few years. This extra thickness did lead to some pulling and wrinkling. In these photos I used 2 coats of Rise and Shine and  1 coat of Nail Junkie. I topped it all off with Glisten & Glow's HK Girl.

I decided to model today's swatch with a Kingdom Hearts Donald Duck bottle topper that I picked up last year when I was in Tokyo. It's from the Little Mermaid level, so Donald Duck is actually an octopus! These colors gave me an underwater feel, so I thought that octopus Donald Duck fit the bill!

Sinful Colors can be bought at Walgreens and Rite Aid for $2 a bottle. However, as mentioned, there are plenty of sales throughout the year that bring these babies down to a $1. These are perfect if you're starting out your collection or if you need specific colors for a low price!