Sculptured Gels with Silver Polish

After sculpting Vanessa's nails in pink & white gels, we painted Nfu.Oh silver polish at the free edge to come up with this look.

Season's Greetings

Nails are sculpted in acrylics and painted with Nfu.Oh nail polish - Opal collections and embellished with gold diamond flakes. Absolutely love the effects of the polish using 3 different green shades.

Acrylic French Tip Overlay

Lights Up and Sparkle

Blinged my nails with the help of Joey today using Akzentz Aurora purple to sculpt and embedded with decorative stones and embellishments.

The power of Internet

December 6, 2008 Words cannot describe my joy in finding a very long lost childhood bestfriend by chance on facebook today.

Couture Nails...create your niche

When Dolce magazine published this article, there were a couple of nail artists around Singapore being featured for their creations and their charges for nail art typically starts from $1upwards and suddenly the price of "couture nails" priced from $300+ makes one blink twice to see if there was a missing decimal point ^^. Couture nails are one-of-a-kind, original designs that is customized for each client. When making a decision that calls for such extravagance, clients will look forward to an outcome that exceeds expectation. Therefore, a professional nail artist must always innovate, upgrade their skills and stay current in trends and product technology. Take pride in your work and charge accordingly if you can deliver a great set of nails.

3D Roses in Blue & Gold

French bling

Stephy and I had some play time today with the new Akzentz competition white. The nails were sculpted long at first for practise, and we had them shortened for the hand model. Nails were finished using Options clear sparkles and gold diamond flakes.

Seasons greetings, nails are blinging...

Senoritas, Margaritas and Mariachis....

Visiting nail artist America Garcia and travelling companion, Rocio all the way from Mexico spending 2 days with me doing nails and exchanging our cultures and ideas. America is an exceptional talent and a natural artist and Rocio, a warm and bubbly personality who taught me much about tequilas, quesadillas, and mariachi...it is a great pleasure having you girls in Singapore. Hope to see you in Mexico next time !

Long Sculptured French in Gels

Nothing can be more challenging than trying to sculpt long french nail using gels especially if you've always been an acrylic artist like me. It becomes an obsession just to get the right combination and consistency of pink and white gels to work on perfecting the look and application. Yet, perfection like beauty, is really in the eyes of the beholder.

Cotton Candy

Love the black acrylic powder from ONS new primary collection for sculpting, it's strong, true black color and no mess or stains unlike regular black powders. The pink is lovely, it's from the Ezflow carnival collection.

Art In the Eye of a Needle - Video Link

Check this video out, it's truly amazing and inspirational.
cut and paste on your browser:
http://www.maniacworld.com/art-in-the-eye-of-a-needle.html

White Tiger

Taught a class recently for folkart which included handpainting on animal features, these are work done by my students on their first attempt at animals.

First Nail Art Competition in Penang, Malaysia

I had the pleasure to be in the judging panel for the first nail art competition organized by Nail Haven in Penang. This competition saw more than 25 participants in each category of handpainted nail art - food theme and 3D nail art - bridal theme. There are many budding talents and their skills are getting better with each competition. Participants from the state of Johor went away with the most trophies. Thank you Celine for your kind hospitality.

Koi Pond

I've been wanting to try the "koi" themed nails and finally did a set combining ONS and Nfu.Oh powders/technique to achieve the desired effects.

Dusk to dawn....

Inspired by colors of dawn to dusk and accented with blooming roses and an ethnic touch.

Grape & Vines

OPI lookalike with Nfu.Oh Logo....What's NEXT ????

Incidentally, I came across an article while surfing about how to identify fake designer labels and I saved the article.

It doesn't take an expert to identify some fake designer products.

1. Price - If it's really inexpensive, it's probably fake. There may be some little old lady who died and left designer bags to her children who don't know what they've got, but that's rarer now with more brand/value awareness.

2. Design - Designer products come in a limited combination of colors and patterns. Learn the patterns and designs that you like, go to the designer store (if there's one near you) and look at the real thing. That will give you an "eye" for the fakes. Patterns will be too big, too bold, or not big and bold enough. Color schemes will be different.

3. Description - If the description says: "like " or "compares to ", or similar language, it's a knock-off. In some industries, fakes are okay. In designer and brand name products, ALL fakes are illegal, even if they're actually described as fakes.

4. Quality - As others have mentioned, how the product is put together can identify a fake. But many people don't know the fine details that differentiate designer-quality goods. For clothing it may be additional stitching in the seams, hand-sewing vs. machine-sewing, the quality of the materials, etc. For handbags, it may be the type of hardware and how much hardware is on the bag, quality of stitching, quality of leather, size, shape, color, pattern, etc. The inside liner may have to be a specific color. Logos alone do not always help you identify the fakes.

5. Labels - Read labels CAREFULLY. Sometimes the designer's name is misspelled. The grammar isn't correct. Trademark information, if appropriate, is missing. The logos or font face are wrong.

6. Source - Are you buying this item from a reputable source? Be aware that length of time in business, price for items, and number of satisfied customers does not make a source reliable. Lots of buyers who don't know how to identify a fake will accept a fake as real and be very happy with the product because they think it's genuine.

It does take an expert to identify others.

7. Sometimes you can't identify a genuine brand name item without expert knowledge or resources. In particular, fine jewelry may be marked "Tiffany" or "Cartier" and be fake. Unless you know the specific year/mark identifiers or the models of jewelry produced by the company, it's not always possible to identify a fake. Tiffany & Co. charge $500 to authenticate items (last time I checked a couple of years ago). Rolex watches are notorious for fakes. I've heard that Rolex has a list of x ways to identify a genuine Rolex, some of which require taking the back off the watch and inspecting the works. Only an expert should attempt this type of verification or you risk damaging the watch. Fine jewelry stores that routinely sell Rolex should have this list and some pawn shops that pawn or buy high-end watches may have this list. It's very unlikely that they'll show or give you a copy of the list because if the list got into the wrong hands, it would be a way for a faker to know what to fake.

The bottom line is -- if you want to know for certain that you're buying the genuine article, your best bet is to 1) pay full price at the designer's store or authorized source, or 2) really dig into the details of the item you desire so you know it inside and out.

I can understand the reason behind knock offs for designer goods because it's not really affordable for most average people, but nail polish ??? C'mon they can't be serious ? They couldn't copy the bottle, they decided to copy the color :(

Gorgeous Nail Beds

Found another model with gorgeous long nail bed today to play with french sculptured nails. I must say that for Asians, majority of the Japanese ladies are blessed with such beautiful nail beds !

Autumn inspiration

A birthday gift....

Know Your Heart

This is a very good article. Not only about the warm water after your meal, but about Heart Attacks. The Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals, not cold water, maybe it is time we adopt their drinking habit while eating.
For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to you. It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion. Once this 'sludge' reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.

Common Symptoms Of Heart Attack...
A serious note about heart attacks - You should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting. Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line.
You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack. Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms. 60% of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let's be careful and be aware. The more we know, the better chance we could survive.

@Work with Sculptured Gels

Tried out sculpting really long with gels today, something which I normally only do with acrylics. Turned out better than expected and I had a gorgeous hand model.

Is Ed Hardy Nails Hot or What???

It all started with an idea by Joseph and Gina, then Gina did a whole set on herself and by coincidence NAILS magazine had Ed Hardy nails on their October cover. Now, my first attempt doing a tattoo inspired EH nails and I think I could actually wear this !LOL....

Little Princess Nail Party

Kids these days are so lucky! Look at all the kids having a princess hour at Sally's little girl's birthday party and my daughter getting her royal pedicure treatment...

French Sculptured Nails

It drives me nuts everytime I do acrylic french sculpture nails because I get bored halfway through. It definitely keeps me on my toes to get it technically perfect which I'm still practising to this day.

Folkart to decorate your homes and nails

This is my attempt at russian inspired folkart. I wish I have time to paint the walls of my room, but I guess it's much easier to paint it on nails.

Wine N' Roses

These are such fun to create, I started out thinking uhmm...maybe just one or two flowers, but turned out all 10 isn't really too much! It'll grow on you !

Priceless in Cincinnati !

Nail craze doesn't get better than this...(Loni passed out while we were doing her nails at 3am). Loni is such a trooper, we love ya and Gina multitasks efficiently between applying gels, filing loni's nails and still being able to take this video. This is what happens after hours when nailtechs get together on a trip. I love it !

Did my nails with Wild Orchids...

It's one thing creating these nails on myself, but I just love these shots taken by Gayle (my 9 year-old !) I think she's gonna grow up doing professional photography !lol....

Looking back....

Looking back at some of my older works, I realized the change I've gone through in my style and perception. Every class I attend or teach, through the people I meet in my work and travels, they bring changes to what I create. Change is good and exciting and never stop learning and loving what you do.

Design Sculpture and Mixed Media

Handpainted Roses Pedicure

These blue roses were handpainted with acrylic paint using double loading technique.

Japan Nail Association (JNA)

Ecsalonce have trained a fair share of Japanese nailist, thanks to our wonderful, dedicated Japanese educators. The question of JNA license arise, whether a nailist must be "licensed" by JNA to work in Japan ?

JNA is one of 3 established nail associations in Japan. JNA is set up by salon/school private owners and educators and being the biggest nail association in Japan, they have gained credibility for setting high standards and requirements to become a nailist. It is a business and also to impose a self-checking system.

Contrary to some beliefs and rumours circulating in the nail industry, it is not required by law, nor is it compulsory to have a JNA license to work in Japan. Many salons in Japan are not JNA licensed and likewise many non-JNA licenced technicians also work in a JNA salon. It is most important that a nailist have a good disposition, attitude and skill that benefits the salon. It is common to note that a JNA licensed salon owner or educator would prefer to hire another JNA licensed technician, but this is not always the case.

For overseas Japanese who wants to become a nailist and work in Japan eventually, the most important thing is to learn the right techniques from a reputable international nail systems that comes with a good, solid education with proven track record. It is also wise to choose a nail system that is in place and recognized for their quality and reputation by the Japanese nail industry.

Floral French

HRTE Cincy on Youtube - by doiamailbox (Jpham)

http://www.myspace.com/highroadtoeducation

Going Tribal

I had so much fun playing with my new impression tool from Loni and did these nails on Vanessa using color drops, crinkled aluminium foil and impression tool. These tribal inspired nails turns out really cool.

Blue Lagoon