Year 2011: My Thoughts!

Hey guys! Decided to do away with the norm and post about the highlights in my life in 2011! I don’t really believe in making new year resolutions because… I don’t really follow and remember each and every one of them so I might as well skip that, heh!

So 2011 is really an eventful year for me! (in polish sense, that is!)

1. Mental For Polish was born!
I think this was my best decision ever. I love nails and blogging so why not combine the two? I’m glad I did and met many online nail fanatics/ manicurists along the way :) It has certainly opened up a new perspective for me; I had no idea blogging about nails is so much more fun than blogging about my life! (LOL!)

2. I started out a Youtube channel.
Well, I kinda stopped posting videos in awhile because I’ve gotten incredibly lazy and I ran out of video ideas to post :/ It started with me posting haul videos on my polishes which escalated into outfit-of-the-day videos too! I even posted some videos on me singing, hahaha!

3. Got a job at Milly’s!
I still remember I was super elated about securing that job and I called up my friends and my parents after passing the interview. I did not have any professional training at that time, I just had the passion for nails. Guess what portfolio did I give to my boss to get the job? The answer is this blog right here. You have no idea how painstakingly I’ve built up this blog; from painting my nails carefully, taking photos, edit and uploading the photos and then start cracking my brain for the words. Haha, anyway I am eternally grateful to all the girls at Milly’s for teaching and training me the steps for the basic manicure and pedicure services.

4. Started out my home salon business
Honestly, I wasn’t really sure about this decision at all. I’ve already spent ALOT of money getting the necessary tools and equipment and I didn’t know how long I could last before I go bust. Anyway, since I am still studying full-time and doing this on a part-time basis, I figured out I can make things work. I just have to juggle my time between school, nails, friends and my boyfriend, lol.

5. Went for my first professional training course for ONS I-Gel System
I’m glad I went for it and how supportive my dad is! I always show my dad the latest nail design I did (like a little girl showing off her crayon drawing) and he’d always nod his head and told me it was nice. Even though this was just a small appreciation from my dad, I felt really wonderful inside. I feel very blessed to have such a father who is so supportive in the things I love to do. To tell you guys the truth, my mum wasn’t very supportive of me doing nails because she find it a waste of time and money. She did scoffed at me when I said I intend to pursue nails in the near future. Well, things between my mum and I got better as time flew by and she trusted my capabilities in doing nails and also knew that I am strong in my decision to pursue nail studies . Now, she even recommend me to her friends and colleagues to get their nails done by me! :)

6. Held two fleas!
My first flea was at TAB with Yoko and sold off my preloved and new clothes which I got all from online. The second flea was at *SCAPE with Felicious Nails, Nails By Kim and Mynte Fingers offering various manicure services and I had a blast working with them! Do look out for more fleas in the future as I will definitely be taking part in them!

7. Met guidance ‘teachers’ in the nail field
I’d like to express my gratitude to Ying from Nail Art Express, Kim from Nails By Kim and my ONS instructor; Jess from JNail for constantly being there for me despite me asking them for advice for countless times on nail-related topics. THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!!! <3 :D

Lastly, this blog would not have been a success without my dear readers! Thank you all for making 2011 a very good year for me by supporting me! :) 2012 will definitely be a better year!

Happy New Year to all of you!!! :D

P.S. I had no idea this post ended up into almost a 800 word essay. Please forgive me, lol! Kudos to those who read till the end though :)

P.P.S. I feel like I’ve revealed too much of my personal life in this blog post. Hope you guys don’t mind the rant :>

Gelish: Sparkly Ladybugs

Ruth finally dropped by my house for a gelish manicure last week! ^^

I’ve always wanted to do ladybug nails on someone but hardly anyone falls for such cutesy stuff!! So I was completely thrilled when Ruth decided on getting a ladybug as an accent nail!

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I used Artistic Colour Gloss Hotsy and Gelish Vegas Nights for this manicure! OOOH I just love this hot fiery red I have here, it’s absolutely pretty on its own too!

I added ladybugs on her ring finger and look how cute is that??? :P Ruth did this manicure before Christmas and the rest of her nails somehow fit the festive season, I love how glitters add such great sparkle to a single colour mani :)

I used a combination of black and white acrylic paint and OPI Black Onyx for the art :>

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Have a lovely day everyone!! :)

Gelish: Marbling

Decided to put my learning skills from the ONS I-Gel workshop to the test by trying on marbling by using gelish!! I really like the gel brushes that I got from Teacher Jess for this look!

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In this manicure, I used Artistic Colour Gloss Wham, ONS I-Gel Tahitian Tides and Artistic Colour Gloss Tease for the blues. Gelish Sleek White as base and Gelish Vegas Nights and Gelish Waterfield on top of it to soften the blues abit! I wanted to create this gradient effect but somehow the result looked like failed waves hahaha!

Despite really disliking this manicure, I did held it on for close to a week before I finally removed it and changed to something else. I guess white nails isn’t my type! :( I guess I am going to try another marbling technique soon!

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ONS I-Gel Workshop

Hey guys!! Just want to blog about my day at the ONS I-Gel workshop that was conducted at Teacher Jess’s place on 18th Dec 2011! Firstly, I started off with a really bad morning because trains were not in service and I had to change three buses to get to my destination from Buona Vista. I left home 2 hours before class and yet I was still late!!! You guys have no idea how pissed I was with the public transport. Can you believe waiting for more than 30mins for a bus?!? There was a long queue (4 long lines!) for bus 190 at CCK interchange and none of the staff personnel was kind enough to assure us that the bus was coming! :/

Oh well, so I was late for 45mins for my lesson but yet Teacher Jess was very forgiving and explained to me the steps for gel application and some theory etc! I was actually glad that Jess was teaching in a very small group; there was only the two of us; another classmate Dephanie and we had plenty of fun!

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All our lovely goodies in this cute & small bag!

We were given a course kit and this includes 5 I-Gel colour gel polishes, Top2Bottom, Grit File, Cleanser, Lint-free wipes and our certifications. We are also supposed to get a set of gel brushes for the class at an additional fee. Time really passes quickly when we are doing something we really like! I think we did about 10 designs in total, lol!

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My work space

Anyway, for those of you who are curious as what an I-Gel polish is, the full name of this is International Gel and it is fully compatible with other soft gel products/brands such as Hand & Nail Harmony and Artistic Colour Gloss! This I-Gel polish is from Odessey Nail System (ONS) The curing time is the same as other brands; 2 mins in UV light or 30 seconds in LED lamp! The packaging is amazing, who doesn’t like pure black bottles? So classy! And their range of colours are beautiful as well, I picked up the colours that I didn’t have in my collection yet so I’m really happy!! And I LOVE LOVE LOVE THEIR TOP2BOTTOM, its a base and top coat all in 1! Very shiny and its very different from my gelish top coat. It just looks and feels different but I have no idea how to explain this; hahaha! Also, another different factor that sets aside this I-Gel from other soft gel products is that you can use I-Gel to do designs directly on the nail! AMAZING!!! Normally, other soft gel polishes flow really easily and its almost impossible to even polka dot on it but using I-Gel polishes; you definitely can achieve this!

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Designs that I did with ONS I-Gel! Supposed to have one more green marbling one which I really like but Teacher Jess drew flowers on it lol so I couldn’t claim it as mine even though I did the background hahaha

So that afternoon, we concentrated on doing alot of different styles and designs using I-Gel with the help of our gel brushes. We did a french tip, double french, polka dots, slanted french, glitter french, marbling, ribbon, 3-petal and 5-petal flower art. Although its demonstrated on very simple basic art, it was very challenging!

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Teacher Jess even drew embossed 3D roses on our Top2Bottom polish so that we won’t mix up our bottles! I really love this one! I cannot wait to learn how to do this!

On the whole, I am definitely very satisfied with this workshop that I’ve attended! I love upgrading myself and also learning new things! And I also get to know ONS I-Gel which I’m falling in love with slowly too! ;P

More photos of the course kit:
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Swatches of the ONS I-Gel from 33 to 37! From left to right: Tip Toe Thru The Tulips, Spring Fever, Lilac Luster, Tahitian Tides and Taiwan Temple! Omfg, the names are so damn cute!!! ^^

I am also looking forward in getting more ONS I-Gel colour gel polishes for you guys to try ;)

More hands-on photos on JNail!

Leopard Toes

Okay… this is my first time doing nail art on my toes!!!!! As usual, I did my favourite print: leopard! I caught this colour combination and design on Nail Venus Winter 2012 (LOL I know right… Japanese are incredibly fast!!) and I had to try it out! :D

I find it really awkward to do art on my toes because I can’t seem to draw on some parts that I can’t reach lol! :/ And I think this is my first time posting up pics of my toes too… LOL

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I used Barry M Grey and OPI Isn’t It Precious? as the bases, OPI Glitzerland and pink acrylic paint ;) I added crystals at random places, hahahaha! I think I might need to do a full classic pedicure on myself soon.. I have lots of dead and dry skin!!! :(

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Merry X’mas to all!!!! ^^

Gelish: Candy Canes

Kristin’s candy canes nail design is also taken from tumblr! She wanted something really simple but yet in line with the Christmas theme!

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I also did some minor changes such as having 2 accent nails of candy canes instead of 3 and alternated the base colours and added silver glitter between the lines ;) This nail design really makes me feel so festive!!

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I used Gelish Queen Of Hearts and Artistic Colour Gloss With It as bases and all art is done with striper brushes! I also added in Gelish Waterfield for that extra oomph!

Very simple design but looks so cute with the Christmas theme! ^^

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Gelish: Something Sweet for Christmas

Shervin came over with Kristin to get her nails done before their Christmas party! She showed me a picture for reference and this is what I’ve came up with! The only difference is that I drew on the flowers differently :) Looks like this floral art is rather popular :D

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Mixed set for Christmas, how awesome? A red accent nail for candy canes and the rest are of polka dots and floral art!

I used Artistic Colour Gloss Hotzy and Gelish Seafoam as base colours and added all art using acrylic paint and polish! :) I also added on Gelish Waterfield on all the nails except the floral art for some sparkle!

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Gelish: Funky Mix

Again… Another backdated gelish on me!! I had to remove this when I went to my ONS I-Gel workshop on Sunday! (will blog in more details soon!)

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This is a design inspired by Nail Bible!

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I decided to mix floral and animal print this time and I love the result!! Haha, might seem like a mess but I actually love this ‘chaos’ hahaha! I think I’m still in the phrase of the half-nail thing hahaha I’ve been doing this for the past two manicures!! I used Artistic Colour Gloss With It, Gelish Seafoam and Gelish Desert Sands! The rest of the art is done using acrylic paint and China Glaze Tree Hugger! :)

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Gelish: Vintage Blue Floral

Another post with pictures from my customers because this was done at the flea too! You might find this set of nails familiar because I’ve done it on myself a couple of times using different base colours! :) Mabelline loves vintage floral art and I’m again excited to draw this on for her!

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I used Artistic Colour Gloss Wham for the base and nail polish for the flowers and acrylic paint for the leaves and polka dots. After that, I sealed the design with two gelish top coats :)

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Final look:

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Gelish: Roses Lined Up In A Row

Audrey came over to my place to get her nails done before the flea! (that’s why I was in such a rush…) Anyway, she chose a floral design that I just did on my nail art wheel and I’m so glad to do it on her!

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Don’t you think her nails looks so perfect? Perfect nail bed and appropriate length, I want nails like hers!!!! I used Gelish Less Talk as her base with Sleek White as the french tip. Because the original design was the flowers in the white part; her nails weren’t long enough so I changed the design to suit her feminine and work appropriate nails. Decided to do a long stretch of flowers and this compliments her nail bed greatly! The art was done in acrylic as usual and I added Swarovski crystals!

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After finishing the nail art, Audrey commented that this set of nails looks very ‘bridal’! I can’t agree more!