Change.

Hello everyone!

It has been some time since I have visited this blog, and I thank you for still reading and checking back! The past few months have been sheer madness; making different decisions that bring about lots of changes.

On 15th June, The Nail Artelier officially opened its doors; a joint effort between Ying (nailartexpress.com) and myself. It was just an idea, and it was a dream that came very true for both of us! Due to this, I have since ceased services at my home based salon. The new salon is located at 48 Haji  Lane, an amazingly vibrant neighborhood!

website: www.thenailartelier.com
facebook: www.facebook.com/thenailartelier

I'll still try to update here as and when that I can, hope to see you at The Nail Artelier!

Love,
Jenrine

Gel Polish: hearts and love

A combination fit for both CNY and Valentine's Day since the 2 special occasions were very close to each other!

I used Gelish Ambience for the base for the corset art, AngelPro #4 (nude-pink), #21 (pink), #47 (white), #35 (red) and black acrylic paint for the corset details.

Melissa's Gel Mani: Turn your Swag on

I introduced this app "Girls Pic" to Melissa, which got her really spoilt for choice! This app is really amazing, it is like Instagram but already categorized so you don't have to trawl through hash tags!

So anyway, this particular mani caught her eye, even though its not really her style! Melissa is a really chirpy and bubbly girl, but the neat style got to her, and she wanted the set to be matte like the original set too!

Oh I forgot to mention, that her previous mani lasted her really well with the crystals all intact!

So this is my first encounter with houndstooth, so pardon the imperfections ): I drew the design based on the picture, should have referred to a proper houndstooth picture instead for better accuracy!

I used AngelPro #29 (black) and #47 (white), super clean look!

After the design was done, and checking with Melissa that she really want the set to be matte, I sealed the design with this matte top coat I got recently.

Gotta love the overall effect, looks leathery, super swag! I will consider doing this for myself, with the crystals!

How do you like this? (:

Dingxuan's visit!

Initially, Dingxuan wanted to do acrylic extensions on her right hand (all 5 fingers) because somehow those are always shorter than her left hand! But I decided to just do a full set so that it will be more uniform!

I spent about 2.5 hours on the whole set of extensions, all sculptured! Not totally perfect, ):
Anyway, Dingxuan couldn't decide on a design, so I suggested doing gradient nails (similar to her toes!), and added some studs and crystals on top! I especially love the heart made up of black crystals, super outstanding on the gradient base. I used AngelPro #111(nude), #74 (light blue), #144 (dark blue) for the gradient base.

For her pedi, I did a simple gradient with OPI Passion and Orly Royal, and then added OPI Last Friday Night for extra glitter! Added some embellishments on the big toes, very royal indeed :P

Dingxuan also did a spa pedi this time round, which consists of super hydrating heated foot mask that leaves her feet baby soft and smooth! I have yet to add this onto the current service menu, so do look out for it!

Looking forward to our next session!

Mini Announcement!

Hello!

As most of you know, I'm doing this on a part-time basis; my real career is being a full time student! So, I'll be having my exams in May, and I'll need all the time I have to revise and prep for them. Thus, I'll be taking a break in April/May at Nail Art Express, and very limited slots at my home-based salon in April. My exams will end by the third week of May, and I'll be away for a short holiday on the also week of May till early first week of June. So.....there will be limited slots in May as well!

I'll take this chance to say a BIG thank you for the support shown during CNY. Most of you were punctual for the appointments and kept the schedule running smoothly, super appreciate that! And the small treats here and there, I loved all of that! So, really, thank you!

As well as, I will like to highlight that if under any circumstances that you're dissatisfied with your manicure/pedicure, please feel free to highlight to me during the session! I will try my best to do the best for you! If you have any problems after the session, do email me and I'll see how I can help as well. All I want to say is, I'll appreciate all feedbacks, be it good or bad!

Do book early to secure your appointments, and I look forward to serving all of you!

Gel Polish: Pop Art Design

Mabel wanted a set along the line of pop art style, and sent a few pictures as reference prior to he appointment. We ended up picking the color scheme from the set seen from Nails by Kayla, super pop and cheerful!

I did a mix of designs, especially on her left hand!

I used AngelPro #25 (blue), #20 (yellow), #22 (pinkish-red), #29 (black) and #47 (white) for the base colors as well as art. Gotta love the consistency of AngelPro Gelly Polishes for art!

Gel Polish: Art Box inspired Animal Farm

Yanling actually knew about me while she was doing her pedicure at her usual salon, and the customer next to her showed the manicurist a picture of my design and got her intrigued. Thank you to this stranger for liking my design!

So anyway, Yanling really liked the set of neko x usagi set that I did earlier, and she likes this series of animal prints from ArtBox, that she decided to have them on her nails!

I did them according to pictures of notebooks that she got? And transferred accordingly. A couple of colors are used: AngelPro #14(grey) for rabbit, #9(yellow) for chick, #10 (green) for frog, #12 (lilac) for bear, and #13 (salmon pink) for cat. Details are done with #29 (black). I used Gelish Desert Sands for the base color.

Mod with dots

Wendy always have interesting ideas for her nails, be it for manicure or pedicure! This time round, it's a pretty mod design she got from magazines, consisting of big polka dots with very clean color scheme to keep it neat.

I used OPI Alphine Snow for white, OPI for black, and OPI for the hot pink. I do like the design very much, that I'm considering to do it for my own toes!

Angel Pro Festive Blings Review Set

As most of you know, the new range of Angel Pro Gelly Polish had been released in December 2012, and this was the poster provided of the 100 new colors:

I managed to preorder some of the colors after checking out the poster. (I drooled so bad at some of them, got to have them!) When the new shades finally arrived with real swatches at the distributor's store (The Pink Room International Nail Academy), I knew I had to get more! Look at these pictures of the real swatches I grabbed from AngelPro's Facebook Page:

There's a good range of glitter, even more shades of pastel (mega LOVE), nude shades, and even holographic shades! From the swatches, you can also tell that the glitters are relatively strong and intense, which just means, less layers of gel polish for a super blinged-out manicure! Fantastic news!

I was very lucky to receive a set of Festive Blings Review Kit from AngelPro, which consist of 4 shades (sadly, I already own 1 of the shade). Nonetheless, the other 3 shades are super interesting! My kit consists of: #61, #66, #123 and #126.

So, trying to describe the polish in words prove to be harder than I thought! Kudos to all the nail bloggers out there that do it everyday! I spent nearly half an hour trying to describe them as close as possible to the shade T.T

Here goes, please do forgive my limited vocabulary, the pictures will make up for it!

#61: Jelly purple base with a mix of micro, chunky and even bar iridescent glitter that flashes gold and pink! Super pretty and it was a hot favorite among my customers, including my mum!
#66 : Jelly green base with fine glitter
#123 : Metallic graphite that reminds me of melted metal.
#126 : Metallic copper that flashes green and gold at angles, kind of like Chanel Peridot!

Pictures! Btw, can you guess which is the shade that I already own? :P

Other than these, below are a couple of pictures of manicures I have done with some of the colors in the kit:

For this design, #123 is actually the details and lines that appear slightly shimmery graphite yet metallic. Yes, you can just use AngelPro Gelly polishes for art with its great consistency.


So, if you’d like to see the swatches in person and purchase some colours, you can do so at:

The Pink Room International Nail Academy
10 Anson Road, #15-06 International Plaza S(079903)
(Alight at Tanjong Pagar MRT)
Tel: 6348 1592/6220 1592
Open 11.30am – 9.30pm on weekdays and 11.30am – 6pm on Saturdays

Melissa's CNY set

Melissa dropped by to get her nails, both fingers and toes, pretty for CNY! Before the appointment, Melissa told me she wanted something flowery, and that's exactly what I did for her!

Based on a design from Nail Max Collection, I used AngelPro #23 (hot pink) as the main color for her mani and pedi! For her fingers, I used #49, a pink shimmer as the base, followed by #23 and #47 for the slant tips. Polka dots with #47(white), Then flowers were done with #23 and #47, and leaves with #76 and #144. Finally I used Brite Gold to line the slant tips to add some bling to the whole look. To really complete the look, I added some crystals to some nails, very pretty!

As for her toes, they were done on base color #23, with the same color scheme for flowers and polka dots as her mani.

I think the set suits Melissa very well, very girly and cheerful, and the loud base color makes the whole set pop really well!

Gel Polish: Pop of Colors

Carrine couldn't quite make up her mind on the nail art, as she always stick to the nude palette for her nails, and very simple art. I managed to convince her to do this brilliantly cheerful looking set since its CNY after all, and she was game enough to try it!

I used AngelPro #11(light blue), #13(salmon pink), #23(hot pink) and #47(white) for the base colors. The flowers were done with #13 and #23, and leaves with #76(light green) and #144(dark green).

Then I added some studs to give the set an edgier look, and I think the whole set looks really happy!

Ponies, or are they unicorns?

Ruby showed me a picture she has gotten from the Internet by searching ponies, and requested the set for her CNY nails!

Super cute, and the rest of the nails are kept simple with clouds and a glitter accent nail.

I used China Glaze Sweet Hook for the lilac base, China Glaze Kinetic Candy for the light blue base, OPI Teenage Dream for the pink glitter accent nails, and art was done with acrylic paint.

Flea at NUS Central Forum

Ying (Nail Art Express) and I had so much fun at our previous flea at SMU, that we didn't hesitate to sign up for another flea again! This time round, we will be at NUS Central Forum, on 19 & 20th February (Tues & Wed), from 9am - 6pm.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with getting to NUS, here is a simple guide that I grabbed from Ying!

How to get there:

- From Buona Vista MRT, take bus 95 and alight at the Central Library bus stop.
- From Clementi MRT, take bus 96 and alight at the Central Library bus stop.
- From Kent Ridge MRT, take the free NUS internal shuttle bus A1 or B and alight at the Central Library bus stop.
- Bus 151 also goes to the Central Library bus stop.

Once you get to the Central Library bus stop, you will be able to see the Central Forum.

Similar to our previous flea, limited services are available:

Express manicure – $6
Includes shaping of nails, premium protective base coat from Nail Tek, your choice of colour from OPI or China Glaze, and quick dry Seche Vite top coat.

Gel manicure – $33 (instead of $38)
Includes shaping of nails, cleaning of cuticles, and your choice of gel polish from a selection of our 50 most popular colours.

**Add on nail art – starts from $10/set

You can now make an appointment in advance by emailing jenrinee@gmail.com with your preferred time and details of services required. The best part? Since there's 2 of us available, come get your nails done together with your girlfriend!

Looking forward to seeing all of you!

Gel Pedi: Heroes unite!

This is not the usual superheroes nail art that you see around, they're specially picked by Wendy! Wendy always have very interesting concept for her nail art, even for her toes! She planned for a different character on each toe nail, but due to space constraint, I advised on alternating them.

The main lead for the whole set is suppose to be Wonder Woman, one of the sexiest superhero ever. Wendy wanted Wonder Woman herself on one of the big toe, but I didn't have enough time for that, so we settled for pop art kinda caption, and the bustier on the other big toe.

Then we have logos that you should be able to recognize, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, and Flash. All art done with gel polish, and there were so many I can't remember the exact names for all offhand right now!

Colors used:
AngelPro #34 (red), #20 (yellow), #29 (black), #47 (white), #17 (orange), #30 (brown)
Harmony Gelish (blue)
Orly FX Luxe (Gold)

I love how cheerful the whole set looks, and I regret not having enough time for drawing Wonder Woman, if not it'll be pretty interesting!

Prom-ready!

Hazel and Audrey dropped by to get their nails ready for prom!

Freehand lace half-tip design on a nude base, and florals! 2 different looks, and I hope they will have an enjoyable time at Prom!

For Hazel, I used OPI Tickle My France-y for the nude base, and drew the lace details with black acrylic paint. For Audrey, I used China Glaze Aquadelic for the turquoise base, and drew the flowers with acrylic paint as well. 

Gel Polish : of snowman & snowflakes

Mabel wanted to do a christmas set, but doesn't have a specific theme or design in mind! With Ying's cute set as inspiration, this is what I came up with for Mabel!

I used Harmony Desert Sands as the base color, then sponged on AngelPro Gelly #47 (white), followed by #25 (blue), and lastly topped it off with Harmony Waterfield. Super festive and cute! 

On her thumbs, I drew a simple snowman as requested by Mabel, and added in a flying reindeer on one, and a moose on the other thumb!

Gel Polish: Cute Ribbons!

Peiyan decided on a super cute and colorful ribbons design from one of the Japanese magazines! This is what I did. I told Peiyan that I rarely do embossed ribbons, and will do a mixture of different ribbons on every fingers...... :P

I used AngelPro Gelly #47(white), #23 (hot pink), #9 (yellow) for the base colors, and #21 for the pink stripes and for the polka dots. Then I sculpted the ribbons on! 

The outcome is super cute and sweet! Love it, super cheerful! 

Gel Polish: Blinged with laces

I did half-moons with lace on all fingers except the ring finger, which has a full lace design. I used Orly Shine for the base, super duper shiny indeed! Then I drew on the lace details with acrylic paint. 

Gel Polish: Minx Inspired Skulls

Wendy sent this picture prior to the appointment, mentioning that she wants this minx image on her big toe! 

It's quite a bit of details.....here goes! 

Wendy decided to have black/white combi for the rest of the toes to keep it simpler, and this is what I did for her!

I couldn't squeeze in all the skulls, so we decided on 2-3.....and I did 2.5 I think, lol! I used AngelPro Gelly #27(black for the base), and then #47 (white) for the art for the little toes, then Harmony Gelish June Bride for the accent toe! Skulls were done with acrylic paint.

Gel Polish: Take Flight

Wendy has already decided on the nail art she wants for her manicure prior to the appointment; butterfly wings with gradient base. This is a design that has been floating around the Internet for the longest while, but I have ever done it before!

Wendy's nails are pretty long and slim, so I had to resize the design to fit it on her nails. First I did the gradient base by sponging AngelPro Gelly #23(pink), then #35(red), #9(yellow), and lastly #10(green). Then I did the black outline with #27 and random white spots with #47!

As for the thumb, they were super shiny! We did a sheer glittery base, and then I stuck on super pretty and shiny disco balls from Eriko (brand from Japan that Ying brought back!) in different colors! I love it! (I'm such a magpie sometimes.....)

Gel Polish: Cinnamoroll Love

Olivia sent me pictures of cinnamoroll prior to the appointment, requesting the theme to be on sync to the phone covers! They look so adorable, right?!

Drawing them prove to be a little tough, because of the proportions... I hope they're recognizable!

I used AngelPro Gelly #21 (pink) as the base color on the thumb and ring finger, Gelish Desert Sands and then AngelPro Gelly #47(white) for the scallop tips. Then I lined them with dots, using #72 (pink), #73 (purple) and #75(blue).

Then #143 (dark blue) for the outlines of hearts and ribbons and cinnamoroll! it took a while for the thumbs to be completed due to the layers for drawing...

I like them! How about you?