Friday 28 May 2010

Fräulein3°8's Travel-Around (2nd Shot: HongKong)




















We are very excited to tread on one of the busiest city in Asia at our second stop - Hong Kong. The first impression it gave us is that people there walk really fast (even for a student!) , and this street is busy day and night. That made us a bit nervous, but this is also what makes HongKong so appealing to us.






















As a diversified city where east meets west, Hong Kong embraces different cultures and ethnicities. Not only that we could find multiple imported beauty products of brands coming from all over the world, but also girls with different unique styles there. How do they look? What they think about make up and nail art? Here, we are going to show you where we went, what we found and who we saw. Let's go discovering Hong Kong together!

Go Shopping!


We have visited a view districts in HongKong, including Tsim Sha Tsui and Mongkok, where most of the chain drugstores are situated. Bonjour and Sasa are the largest amongst them that can be easily found on the street. You can find makeup, perfume and skin care of all well-known brands in their stores. The price overall is quite cheap, because they are all parallel imports.


There are also many mega shopping malls in Hong Kong, as we know, it is also renowed as a shopping paradise. Big malls like Harbour City in Tsim Sha Tsui and IFC Mall located in the tallest building of Hong Kong, have all the luxury brands' stores.

However, it is quite interesting to find that nail art shops cannot be easily found in Hong Kong. Unlike Japan where nail art shops are found in every mall, nail art shops can only be found in smaller shopping centre or private buildings in Hong Kong. That means doing nail art is not yet very common in Hong Kong.





















Their Nails


Hong Kong girls are very shy. We tried a few times to invite girls on the street to let us take photos of them and their nails, but they only let us take photos of their nails not their faces. Perhaps that's because most of them do not wear make up (though they do have pretty faces).


As we can tell from the way they dress, they are rather conservative with nail art. We interviewed some girls, and most of them like simple styles with natural colours. Only some would love to make 3D white or pink flowers integrated in the UV Gel nails, or cute painting on the nails. However, it's hard to find nails with exaggerating designs and 3Ds like those in Japan.






























In Hong Kong, night life is one of its features you shouldn't miss! Lan Kwai Fong in Central is the hot spot clustered with bars and clubs. We suppose this is the only place where girls are willing to take photos with strangers in Hong Kong . :P

Girls at clubbing feel so different from those at daytime. It's like as if they put off their mask (or maybe put on another mask) and completely enjoy the music and fine wine. And we can finally see the 'open' side of Hong Kong.

From our interviews with the girls, we got to know Korean style make-up is the hittest trend these days in Hong Kong. They would not go too much with their make up. Most of them would just wear light make up, because natural skin tone was the key. However, they do put strong emphasis on their eye make up with strong eyeliner and mascara. Besides, they also made use of false eyelashes, and even double false eyelashes at the end of the eyes to create cat-eye style.



Do you enjoy our sharing? But that's not the end of our trip. Where are we going next?
TO BE CONTINUED....

Sunday 16 May 2010

Volumizing & Extending your nails with Acrylic & Half False Nail

If you find your nail too weak and thin, you may consider thickening your nail with a healthy look. We are goint to demonstrate how to volumize your nail with acrylic and half false nail in french style. This is the simplest way for beginner, because half false nail already has a beautiful round shape that fit your nail tip, that you can easily extend your natural nail with white tip.

What you need to prepare:
1. white half false nail tips
2. Clear Acrylic powder and acrylic liquid
3. Top coat UV Gel
4. Nail File


Now, let's get started!

1. Choose the right nail tips. To find the right nail tip, you need to try the nail as shown in the picture. When you hold the false nail tip on your own nail, the width of the false nail should not exceed the width of your natural nail. Otherwise, it's too big for you. You need to find one that exactly matches the width of your nail. If you cannot find one, then you will need to trim the oversized nail tip to fit yours.


2. Just like this one. When you press the nail tip, the tip can perfectly cover the real nail without going out. Then you can use nail glue to stick the false nail tip to your natural nail. Make sure there's no space between the false nail and the real nail. Then hold for 20-30 seconds. Please be reminded not to use too much nail glue. That would lead to a mess on your nail.



3. Cut your nail with nail scissors to the length you want, but leave a little length for filing for finishing. The false tip's surface is still too smooth. In order to avoid the acrylic from splitting, the whole nail needs to be filed agan.






4. Dip the nail brush tip into the acrylic liquid. Then dip a little clear acrylic powder to create a small acrylic ball at the brush tip. Pave the acrylic mixture over the whole false nail tip part. The nail tip will be volumized instantly as shown in the picture.





5. Repeat step 4 and pave the acrylic mixture over the lower part of the nail. You will start to see the shine and volume it gives to your nail.






6. Repeat the same step to finish the whole nail. Let the acrylic dry for 20-30 seconds








7. After it dries, you need to trim and file the nail again, because the curve of the surface is not natural.








8. After filing, the nail would have a beautiful curve. The nail tip also looks smooth as shown in the picture








9. finally, apply a thin layer of top coat gel on the nail. Heat under UV Lamp for 1 minute. Then you will have a hand with pretty nails like the ones below:







Isn't it nice? Doing DIY is nothing difficult at all. Try it once, and we are sure you'll be addicted! :)

Saturday 15 May 2010

Just a few simple steps to add natural shine to your nails

Who don't want to add extra shine to their nails? After working / doing housework for a whole day, you would find your nails lose its shine. Even if you apply nail polish, it cannot last very long. So,what are we gonna do?

If you are working in office, and feel embarassed to wear colour nail polish, there's a simple solution for you to give natural, attractive shine to your nails. Here are what you need to prepare beforehand:
Now, let us borrow a hand to do a demonstration:





1. Trim and file your nail









2. Apply a thin layer of base Gel and heat under UV Lamp for 1 minute








3. This time we apply clear UV Gel









4. Heat under UV Lamp again for 1 minute










5. Can you see the shine on your nail after applying a layer of UV Gel? but not finished yet! Please keep reading







6. As you can see from the picture, you can still make a fingerprint on the nail. That means the gel is not completely dried after heating. To finish the nail, you need to use UV Gel Cleanser to remove the top layer.







7. Finally! Wow~ Can you see the difference of the nails before and after apply UV Gel? You can do it yourself as well!




Items used: