My Experience at Beauty Asia 2012

I wasn’t planning to go in depth about my haul purchases from Beauty Asia but I shall do it since there’s a few requests for this! Beauty Asia is a annual trade fair for professionals in this industry, we all had to register with our name cards! I heard about Beauty Asia last year but I didn’t manage to visit the fair because I wasn’t exactly a ‘professional’ then, I was only a nail polish addict; hahaha! But I was afraid that I might be turn down because I’ve heard a couple of my friends getting turned down because they didn’t register earlier so I did not want to risk going there and yet going back empty-handed, lol.

So I was pretty hyped up about this year’s Beauty Asia because I knew there were alot of discounts for lots of products! I went there on the first day with Ying and Felicia and registered on the spot and I was completely overwhelmed. There was so many booths selling products that I really wanted! Because I was on a tight budget then, I only brought $50 thinking that I might not spend as much but boy was I wrong!!

The above picture shows my haul from the first day:
- Buffers, $6 per pack
- IBD nail glue, $3 each
- Hexagon Glitters, $3 each
- Nail & Harmony Files and Buffer, total $6
- Super shining crystals, $4
- Nail Tek base coat set, $10
- Artistic Colour Gloss top coat, $16

I was mentally making wishlists in my mind because I wanted to buy so many things!! The Nail Tek base coat set was originally $12 but Ying arrived at the fair earlier and managed to get them at $10 per set (how sneaky are they to change the prices after merely a few hours!!) and she offered to sell me one of hers cuz she bought 6 sets, omg! Ying also sold me one of her ACG top coat since she bought 5 of them (she purchased 12 ACG polishes to get the cleanser free!)

Prices were really low for ALL products, let’s see whether I can remember most of them!

Misa, China Glaze polishes: $5/each
Orly: $6/each
Zoya: $7/each
Deborah Lippmann: $19/each
Gelish, Artistic Colour Gloss: $16/each (free pH bond if buy more than 6 bottles for gelish, free cleanser if buy more than 12 bottles of ACG)

When I reached home that night, I was sure that I am going back to the fair to get more items because I really couldn’t pass up those discounts! True enough, I went back to the fair on the last day with my Dad (since we both ended our exam for that day at the same time).

2nd haul:
- ONS monomer, $90
- ONS acrylic powder, 2 for $100
- Gelish colours, $16 each + free pH bond
- Gelish structure gel, $15
- Super shining crystals (I got it in a different design), $4
- Massage lotion, $5
- Poshe top coat, $6 each
- Big nail clipper, $1.80

Guess I went kinda overboard on the last day cuz some prices of the products did drop significantly as most of them are trying to clear their stock. The Gelish structure gel cost only $15 that day instead of $18 (I inquired about the price on the first day) and Gelish polishes are $15/each instead of $16/each! However, there is no free pH bond if you’re paying $15/each. I figured I can save more if I pay $16/each because of the free pH bond!

My best buy was products from ONS. If you’ve heard of ONS, it is really expensive! I met my ONS teacher there, Jess! I wanted to get red and black acrylic powders and she recommended me the primary collection which has 8 basic colours of acrylic powder! (I originally wanted to get the ONS tray of 8 colours which I got from the nail workshop but those collections did not have red or black acrylic powder. Usual price was $184.40 for the tray of 8 colours and it was going for $82 at the fair, awesome deal!) The offer that day was 2 boxes of acrylic powder at $100 so I got another autumn collection! The usual price for one box was probably close to a $100 so I’m glad I saved alot! From the nail course that I took from ONS, I was only given a 114ml of monomer and I am already halfway through that from practicing so I decided to get a huge bottle of monomer, 450ml. The original price of the 450ml monomer is about $130+, I think!

Yep so that sums up my haul from Beauty Asia! Definitely going back next year to grab more goodies!!

*Got spotted by a fellow reader there, thank you for coming up and talk to me, I was really glad!

Gelish: Stalks of Hearts

I’ve recently purchased a few new gelish colours from Angel.Pro from Pinkroom! the special part of these polishes is that they’re magnetic!!!! I’ve heard of magnetic nail polishes since last year but this is the first time this year that I’ve heard of magnetic gelish! So being curious, I had to purchase a set to try them out!

Laura was the first customer to try out these magnetic polishes! I did have some difficulty using the magnet but after a few tries, we managed to get it right! She also wanted a certain nail design from YouTube on her thumbs, and she chose her own colour combination! (will put up the video tutorial soon)

Gelish: Crystallised Hello Kitty

Abigail showed me this picture and wanted something exactly like this!

Image source from: http://chibinails.tumblr.com

However, she wanted crystals to replace the polka dots and I also suggested having half-moons instead of French tips because her nails weren’t long enough for the Hello Kitty face!

I also suggested choosing pink as her base colour because I don’t have red acrylic powder and I think pink base matches better with pink ribbons! I used Gelish Waterfield and Gelish Make A Difference! Did the Hello Kitty art with Gelish colours namely: Gelish Black Shadow, Gelish Sheek White and ONS Tip Toe Thru The Tulips

Anyway, it’s my first time doing embossed ribbons on someone else!!!! Since she was my first customer doing this and I was still a noob in embossed; I didn’t charge her for the ribbons at all; just take it that I was practicing! I do still need lots of practice though!

Overall: Super cute nails! <3

Review: Polish Rings

Melissa contacted me 2 weeks back and asked me whether I’d love to review her handmade polish rings. (Of cause I agreed!) If you guys don’t know, polish rings were in the rage about 2 years ago when someone in the U.S. started this ‘trend’. I’m not so sure who started this innovative idea first because since then, lots of people in other countries started selling their polish rings too! I’ve always wanted one since 2 years ago but they were SUPER EXPENSIVE in the States! They were selling it about US$30 and above for a customised ring; with a polish colour of your choice! I remember lots of people ordered limited edition polishes to be made into a ring because firstly, they’re expensive, secondly; hard to find and thirdly; you get to wear it fashionably on yourself!

Its incredibly impossible to find any polish rings made in Singapore at that time and I’m glad Melissa set up her blogshop to share her passion for nail polish and accessories!

If you ask me whether I love the nail polish ring that I picked out, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!! <3 I chose Cult Nails Clairvoyant for my ring because since I didn’t have that polish to admire, I could still able to wear it on my fingers! Look how dazzling it is!!!!!!! I heard that Clairvoyant used to be called Unicorn Puke. I wish they stuck with the old name though, it seems much more funnier and wacky.

Remember to check out Melissa’s blogshop at: http://poshpolish.livejournal.com/, each ring is S$12 or US$10.
She does her nail polish rings by collection based; for example; she has currently 2 collections ongoing; #1: Glitter, Flakies and Rainbow and #2 Love is in the Air. You can also customize your own ring, just let her know what polish colour you want and she does the rest of the magic! She makes the rings when you order them, so be sure to order in advance as you’ll have to wait for 2 days for the glue to set before she is able to mail them out She also ships internationally!

P.S. Melissa actually sent a second ring to me because the first ring got damaged in transit despite the double bubble-wrap. I love how quick and efficient she is to handle such situation. The packaging of the ring definitely improved during the second mailing thumbs up for great service!

Disclaimer: Products mentioned in this post was given to me for consideration. Please hop on to my disclosure tab for more information.

Floral Fiesta

Happy Valentines’ Day, everyone!

Did 2 full sets of floral nail art during the flea! I’d love to thank my friends and relatives for dropping by and giving me their support!

Hwee Choo chose a sweet pink, OPI Got A Date To-Knight. All art is done with acrylic paint!

The next set is done using OPI Mermaid’s Tears. Haha this is my aunt’s nails and a twin of my mum! Lol! The great difference between both of them is that she is more daring to try different colours and nail art! My mum would never choose such a colour and art for herself!

Tipsy Daisies

Wow, I’ve not done daisies in a long time and I’m turning rusty! Rozaliah dug out my old archives and managed to find this daisy art that I adapted from Simply Rins many months ago!

I used Color Club Raspberry Rush as the base and acrylic paint for the art! Whilst I was doing her nails, that polish smells really fruity and gummy!!! <3 it!

Gelish: Glitter Tips

Had a flea at *SCAPE on 28th Jan and the crowd wasn’t that well as the first time! I only managed to do one Gelish manicure

Angela wanted something red for the new year and she chose Gelish Queen Of Hearts! She also wanted glitter tips and I slabbed on Gelish Waterfield! So sparkly and pretty because both colours have shimmers/glitters!

And her nail bed is really beautiful and she looks so good in red!!