Misplaced pictures

Dudes! So I did this manicure like a month ago but then I totally forgot to make a post about it, which is crazy because I quite liked it. But now that I'm in the process of moving from Korea to Okinawa, all my nail polish and stamping supplies are packed up to get shipped. :( So I don't remember all the names of the shades and the stamping plate I used, but I can come back and edit this post later when I finally have all my glorious nail stuff back.
I do know that the glitter on my pinky is one of Etude House's cute new glitters, containing all kinds of shapes like stars, moons, and snowflakes. I sure am going to miss South Korea's fantastic, cheap glitter polishes.

Birthday Nails

Doing a manicure based on my astrological sign wasn't something that ever really occurred to me until I discovered Moyou London and their line of zodiac themed plates. After eagerly awaiting the release of the Sagittarius plate (my sign) I was disappointed because I didn't really like it. So I took it upon myself to do some research on my sign, specifically the symbolism linked to my birth date, and created my own December 21st themed nail art. I don't usually do manicures with different designs on each nail, but after watching the first season of Nail'd It, I felt inspired to do so.

The white arrow on my right index finger is the symbol of the archer, and the symbol on my right ring finger is for Jupiter, my birthday's ruling planet. The colors purple, pink, and red ane supposedly significant to Sagittarians. The teal blue color represents the December birthstone, blue topaz. The rest I did in assorted dots and sparkly designs. Sorry for the weird hand poses! When we move to our new apartment in a couple of months I plan to build a suitable lightbox and get a tripod, but for now I'm having to struggle to take pictures with my phone in the daylight. Overall I enjoyed this manicure and I'd like to do more themed ones like this in the future.

Polishes used (it's a huge list): By Kleancolor - Disco Ball, Vegas Night, Starry Purple, Pinky Moon, Metallic Fuschia; Essie - Play Date, BK Candy color polishes in #8 and #11, Konad special polishes in black and white, and Shine Plus Nail from Organic Farm. If there's a shade name, I don't know what it is because it's in Korean. :)

Stamping plates used are SH14 (arrow) and Moyou Sailor collection 03 (swirly pattern).

Winter Glitter

Here is my festive wintery glitter nail look. This was my first successful attempt at doing a stamping sticker (the snowflake). I used this method, rather than stamping it directly, because my stamper is white. I have asked my husband for a MM rectangular purple stamper for Christmas, though, so hopefully I'll have that one to play with soon. :)
The white glitter polish I used is Etude House Play polish #102. As soon as I saw it in the store, I wanted it. I have a plain white glitter in my collection already, but I'd never seen one like this, with iridescent shimmers in it. It really looks very snowy and it was only ￦3,500 (about $3).

I also recently received the Kleancolor glitter set from amazon. Some of the polishes are awesome, some are just average, but with the price averaging out to around $1.40 per bottle, it's definitely worth getting. The only problem with this one, called Starry Blue, is of course there's not a lot of glitter payoff in it, but  think that's always to be expected with cheaper (American) glitter polishes.

Polishes used: Kleancolor polishes in Metallic Aqua, Metallic White, and Starry Blue, Etude Play polish in #102 and Konad special polish in white with image plate SH17. Also, here is the link for the Kleancolor glitter polish set, if anyone is interested.

Korean polish for everybody!

I just got this lovely glitter polish the other day at Homeplus, which is a big department store here in Korea. It was hard to get a good, focused picture of it, so sorry these kind of suck. It's a mixture of medium sized white hexes, tiny white squares, pastel hexes, larger pink squares that are kind of metallic, and teeny tiny holographic glitter dust. I thought it looked pretty in the bottle, but it's even better when it's on. I've layered two coats over Essie Cocktails & Coconuts.
Then I read something about a group of people who live in Japan and take photos of things in stores, put them online, and mail them to folks in other countries who'd like to buy them. I thought to myself, "I should do that with nail polish!" South Korea is full of little cosmetic stores, and they all carry nail polish. On top of lovely glitters like this one, I've seen textures, glitter crellys, and all sorts of bright and pastel creams.
So I'm proposing the idea of going out and finding nice polishes and mailing them to ladies (or men) in other countries who would like to try some Korean polishes. Most of them are very inexpensive.  If you're interested, please send me an email letting me know what types or colors of polish you'd like, how much you want to spend or how many bottles you want, and whether you'd like to see pictures of what I find first or if you want a mystery bag based on your preferences. Or if you know of brands you like, such as Tony Moly or Modi, I can get the particular ones you want. I'm only asking the buyer to cover the cost of the polish and shipping, plus a small shopping/transport/handling fee of $2 per order. Unfortunately I'll only be here for another 5 weeks or so, so if you want some, act fast! :)

Kleancolor Metallic White

I wouldn't call this polish metallic, but it's not bad. It's more like shimmery sheer white snow. This is two coats. Just be aware if you're looking for a metallic white polish, this isn't it.

Reverse glitter gradient

Last night I had this scary dream that I'd cut all of my nails really short. Then, in the dream, I thought to myself "This is a dream. I'm sure if I wake up, my nails will be fine". So then I DREAMED that I woke up, opened my eyes and saw that my nails were indeed all short. I could even feel pain on my right middle finger where I'd cut that one too short. It was so scary that I actually woke up with a start, realized I'd only dreamt I had woken up the first time, then felt my nails and discovered they were all fine. I tell you, man, I have some really weird, vivid dreams. Like the recurring theme of my bottom front teeth falling out. I get this one at least twice a month.
Anyway, I tried for the first time here to do a reverse glitter gradient. It didn't turn out as well as some pictures I've seen, but for my first attempt, I think it's ok. Also, the glitter polish I was using was sort of thick, so that made it harder. I first did a sheer french manicure to enhance the look of my nails then added a few blue and purple crystals over the glitter for extra dimension.

Polishes used: An unnamed shade from Organic Farm Shine Plus nail (cheap Korean polish), Essie limo-scene, China Glaze White Cap and Hard Candy Party Central.

Lime green with feathers

This is my first attempt at a feather manicure. I bought these feathers from bornprettystore.com. When I looked up pictures of other feather manis online I was kind of surprised that nealy all of them had the fibers of the feathers pointing up towards the wearer's hands. To me, it seemed like this would make it hard ot apply a top coat and that the top coat brush would pull the fiber back. So, I decided to try applying the feathers in both directions.
As it turns out, my worries were totally untrue. The feather applied "upside down" to my right middle finger nail looks a lot better and was easier to apply. On my left ring finger, you can see that the fibers got a little bit wobbly plus it was really hard to trim the bottom to match the curve of my cuticle afterwards. Lesson learned.

Polishes used: Essie The More the Merrier and Kleancolor Black Out

Bright rainbow stars

I found this lovely star glitter polish at a store called Tony Moly in a subway station here in Korea. :) The downside is that it took about four coats to get this much coverage.The base color is China Glaze Hook & Line.