Sunday, September 12, 2010

The Joy of Konad

Hey there! Okay, to expand a bit on that nail art kit I mentioned before, at the CNE this year I came across a booth where they were doing interesting things with nail polish and etched plates. At first I thought nothing of it, but it kept floating around in my head until I eventually had to have it. And I love it!

It’s called Konad, and it employs the same technique as intaglio printing (you’re not seriously surprised that this appeals to me, are you?) — nail polish is applied to an etched plate, the excess is scraped off, a flexible plastic stamp is rolled over the plate to pick up the pattern, then is rolled over the nail to deposit the design. VoilĂ !

The starter kit I got was a customized version of this one, it came with three ‘special’ polishes (a bit thicker so it shows better, and faster-drying, I chose blue, white and silver plus a topcoat), five plates, a scraper and a stamper. And the CNE is an awesome place to find cheap polish (so much Sally Hansen!) so I stocked up. I’ve been dabbling for a few days and I think I’m going to try doing my nails every week. Let’s see if I can keep this up!

This is my first try, complete with awful cuticles (sorry!) — a base of N.Y.C. colour 124B (such a boring name, there must be a proper one!), which looks more blue in the bottle but is basically a silver frost on the nail, and I did Konad blue French tips and white accents. Not the best job, but as I said it was my first try. And I forgot to take pictures for a few days so it’s a bit banged up.

I was so excited by the kit I brought it up to Kitchener with me for Labour Day weekend for J*&P’s annual end-of-summer party. Removed my first set, then re-tried with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Navy Blue with Konad design in silver. This blue is so gorgeous and super shiny, how nice! And I liked it so much I had to do my toes too...

This weekend I’m visiting my parents so I brought my kit and gussied up my Mum’s nails today with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Diva Bride (super sheer) and some designs with Konad white and silver.

Did mine too, like it?

Will I be able to keep with this every week thing? Winter might be a problem. Also, those cuticles are dreadful! Maybe I’ll be able to make them look healthy again, and perhaps I’ll even be able to keep the polish all on my nails and not all over my fingers! What do you think? Place bets now!

No comments:

Post a Comment

I seem to get a lot of spam from anonymous messages - for that reason, I moderate comments. If it isn’t spam I approve comments pretty quickly.