Bongsoonga Nail Art Book Volume 6

The nails on the top of the banner is from our Bongsoonga-Sontop Nouvelle Vague
[Nail Art Book Volume 6]


This is an annual Nail Art Book that we do every year for the International Market. It is a once a year thing where we come together to research new techniques & come up with new designs to create.
Most of the photos are bought by companies to be used for their product posters or advertisements. In case you are wondering... The book is for sale!
The whole process is a very challenging one... From the designing on paper to the final photo shoot, I can say it is very memorable & interesting!
Especially, I did my design during the coldest time in Korea... I remember it was about -10° to -17° at that time, I was especially miserable coz I am so so cold... Korean's winter is different from Japan's. It is very cruel type of cold that goes into the bones.

I did it using the latest AnGel Pro System[Organic Soak-off Gel] from Korea... That is the first time I got in touch with this organic gel that can soak-off! Anyway, the manufacturer sponsored the products for my entire creation... so of course I am alright to research & design something using their products... hehe.. \^.^/...
So, here's a special mention & big thanks for my sponsor... Kam-Sa-Mi-Da!!

My initial idea was using our Chinese Culture's Paper Cutting techniques. As I was the only non-Korean person in the entire book, I wanted to introduce Chinese Culture to the world. As usual, what started out as your idea would surely evolved into something more interesting.. So it is with my designs. I need to incorporate the design to be "make-able" using the new gel system, also it must be something that would also suit the international market that we usually sell the book to...

Thus, the final design... The entire 5 nails are created totally using the AnGel Pro System.

I am quite very happy with the final results.. Hope you all are too!






Here's the behind the scene photo shoot session with my dear model.

America's Next Top Model Winner

Was woken up by a call to do up a model's nails for a photo shoot...

yawn.. normal normal request..
Guess who walked into our academy..Nicole Linkletter
Winner of America's Next Top Model 5

She was supposed to be the model on a photo shoot for a jewelry advertisement and needed instant natural-looking long nails. Many close-up shots required, so nails must look like "real-nails"!!

Hmmm... Let me see your nails... Yikes!! They are making an understatement when they mentioned that her nails are ok...
As 99% of models tend to have "not-so perfect nails", it is just that type of nails that our Master Educator Joe Chua loves... (o.o)"... all PinkRoom students are nodding their heads in agreement now.. haha.. He likes to excel himself...

Mr Joe Chua, as usual loves the challenge & instead of pasting full nail

tips to extend her nails, did a set of acrylic sculpture nail extensions on her.

All her nail bed are extremely short and bitten into her fingers, plus the fact that some nails are "growing upwards", they are quite a challenge to extend using the nail forms.

before & after pixs..

You'll never be able to tell she had really really short nail-bed...
Heard that the photo shoot turned out great, would post the final photograph when I get them.

So... Never believe every single thing on TV or Magazines..haha.. all the beauty & glamour is a result of many many dedicated artist and effects behind the scene..

Thatz what I see in my years behind the scenes of photo-shoots & TV commercials. You'll be amazed by their before makeup & after makeup looks..

So if you think you are not pretty, you just had not met the correct make-up,hair & nails artist..
Hmm.. you'll also need a good professional photographer, director,etc.. haha..

Any gal would look good with a good team of artist behind her... I mean many many models nails turned to beautiful hand after we worked on them.. Yeah! \(^.^)/ it is the accomplishment after the challenge.

I mean Nicole returned the next day to get her extensions removed. As she came straight to us after the photo shoot, she looked totally different from the previous day without make-up. She is really so pretty and sweet looking... like wat you see on tv.

Kiddos to her winning the America's Next Top Model Title!

I mean going through all those stuff on national TV must had boosted her life experiences. She's so tired from the shoot yet still look so fresh, the title had indeed brought her many many jobs & during her short stay here, she did like up-to 20+ jobs.
And now, she'll be moving on to another country for other jobs..

Envy? .. yar! ... for being so skinny.. haha..

Finally.. First Blog

Finally got down to starting our blog…

Happened over ex-student & trainer's midnight tom-yam steamboat supper at 1am..
Our dearest cute Clara was narrating on the story of "IP Man" and how itz very much like us.. doing nothing to inform people around us of our school & of myself…that there is no way people would know watz up with us on the hilltops or our qualifications if we dun "tell our story".. Going on & on... like the cute energizer bunny…

… well this is not the first time & I figure it’ll not be the last time if I dun finally get down to climbing out of our mountain cave & coming to civilization & “telling our story”...

So will be sharing the happenings of our PinkRoom Nail Academy and oso my own personal thots & feelings too.
If I have the time, would so some informative stuff on nails.. hope this little space would benefit someone somewhere.. \(^.^)/

So finally...

Iskandar Blue

This set of Design Sculpture was done by Joe Chua..

What's most important for a Design Sculptured Nails is the shape, despite it's embedded 3D embossed art inside. If there is no control or skill, the entire nail would look like a swollen piece of "ice-kacang" on the fingers... I chose the Blue Gradient Color as the base as it allows the Pure White Roses to stand-out yet retaining its 3D effect.

During dinner... I realized that the blue on my nails matches the blue glaze on my Japanese Tea-Cup. So love this special shade of blue… Despite the popular belief that I am crazy about Pink color… bcoz everything around me happens to be pink or hello kitty (Handphone case, pens, diaries, calculators, etc.)

My favorite colors happen to be Turquoise & Deep Coral Blue… or to be exact the Greenish-Blue Glaze on pottery. It is the signature color glaze often associated with Mr Iskandar Jalil, he got his famous 'Iskandar Blue’ from the Blue Mountains in NSW.

He's a mentor and received the National Cultural Medallion for Visual Arts in 1988. His works are owned by the Sultan of Brunei and former US president George Bush Senior. His larger wall installations can be seen in Tanjong Pagar Railway Station and Changi Airport.Anybody who is a collector of pottery and sculptural pieces would be familiar with the works of Iskandar Jalil.

He was my mentor & fine-art lecturer during my days at Temasek Polytechnic School of Design. Those days, we need to be good in fine arts on the first year of school... although we are to become commercial art designers.

Everyone's groans & fear, of attending Mr Iskandar's lessons. He’ll go around class with a hammer & smash to pieces our works he feels is not up to his standards. He calls all of us “monkeys” and would not be shy to give you a piece of his mind about you.
It is with him that I learnt the true meaning of uncompromising perfection. Later on in my life, it helped me understand my tough days in living in Japan…

But, he is also very gentle & kind person… you can tell from his way of life and his compassion to pass on his knowledge to whoever is willing to find out your own individual strength & purpose in life.

I remember the days when I would go to his workshop after school. He just let me do whatever I wanted at his workshop; I started making numerous clay sculptures figures… glazed them & fired them in his kiln. Strange to think back, I never tried pottery. I still remembered him telling me that the most difficult item to master is the quiet beauty of a simple tea bowl…

Thinking back… I would love to have back that luxury of getting my hands dirty with clay and do nothing but just sit at the pottery work-stand & make art pieces to express my inner feelings… ahhh… the inner peace working at the back of his terrace house swamped by lush greeneries, numerous pots by the fish pond and the sunrays on my clay pieces as I sculpt them into my art creations.