Top 15 Japanese Nail Art Design Inspirations

I love getting my nails done!

I especially love Japanese Nail Art, because of how diverse, intricate and creative it is. Even though I love getting my nails done, I rarely do so, since I want to prevent my nails from thinning and growing unhealthy. It's been months since I've last had my nails done, so I think it's time to start gathering inspiration! :) My friend recently had her nails done, which really stirred up my cravings. hehe

With that said, I spent over an hour yesterday finding inspiration. Haha I've nailed it down to 15 designs, and I thought I'd share my finds with you guys! Let me know if you like any of them! Note: My style is all over the place. Some designs are colorful, some are dull, some are complex and some are simple. I guess that's a good thing, cause that means there's something for everyone! :) All of the pictures are from Instagram. I made sure to include the nail artists' Instagram accounts in the screenshots, so go ahead and follow them for more of their work!

Alright, enough said, let's begin!

1. I'm usually the type to go for dark colors; however, I was drawn to these set of nails! The color contrast of gold and nude is so pretty! What I especially love about these nails are the STARS of course! How adorable! 

2.  What a pretty green monochromatic color scheme! I've actually never had my nails done green before. The closest I've had to green was teal/turquoise. Green's one of my favorite colors, but it's pretty hard finding a shade of green professional enough to wear to work. 

3. OMG So pretty! Remember how I said earlier that I usually go for dark colors? That's simply because dark colors best compliment my skin tone. A gold accent on top of dark green is so pretty! I actually wouldn't mind all my nails with the partially painted dark green and gold stripe design.

4. Another nude color design. This is definitely the most work-appropriate design so far! Again, I'm loving the gold accent against the nude. This design is even more simple than inspiration #1.

5. Okay, so by now, I'm sure you guys can see some sort of pattern. *cough cough gold and nude* *cough cough* Haha to be fair, this is more like pink & beige against gold! The design on the ring finger is my favorite! It's like a combination of opal and gold flakes!

6. Well what do we have here? I guess we broke the nude and gold color pattern, cause here's nude and silver! :) How simple yet elegant! I can totally imagine someone wearing these at a wedding! 

7. What a great balance between simplicity and avante-garde. The design looks great, but another option would be to substitute the nude with black. I guess it depends on whether I'm going for a softer or bolder look! 

8. Imagine these as a manicure! The designer played with complimentary colors (blue and yellow) and balanced the design with neutrals (taupe and white). Hmm, maybe I should go for this look. I've never had my nails done in yellow, taupe or silver before! Since I don't get my nails done that often, maybe I should go for something super different from the norm. Thoughts? 

9. AWWWW how cute! So sweet! Pink and green is my favorite color combination, but for some reason, I rarely wear those colors together. Not sure why, but I feel so happy looking at these nails, especially the middle nail with all the pink and green stones! 

10. The color combination reminds me of inspiration #8. The colors are more dull though, and the design looks completely different. I really like the color combination. What caught my eye were the white and black flower designs. I believe those are stickers right? How cool! 

 11. I... love everything about this!!! I don't even know where to begin. As cheesy as this sounds, I actually love the combination red, white and blue. So patriotic of me right?! And can we just take a moment to appreciate the gold accents?! Love it! Also, I love floral patterns! This one's perfect, it's so me! LOL whatever that means! :P

12. This one reminds me of a Disney princess! To be honest, I'm not sure if I can see myself wearing these. These are definitely not work-appropriate....... and I can't say I like purple. But why? Why am I actually liking these?! LOL

13. Even though I don't like purple, this purple is my favorite shade of purple LOL! Since it's Spring, I don't think I'll be going for this. I actually like the overall design, especially the nails with the abstract art! I think I'll save this for fall though. 

14. Here's another work-appropriate one! LOL and no surprise, it carries my favorite combination, gold and nude. This is actually a really practical design. First of all, the design is so versatile for all occasions. Second of all, because of the clear to nude color gradient, I can probably wear these for weeks without people noticing my nails growing out. This simple design is so pretty; take a look at the ring finger! It kinda reminds me of Christmas lights or a dream catcher. 

15. These are soooooooo BEAUTIFUL! So simple, but omg how elegant! These definitely make it to my top 3 favorite! I'm not gonna explain why I like these, I'll let the design do all the talking! :) 

Whhhheeeew! Alright, so that concludes my 15 Japanese Nail Art design inspirations! After looking through all of these, my top 3 would be: #3, #11, and #15. I seriously can't wait to get my nails done! haha Let me know which ones you guys like the most! :) 

xxxx,

Wing

My Adventure to: Sunset View Park in Signal Hill, CA

Happy New Year Everyone! I can't believe it's 2018 already!

So a few weeks ago, my boyfriend and I watched our first sunset together at Sunset View Park in Signal Hill, CA. <3 What a great way to end the year. The entire experience was so special to me. My boyfriend and I have been dating for years now, and we've never watched a sunset together. haha crazy right?! Well, there's always a first time for everything. :) We had such an amazing time! The site was impeccable and absolutely breathtaking! SO ROMANTIC! LOL

I'm so glad we ended the year watching the sun set together at Sunset View Park. Watching the sunset was kind of a symbolization of how 2017 was coming to an end. We didn't plan on watching the sun set for that reason, but I'm glad how everything worked out. The environment was so tranquil, and I was able to oversee LA and Long Beach at a distance. Random Fact... but in 2017, hiking became a hobby of mine. A reason why I enjoy hiking so much, is because I can remove myself from the busy life back in the city, and just feel relaxed and at peace in the arms of nature. There's something about embracing the sunlight and looking out at the cities in a distance, that provided the same relaxed and at peace feeling.

The sun ended up setting right before 5PM. haha I was pretty surprised by how fast the sun disappeared! Afterwards, my boyfriend and I decided to walk around the area, while waiting for the night sky to appear. The houses in the neighborhood were very new and HUGE! I wonder if it's expensive living in Signal Hill. I feel like it would be; however, I did see some electric towers and oil pumps though, so.... not sure! haha I'm getting side tracked! Okay, back to topic! We stayed till night time, and the scenery was just as beautiful if not even more impressive.

I mean... WOW right?!

If you live around the area or if you're planning a visit to the Long Beach, LA or OC area, I would definitely pay Sunset View Park at Signal Hill a visit. It's a place that would make great date or a hangout with your family and friends! Again, I'm so glad I went!

Happy New Year everyone! I did so much self reflecting and came up with a long list of resolutions for 2018. It's a new year, so let's keep all those negative memories in 2017 and have a brand new beginning!

xxxxxx,

Wing <3

First Time Flower Arranging: I FOUND A HOBBY!

You know... there are so many aspects that make up a person's life. I'm talking about family, friends, hobbies, career, adventures, haha you get the gist.

Well, the "hobbies" part of my life has seriously disintegrated into almost nothing since I entered college. I remember "back in the days" I used to be so much more adventurous. I actually had hobbies, the 2 main ones being dancing and singing. Prior to college, I actually danced for 10 years and participated in my school choir. For choir, I traveled throughout California and out of country to compete. I dedicated so much time and effort into these 2 hobbies, and I enjoyed them so much, especially singing. I wasn't by any means amazing at singing, but something about it just gave me so much fulfillment. Once I graduated from high school, I literally dropped both hobbies to focus in school. I was so determined to excel in my courses and begin my career, that I left myself without a hobby. I didn't have a hobby for at least 5 years. Isn't that crazy? It wasn't until recently that I decided to make a change, and I found a hobby, FLOWER ARRANGEMENT! <3

That hobby came spontaneously, and I'm honestly not sure how it came about. I might be wrong, but I think Christina and I wanted to plan something fun for our 10 years friendship anniversary. LOL haha we're cute, I know! :) I'm pretty sure it was me who brought the flower arrangement idea up. I mean... I've always loved flowers, and with my DIY nature, I kind of wanted to try flower arranging out. Also, since it was our 10 years annivesary, I thought it'd be cute if we arranged flowers and gave them to one another. With that said, we went to the LA Flower District over the weekend to buy flowers.

Okay enough talking, here's the final result!

Ta-daaaaaaa~~~

I absolutely love it! haha I know I know... I made it, so of course I love it. I have to say... I was extremely daring with all the colors and textures. I literally walked into the flower district with zero inspiration, and I'm pretty surprised with how it turned out. I ended up with a very festive fall bouquet. I think it might be a bit dramatic for casual gift giving, and it might be a little too exotic for Valentine's Day, but I can seriously see it as a beautiful center piece for a Fall Wedding, Thanksgiving Dinner Party, or a movie premier or something. OMG, for some reason, I think it totally works for a Jurassic Park movie premier!

Here are close-ups of the flowers and fillers in the arrangement! 

Although I love flowers, I'm actually pretty clueless when it comes to flower names. I'll try my best to search up the names of each plant I used, but definitely leave a comment to correct me if I'm wrong! :)

Alright, so in the bouquet are:

1) Roses
2) Purple Statice (Limonium)
3) Coffee Beans
4) Baby Breathes
5) Leather Leaf Fern

I hope I got all the names right!

I seriously had so much fun making my first flower arrangement. So much fun that I discovered my hobby! Yay! haha It's actually a pretty big deal to me, since I haven't had a hobby for so many years! :) I've made 2 bouquets so far, so I'll try to share the other one in another entry. Seriously can't wait to make my next bouquet!

Thanks for taking the time to read my post. I'd love to know your hobby, so feel free to comment and let me know! :) Have a great day!


xxxxxx,

Wing

I Can't Believe It's Been 3 Years Since I Last Blogged!

So.... it's passed midnight... and I can't believe I'm doing this.

Doing what?

Writing a post after being away for 3 years.

It's so crazy, I literally don't know where to begin. hmm... let's see, 3 years ago I graduated from college and after trying a few occupations, I finally officially started my career as a graphic designer. Why did I stop blogging? I'm really not sure if there's a solid answer. Perhaps it's cause I was so lost in growing up and becoming an adult, that I just needed to step away and find myself? Maybe I relied a lot on my blog for the wrong reason, and I just needed to stay away and focus on something else? I'm not really sure of the answer, but the longer I stopped posting, the more intimidated I felt to blog again. Does that even make sense?

There were definitely times in the past when I wanted to blog again. I remember a few times when I started writing a blog entry, and just stopped in the middle of writing and just pressed the "close" button... Not sure what got into me, but I just got an itch to write tonight. I actually miss blogging from time to time. I miss being able to document those happy memories and look back on pictures and read my thoughts from the past.

I'm pretty sure I'll end up posting this entry... but where from there on? Obviously, I have many more responsibilities than I did in the past, but hopefully I can use this platform as a place to once again document my experiences. Hopefully, it'll be a nice place to escape from my responsibilities, instead of place that I find intimidating.

Good Night.


xxxxxx,

Wing <3

My Adventure to: Koreatown, Los Angeles

Did you guys have an amazing Summer? (well..technically the season's not over yet)

I sure did! =) Though I'm no longer a full time student who has Summer vacation... I still managed to make my Summer very plentiful and exciting! haha

One of the places that I explored this Summer was Koreatown!! It's not the first time that I have been there, but in the past, what I did was more so stay in a plaza for the entire visit and just end the journey there. This time I actually got the opportunity to walk around the streets and really get a feel of Koreatown! =)

SELFIE TIME!!! (Obviously!) This is me on my way to Koreatown! I wore pretty light makeup that day. I decided to go a little thicker with the eyeliner and balanced that out with some nudish pink lips! (Sorry about the messy hair btw...=) )

The amount of times I have visited Koreatown does not even add up to 5 fingers, so I still felt quite foreign to the place. haha My friend and I had quite a headache trying to find the places we planned on going to, and ended up parking on the curb locating where we were. Despite the hassle, we were rewarded with the accompany of such pretty scenery and buildings! =)

The first place I visited - Madang Plaza Shopping Mall

This is going to be repetitive, but as said in the caption above, the first placed I visited was the Madang Plaza! The plaza was extremely pretty and gave a very welcoming impression. It was however, a little smaller than I imagined, but nonetheless, I still enjoyed my time there.

Such pretty steps!

Walking in...I was immediately welcomed by Mr. Nichkhun of 2PM (OMG..can't believe I spelled his name right on the first try!!), so of course I had to take a picture with him! =) 

This is an overall picture of what one side of Madang Plaza looks like. (Definitely does not do the plaza justice lol) The plaza kinda reminded me of a school campus, and where I stood would be the courtyard. There was a Daiso, Paris Baguette, Curry House, CGV Cinema, and many other stores that I don't know the name of: restaurants, cosmetic stores, boba tea houses & book stores!

I didn't end up buying anything at this plaza, but I did get to try Curry House for the very first time!

And here's me... posing with the curry house menu haha. =) What do you guys usually order there? 

There were so many options to choose from! I love how literally every dish came with a picture! 

The meal started with salad as an appetizer.

 (The dressing was amazing... wish I knew where to buy it!)

My friend ordered a Hayashi Omelette Rice. 

Super delicious and it looked exactly like how the picture on the menu did! =) 

I ordered the Tarako & Ika Japanese Style Spaghetti.

Again, this dish looked exactly like the picture and tasted amazing! (I love fishy food...so I wouldn't recommend this dish to you if you're not a fishy foodie like me =)..this was probably even fishier than tuna from a can!) 

happy happy happy!!!!

My friend had planned on going to a specific cafe in Koreatown near Madang Plaza, but because we were so stuffed, we decided to take a stroll around the area. We passed by countless stores and a few small plazas, but eventually decided to head back since the weather was blazing hot that day. 

The cafe that I've been dying to try is Caffe Bene!

I've walked by it once before...but sadly didn't get to experience it... so I guess you can say that going to this cafe was one of the highlights of my day!

The exterior and entrance was completely made of glass. Each glass panel featured amazing decals of the cafe's drinks and desserts, which made going in even more irresistible.. especially on a hot Summer day! 

Had to take a picture of their doorknob! Isn't this the coolest one you've ever seen? (At least for me it was! =) )

I loved and still love the overall ambiance of this place; it gave a super low-key yet cool vibe! The entire interior dominated with two types of textures: cement & wood. I think wood was the accent that completed the whole ambiance though... there were wooden bookshelves, walls, chairs, tables, counters... you name it! =) 

I'll just let the pictures do it's own talk from the ones on. Enjoy! =) 

I'm such a huge fan of K-pop and Korean dramas, so it always excites me whenever I see ads with actors and idols that I am familiar with!

The prices definitely weren't cheap, but I think the overall experience was definitely worth it! Can you guess which one was mine? 

My friend ordered the Affogato Vanilla Ice-Cream! Maybe I'm super deprived..but I've never seen ice-cream eaten that way! (But now I have!)

Cool Right? =)

And here's mine.. the Misugaru Latte! Definitely less exciting, but it was nonetheless super yummy... and might I say.. healthy?! 

After enjoying our drinks at Caffe Bene, we went to the last stop of our journey.. the Koreatown Galleria! I've actually been to this place a few times, so I really wanted to share it with my friend! I didn't get a chance to take many pictures here, but I guess that's alright, right? =) The galleria had 3 stories! 1st- Super Market, 2nd - Shopping & 3rd - Shopping and Food Court! 

Went into a cosmetic store on the 2nd floor!

Couldn't help but take a picture with Ms. Park Shin Hye...my favorite Korean Actress of all time!

And here's a picture of Son Na Eun from A-Pink! My friend actually purchased a lip-tint from the brand she's endorsed in! 

We saved the Super Market visit for last, and surprisingly had one of the most enjoyable times there! Food always excites me, and it didn't help to be surrounded with free samples all over the place!

I have to admit that I am a foodie...and snacks always excite me! My favorite aisle was the snack section of course and omgosh did I want to buy everything they had there! 

They had a lot of sales going on... and I regret not buying more! haha 

And guess what I found???? GREEN TEA KIT KAT... probably my favorite chocolate ever! I couldn't believe how cheap it was too! $4.99!! I went to Glendale Galleria the other day, and they sold it for over $10!! 

They even sold the coolest looking Cheetohs!

And my childhood corn chips! 

Outside of the Koreatown Galleria supermarket was a bakery that I have no idea what the name is! My family loves the Red Bean Sugar donuts from this place, so I bought a few for them as souvenirs!

And that's the end of the journey and Koreatown Galleria! As you can see I didn't end up buying that much stuff! Fun Fact: I was debating on whether to show you guys this picture cause I look so awkward in it..but then I decided.. "Why Not?".

So that basically concludes my adventure in Koreatown, Los Angeles! Maybe it's been too long since I've posted an adventure entry...but I think this is by far the longest one yet! Truthfully, there were slightly frustrating times that day, since we were unfamiliar with streets and parking. Nonetheless all of it was part of a valuable experience, and I felt happy to have established so many wonderful memories! 

Thanks for reading my blog, and I hope to share more adventures with you guys in the future! 

- xoxo, 

Wing

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