Monday, November 30, 2009

Nail Art: Evolved through Generations

Nail Art is driving generations to generations. Starting from the late 3000 BC until now, year 2009. It's interesting and fun to know how nail art designing came to the present. From simple nail coloring to creative and wild imagination comes to a result of very fascinating form of art.

Nail Art from early age is a form of knowing the social status and position in life. Before, nail art and manicure is only done only by royalties and high-class people. Painting nails with red signifies of being a king or queen and other people are not allowed to paint it with the same color that their king and queen has. During the 3000 BC, there is a huge discrimination between rich and poor. They can classify it according to the color of the nails. Men and women are separated and grouped according to their nails. But now, it is not like that. Nowadays, people mostly women paint their nails to look beautiful and attractive. Women became so conscious on how to be attractive to men. Men on the other side, do manicures to keep their nails clean and free from bacterias. But that doesn't mean that they are gays!

Here is a time line of how Nail Art has been evolved through generations:

3000 BC – China made the first nail polish. India made the first art guided by their henna and putting dyes on their nails and body. Japanese and Italians are the first who used nail polishes to paint their nails.

1932 – French Revlon company was founded. First who used pigments instead of dyes. First to offer women rich-looking, opaque nail enamel in different shades that's never been available before.

1986 – Lorrie Fisher at the age of 28 won the first place in Goddess Finger Nail and Toe Art Show in Las Vegas, painting the whole story of the Wizard of Oz on a real three-inch-long fingernails. She was the first to design different pictures and characters to the fingernails for weddings and holiday events.

1989 – January 01, 1989 when Del Monico put artificial nails on a nail biter and later on, artificial nails has been use by salons and women for nail art designing.

1998 – The Nail Express first transferred pictures from photos to fingernails.

2000 – First to have nail art in toenails since before nail art is only done in hands. Women who is more conservative has applied it to toenails rather than hand fingernails. It is also the year when hospitals had banned nurses to wear artificial nails due to causing deaths for patients and babies. Doctors had discovered that bacterias and germs stays in between the artificial nails and this causes complication to open wounds, patients that are prone to diseases and sterilized tools used in the hospital.

2003 – When first 3D nail art designs has been published. Within one hour only, women can have 3D pictures on their nails.

2005 – When gel nails got so popular in Japan and France. It is known for being the “virtual nails in the land of the rising sun”.

2006 – When first digital nail art has been made. Computers and machines are the ones who's doing nail art. Fast and easy way to design your nails. Over hundreds of picture to choose from in the internet. From flowers to characters or even personalized pictures.

2009 – Nowadays, more and more women are getting interested in having their nails designed, whether to have artificial nails or just having it done to their natural nails, they still crave for it. Nail art is getting more and more popular than before, because of science and technology, nail art can be done in different forms of art and can be done in a very quick way.

If you want to have stunning, breathtaking, and glamorous fingernails, contact me now at biancasantosnailartdecals@gmail.com and I'll do the fingernail make-over for you! Contact me now and have the most amazing nails ever!

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Nail Art History

Nail Art History is not so easy to investigate because there are lots of contradicting theories about nail arts.

Nail Art History is one of the ways where we can know where really nail art originated. Some says that Japanese are the ones who practiced it first, some says that Italians did, and some says that it's the Chinese who did it first.

Nail Art is the most versatile and the latest fashion among most women nowadays. As for many other art forms like body paint, face paint and others, nail art also requires wild imagination and creativity, and with this, it gives way to the mind to do unique and enduring designs and patterns on the nails.

The various forms of nail art trends to include nail polish mainly to color fingernails and toenails. During 5000 years ago, India has been very popular and known for henna and using barks of trees to dye and manicure their nails. Manicure is a cosmetic beauty treatment that can treat just hands, just nails, or can be both, and later on applied by nail polishes and includes nail filing and shaping the nails. It is usually done and enjoyed not only by women but men as well.

Traced back to 3000 B.C., the first nail polish has been made in China. Chinese created varnishes and lacquers for the nails and with the advance form of science and technology, many other forms of nail art with other forms of quality, finish and beautiful colors came into existence. During 600 B.C., Chinese royalties often choose gold and silver to enhance their nails but after the 15 centuries, royalties then chose black and red and had been used over the centuries previous.

Egyptians also did the same thing as Chinese did but the difference is they use reddish brown. Egyptians also used nails colors to signify the social order of their people with shades of red at the top. Kings and Queens colored their fingernails and toenails ruby red and Cleopatra chose a deep rust red. Women of lower rank only allows to color their nails pale hues.

There isn't much things recorded about nail polishes up to the 19th century. Until now, nail polishes and nail art are very popular. A lot of women are very trendy and stylish when it comes to their nails. Not only women but also men are getting conscious about how their nail looks like. Nail art history really did made a big help for us to make look our nails beautiful and attractive.

You can also contact me at biancasantosnailartdecals@gmail.com if you want your nails to look gorgeous and very attractive. Contact me now and let's make your nails the most dashing nails you'll ever seen!

Nail Art History

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Nail Art Decals and Contact Center of the Philippines

Nail Art Decals and Contact Center of the Philippines went to the World Trade Center yesterday to celebrate the “After Shift Call Center Agents Day” organized by Armie Duarte's team. Over 50 call center companies celebrated and jammed with the battle of the bands featuring “Parokya Ni Edgar” and “Chicosi”, watched models ramped the stage, went gaga with the lights, lasers and effects, and lots of girls went nuts having their fingernails done with different kinds of designs.

This was actually my first ever event I had since I started having my Nail Art Decals business. Within just >a few weeks of starting my business, Philippine Call Centers gave me a chance to share my fingernail art. During a 6 hour non-stop fingernail designing marathon, I had a long queue of girls wanting their fingernails to be done and made them so happy after transforming their fingernails from plain and no-polish fingernails to the most dashing and gorgeous fingernails they ever had! And this didn't cost them anything at all, I specially gave this service for FREE!

Surprisingly, I had a number of nail costumers wanting their fingernails to be beautiful too. I never thought beforehand that one quarter of my costumers would be male and this opens up a whole new world to me. Wow fantastic!

Thank you so much for the people who helped me out in the event especially to Tim Bennett and Armie Duarte and of course, to the Contact Center of the Philippines who made it possible for me to advertise my company be introduced to lots of other companies in the event.

Hope to see you and your nails soon at your upcoming events, parties, weddings, or other celebrations that you may have.

Contact me now at biancasantosnailartdecals@gmail.com and book your event!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Mirror, Mirror on the wall...Who's nails are fairest of them all??

“Mirror Mirror on the wall...
who's the fairest of them all?”

If you are like me, you have stood in front of the mirror thousands of times and asked yourself that question and of course every woman wants the same answer..

“You!”

Us girls are a vain bunch, we spend millions of dollars between us each year trying to look beautiful and when we finish don't we look “the bees knees!”

I want to look beautiful too and since I was a kid I have always painted and colored my nails, sometimes all different colors much to my mom's horror! As a young girl I used to sit and watch her having her nails cleaned and buffed like some kind of princess in a movie and I wanted that treatment too. I used crayons and water color paints at the time because I didn't know what nail polish was!

Even the cat got done sometimes! Ha Ha

I have always been artistic. I loved art at school and the teachers would often find me looking up to the heavens in yet another “Bianca Nail Polish Adventure” as I day dreamed the day away as some super agent saving the world but with wonderfully painted nails!

When I got home, I painted my Supergirl nails with simple designs of a two matching colors until with practice I was using toothpicks and needles to draw miniature flowers and other colorful designs. I was the most colorful kid on the block and the envy of all my friends who eventually begged me to do their nails too. Famous at last!

But you know how it is...as we grow we forget our dream and our passions and school drums into us that we get a job and stop daydreaming and with my crushed fantasies I became part of the daily never ending job seeking students until I ended up in the dreaded call center world!

Big money they promised – but in reality I was just a small cog in their machine to make them loads of money exploiting me and my ambitions at the same time. Long hours accompanied by eye bags and lack of sleep soon became the norm and when I stood in front of the mirror and said “Mirror Mirror on the wall...” the mirror screamed, broke and fell to the floor in pieces.

The dream was gone, my nails were chipped and I was loosing Bianca to the system of the call center!

Does my story remind you of you at all? Crushed dreams and no future? But my story is not meant to make you feel bad, but rather to inspire you to follow your dreams as my story changes like all stories that start with “once upon a time...”

Once upon a time, there was a small 19 year old call center girl with chipped nails and a broken dream...

And then I met a guy who would change my life not only as a love, but also as an inspiration. As we sat in the house, he noticed that I spent hours always painting my nails. No sooner was I finished than I would paint again another color and it was he that suggested that I quit my job in the call center and turn my talent into a passion and a business.
And so was born the “baby” of Nail Art Decals, my very own business and only 19 years old!

Nail Art Decals is my future, not only will I bring joy to thousands of women just like you and me, but I will also be able to plan my future financially and obtain my dreams and passions. How nice to be the little girl painting my friends again.

Presently I am setting up two bases. One in Manila and the other in Boracay a beautiful island of sand, sun and an endless supply of wealthy customers looking for more beauty. Just what I needed and at the same time, I can enjoy the beach when I am not working. Not a bad place for my 1st office!

I do not want you to think that this was easy for me. It was not. I had almost no money to buy my brushes and tools of the trade and I needed to pay for permits and licenses and I had to borrow money to get going, but I believed in me and I believed in my passion – and the help of my man!

I was running 3 jobs at this time, call center agent, freelance nail artist and also working in a salon to make ends meet, but in the end I took the plunge, dropped the other work and focused 100% on my own nail business.

I wanted to associate myself with the big hotels in Manila and it took all my courage to approach them, but the rejection really got me down as they turned me away with another “No!” after “No!” but then I remembered “getting a “no” for an answer must not make me feel disappointed thus this must make me feel happy because for every “no” is a step leading me forward to reach “yes”.

And so, I always plan every day which hotels and which companies I need to go to so as not to forget anything and in my travels I was drawn to a shop called IANTI.

My attraction to them grew as I saw they had the polish I was looking for to complement my business.

One day, I went to IANTI and asked about the benefits of being one of their agents and if they already opened their shop in SM. IANTI, it is a company that supplies and sells products such as make-ups, nail polishes, Tupperware, etc. So then, to make the story short, I met the owner of IANTI, named: Ms. Maridel, swapped contact details and had a very nice conversation. And until now, we still do have nice conversation aside from just talking about business.

So this is how I started my own company, with the help from Tim (my man) and friends and of course IANTI. Maybe without them helping me I might not have given it a go and set up it all correctly, because first of all, I didn't have any idea how to run a business because I'm working as an employee and not as an owner and I didn't have any idea about nail arts being a business because I thought it's just a normal thing going on in the world.

This is how I fell in love with my business, it's not only because I'm the owner but it's because I like and I love doing what I'm doing, designing nails. The business might be new, but for my part, as a nail artist, I've been doing it for years. I didn't study how to design nails, it's just one of my hobbies and dreams that became a reality.

And now When I look in the Mirror...I know the answer already!

And if your mirror doesn't give you the answer that you want, email me at biancasantosnailartdecals@gmail.com and I can set my magic brushes into action so you get a resounding “YOU”.