A few best gel nail polish art ideas from japanese beauty magazines.

I often browse the web for Japanese nail magazine scans looking for nail art ideas online because Japan has some of the best and brightest nail art in the world.

Some scans that I've found are pretty old but nail art ideas in them never go out of style. They are still good today.

These designs still can be recreated with gel nail polish.

The best nail magazine in Japan is NailUp. It has a lot of step by step instructions for all kinds of nail art ideas. The manicures that are published in this magazine are made by Japanese nail technicians from the top nail salons in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.

Japanese mags often use regular nail lacquer polishes but I prefer gel nail polishes because your manicure will stay longer if you use them, and they won't dry on their own without a UV lamp while you are still creating your design. You can correct the lines and your art here and there and then dry it with the lamp.

The scans are in Japanese, but they are easy to pick up even without knowing the language because they have a lot of detailed step by step photos. It's as if you're reading a manga or a comic.

The first few scans are from Hiiyooitscat Beauty Blog. She has the most detailed and picture heavy nail magazine scans that I've found. You can also often find them pinned on Pinterest if you go looking for Japanese nail art ideas there.



The products used in this scan are CND and OPI nail polishes. They are really the best gel nail polishes you can find im stores. My favorite is the Bijou pattern striped pastel French manicure with a large single diamond. And with gel nail polishes, making these stripes should be a breeze, they won't dry before you paint them on perfectly and correct any errors in their application with a brush and remover or alcohol.



Another scan from the same issue of NailUp. I think it's very easy to re-create this manicure because it's just a thick coat of bright yellow gel nail polish and some decals. The decals look like tiny newspaper cutouts. They may be only available in Japan. In any case, I haven't been able to find them here. But you can substitute them with any other nail stickers with small pieces of black text on a white background. And star metal decorations are available on amazon.com.



This is a nice scan on nail and hand care. The girl in the scans looks a lot like Ayumi Hamasaki, the popular Japanese star who loves to wear nail art. The scans tell you to use a hand scrub, a cuticle oil, and a hand cream. The pics are pretty self-explanatory. I'm sure you won't have any problems with understanding them because all the product bottles pictured have names in english written on them. And again, these pictures look like comic books. So you can see evertything in the pictures, without any supporting text.



This scan comes from a Wordpress blog called Nevertoomuchglitter.

These are just lots of nice ideas for Halloween nail art without any step by steps or anything like that. Just some inspiration for you. If you know how to paint and draw nail art with gel nail polishes then you may figure out how to do all these designs on your own. The scan is pretty old, from 2013. But Halloween nail art never goes out of fashion. The scans come from another lovely Japanese nail art magazine named Nail Max. Unfortunately, the magazine has ceased publication and its website is unavailable. It's great that someone captured its ideas in scans.

I like to browse Japanese magazine scans on the LiveJournal community called JMagazine Scans. Most of the stuff there is fashion-related. But you can find nail art magazine scans here and there. I suggest using tags to find mags like NailUp and Nail Max.

As of now, the community is not too active but still it has excellent archives. Some of the sites that had magazine scans are down though.

I also like to browse Pinterest for nail art ideas and even for some of the scans. There are some pictures from Japanese mags uploaded to Pinterest too.

None of the scans are translated in any of the communities or on Pinterest. But they are really easy to understand from pictures alone.

New seasons brings change, and we face the sudden awareness that we need to make some room in our cosmetics bag or stock-up on latest Summer/Spring arrivals. Well, while you’re thinking about your spending, the magazine media offers plenty of freebies in most events you join, so why not you too take advantage of the good things?



Last week’s (March) edition of VOGUE JAPAN came with a fold-out find list of some essentials that every makeup addict must have. From brushes to lip gloss, lashes and eyeshadow, it’s a wide range. The find list is part of a summer-only issue, so you have the whole year to go through it.

In recent months we’ve been seeing many freebies not so frequently, such as free gift with purchase, promotions on beauty articles or last minute travel deals etc. Usually we only get to know about them much after the event, and all we can do is to keep an eye out, or have a phone ready to receive a text, at the same time giving you a tiny respite when you look at a freebie here and there and think ‘damn, I hope I’ll see one tomorrow, because I’ve used it already!’, or miss out on a travel deal because you looked on a freebie website the day before.

I’ve been there, so as usual, I looked for freebies online only two days before reading the magazine, this time it was one of those instances when I actually had it folded in the magazine and not on the cover or spread all over the pages. (We all know what you mean – it just hurts when you need to remember the approximate page you’ve seen the freebie on!)

That said, with at least the attempt to justify the looks, sometimes you can pick up your free gifts even when you’re distracted, and it doesn’t feel wrong. Or as the Japanese express it, yuru zo zainichi or ‘we want to look trendy and trendy people are affordable’.

Earlier this year I picked up free Garnier Mini Supre Body Cushion Blush Combo, which made my face look so spot on all those sunny days!

You may be lucky and be able to find an alternative, for example K-Palette Soothing Comfort Eye Liner gives the usual pink colour plus a glowy tone, but with more comfortable tip that I use it for liner and smudge so that I don’t have to be afraid of rubbing it off in the future, thus something important if I decide to use it for the rest of my life. It also doubles as a brow-humper for my stray brows that wouldn’t want to go away, for the life of me. We also saw a limited edition Garnier lash mascara last year, and a liquid liner where Garnier logo was incorporated, the shade wasn’t known so some people found it missing but I have no recollection of how it looks.

However for different reasons, sometimes you may be disappointed with a freebie you paid your hard earned money for. The previous two Garnier products have always resulted in feeling really good with the end product, but the Star Olive SS02 Shampoo & Ultra Repair Conditioner I tried did not fill my insecurities and reduce my crazy hairs from walking around throughout the day without feeling comfortable. I did test the dry shampoo and only went back to Garnier because of so many ads for it and the products, I don’t even remember if I was actually drawn to the free sample or the cost was enough to make me choose another shampoo.

When I first saw the Japanese cosmetics brand, It’s Raining, my first thought was “how can this not be available in America?” As a big fan of Japanese products, I decided to see if they were available at Ulta.

I was so surprised at how quickly I found this brand! They have a huge selection of products that are available at Ulta right now. I ended up getting the It’s Raining Purity Cleansing Cream, which is a cleansing cream that’s available in 3 colors:

– Green Tea –

– Vanilla –

– Orange –

This cleansing cream is supposed to help brighten and soften your skin. It says that it’s suitable for all skin types and even sensitive skin. The cleansing cream feels very natural when applied, but it does have a slight tingling sensation. The packaging of the cleansing cream is made out of a sturdy material, and the packaging is very simple, which I love.

I was impressed with this cleansing cream. It’s light, but not too light. I think that it makes my skin feel clean and fresh all day long. If you have normal or combination skin, I think that this cleansing cream is a must have in your beauty routine!

Have you ever tried Japanese skincare products? How do you like them? Are there any products that I should try? Let me know in the comments!

Look what I've found! Youtube people are very creative! It's an ASMR video of someone looking through a Japanese beauty magazine.

This girl is Japanese and she is looking through Koakuma Ageha magazine.

It's a magazine for Japanese nightclub hostesses, to be honest.

Still, I love this magazine too because it shows a lovely girly style of clothing and makeup. The girls in it look like real princesses with all their curly locks and floral and lace dresses.

Don't confuse this style with Gothic Lolita, it's a different style, which is unique in its own right.

Watch it here:

Wow! I really love this! One of the best features of Maquia is their color catalogs of cosmetics where you can find new releases from popular brands, including Western ones, like Tom Ford and Dolce & Gabbana. And, of course, Korean and Japanese ones, like Etude House (my personal favorite).

The catalog contains all the spring release swatches for all these brands. It's absolutely amazing! This catalog is a real gem!

Here's the link: https://maquia.hpplus.jp/catalog/newcolor/