I started my search in vain, because as we *all* knooow...anything that is Japanese or gyaru-related costs a fortune! (For poor people like me, that is.) I was sad and I almost gave up, but then I stumbled across an Etsy store called “Aya’s Kawaii mono ya san”!
A set of nails for only $20?! I couldn’t believe my eyes!
And to think that some stores sell one set for $40... 
It turns out that most of the prices in this store hover around $18-23, but some are even less!
The girl behind this Etsy store is named Aya, and she is a licensed, professional nail tech from Japan. She makes these fake nails in her spare time. A portion of her nails are ready-to-ship, but many are actually made-to-order. She also accepts customization requests! For that, I would recommend browsing her flickr (here) which is a ginormous archive of all her nail creations. That's what I did!
Here are the two that I ordered:
Pink Bunny 3D Nails, Customized: $19.80
The second one was technically a custom order, since I had found it off of her flickr and wanted a gradient on the base. That’s why the price I paid is different from the one on the listing ($21.00).
Shipping: Two items to the US was $3.00, and it took only a week.
Communication: Great! Aya is very kind, but professional/formal during the order process when I contacted her about sizing and customization. She responded within a day. She’s also fluent in English, so miscommunication is not a problem. :)
It came in a little envelope:
The contents of the baggie:
The nails themselves:
In case you couldn't tell, the set comes with 12 nails, not 10!
Colors are true to life under bright indoor lighting. At least, in my screen they are!
1.) Bare, fat sausagey fingers:
Here are some closeups: (click on them to see the big version!)
If you look closely, you'll see that there is a bit of a handmade touch to them, and I don't mean this in a bad way! I'm mentioning this in case it matters to anyone ^^
Color Deviation: So there is a bit of color deviation from the product photos: In the rose buds from the first set, the lighter shade of pink is slightly fluorescent in real life. It doesn't show up in pictures, but imagine a neon highlighter!
In the second set, the colors are more saturated than the product photos--but as you can see, they're actually much lighter than they appear when in the box!
Rhinestones Falling Off: Very good! Thanks to the thick UV-gel top coat, most of it is very secure. The only exception is the large pink gem on the bunny nails. The pinky one fell off when I was applying and the others fell off when I was pushing them to test their adherence.
I think this was inevitable though, considering the size of the gem. It’s so big and flat, you really can’t get good surface area to stick because the nails are so curved:
But again, everything else is fine! Even those chunky bows on the French nails aren't going anywhere~
I am very satisfied and will definitely order again! The price, quality, and customer service all make me very happy.
Here are some of the nails I want to get next!
Ouph, I want the first two so so badly! UGH! They just match the winter/Christmas season too perfectly! Maybe my boyfriend will buy them for me as a Christmas gift~~~?
So if you're interested, Aya's store is here:
It seems that she's having a 10% coupon going on right now! :)
These nails will make another appearance in my next two entries, so stay tuned!
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