Fish Egg Friday – Ebiko Sushi Mani

A couple of nights ago, I saw Sammy from The Nailasaurus discussing with another blogger on Twitter about doing a mass post featuring a ‘fish egg’ manicure. They were planning it for Friday and naming it Fish Egg Friday.

If you’re also in the Asia Pacific region, it should already be Saturday when this post goes ‘live’. Nevertheless, I decided to stick with the time the other bloggers have decided on, so that we all go ‘live’ at the same time!

Fish eggs immediately bring to mind sushi. And since the beads I found were so tiny, they seem more like prawn eggs to me! Hence, I’ve named my look the Ebiko Sushi Mani!

The main purpose of this mass posting, this, is to share with our readers cheaper ways to create a ‘fish egg’ manicure. I don’t know who came up with such an idea, but Dashing Diva showed it at Fashion Week in 2011.

I have to admit that it was not as easy to find microbeads in Singapore as it seems to be in the USA and Europe. Or perhaps I did not look at the right places.

Anyway, I searched Popular, the biggest stationary chain in Singapore, including their huge main store at Bras Basah Complex. I also searched Art Friend, the biggest art and craft supply store locally. I looked through their craft section twice and their art section once (in Bras Basah Complex), but to no avail.

Finally, I decided to give the Art Friend branch at Ngee Ann City a try and finally struck gold! Well, maybe just a tiny little goldmine. I found 30g packs of really tiny beads by a brand called Knorr Prandell. There were only four colours available – silver, gold, red, and green. I decided on the red since it would allow me to do a sushi mani!

The beads cost S$4.50 a pack (~US$3.30), but you get 10% off if you’re an Art Friend member, which I am. If you want to get some for yourself, it’s in the same section as the craft glitters, which is in the same aisle as some candle-making materials.

A friend offered to pass me some of the microbeads she bought on Ebay if I could not find any. She sent me a photo of her beads and they’re really pretty pastel ones. So that may be a source you want to check out. Perhaps Gmarket too? If I do come across more sources, I’ll update on my Facebook page and Twitter. I will definitely keep an eye out for these beads from now on!

My Ebiko Sushi Mani

Finally, on to my mani! Ebiko is Japanese for prawn roe, if you don’t already know. I wanted to do an interpretation of the colours of a piece of ebiko sushi on my nails.

To tie in with the theme, I broke out my still-unused bottle of Nails Inc Kensington Caviar base coat. This base coat comes in a pretty coral colour. It actually matches my ebiko, thus I chose to hold it for some of my photos.

Ebiko Sushi Mani

On my middle and little fingers, I did the ‘seaweed’. I used Illamasqua Rampage as the base colour, which was perfect to layer Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed over. This sushi is definitely not meant to be eaten!

For my index and ring fingers, I first did one coat of Orly Au Champagne. When I was ready to add the microbeads, I applied a thickish coat of Au Champagne on one nail. Then I used a small spoon to pour the microbeads onto the wet polish. I did this over a container to catch the excess beads. When I was satisfied with the coverage, I lightly tapped the beads to get them to set in the polish. I then repeated it for the other nail.

You will need to pour the beads on before the polish started drying. I had some difficulty getting them to stay on the tips, which might have started drying before the beads were placed.

Also, I think that because of how tiny the beads were, I could not get the complete coverage other bloggers seemed to be able to achieve. That did not bother me though, for it allowed the white of Au Champagne to show through, like the rice in an actual sushi!

A couple more photos.

Ebiko Sushi Mani

Ebiko Sushi Mani

This is a close-up look of the beads on the nail.

This actually reminds me of Nerds! Incidentally, I thought of getting Nerds as a last resort if I really could not find the beads :p

This mani turned out easier and more fun than I had anticipated. I cannot wait to see what the other bloggers come up with, especially since they are likely to have more experience with nail art than me.

These are the other bloggers who are part of this mass posting event:

• Anna (http://prettydigits.blogspot.co.uk)
• Cristina (http://www.letthemhavepolish.com/2012/04/black-and-white-challenge-day-five.html)
• Danielle (http://rocknpolish.blogspot.co.uk)
• Emily (http://lacquerologist.blogspot.co.uk)
• Esther (http://fabfingertips.blogspot.co.uk)
• Ivana (http://zabranjeni-grad.blogspot.co.uk)
• Jeanette (http://the-swatchaholic.com)
• Lauretta (http://alacqueredaffair.onsugar.com)
• Melissa (http://melissawhitenails.blogspot.co.uk)
• Salla  (http://www.polish-em.net)
• Sammy (http://nailasaurus.blogspot.com)

Have fun checking their posts out!

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