Last weekend I was invited to visit a Japanese hair and nail salon in Prahran called Tsumiki Design. I’ve decided not to go to many events this year because I want to focus more on crafting and having time for James and myself but when I got the invitation for the Tsumiki event I couldn’t RSVP fast enough… a Japanese salon!? With stylists specialising in Japanese techniques!? And Japanese nail art!? YES PLEASE!
I’d honestly given up looking for a place like this in Aus a long time ago after several bad experiences but I always get my hopes up when something new hair or nail related comes up so my brain said full steam ahead 😀
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We relaxed on the beautiful antique looking couches and flicked through Japanese magazines looking at hair and nail designs. They had all of my favorite magazines including Nail Up and ViVi. At this point I also starting making mental notes of the decorations in the place because I kind of want our dream house in this style XD I have couch-envy: I know I need to stop posting decor photos and start talking about my experience but SO PRETTY!
After everyone arrived and we had settled in with our magazines and drinks we were introduced to the salon owner Taka, his stylists and the representative for Yuko straightening system.
We watched a video of a model getting her hair treated with the system and the change was pretty amazing, I have frizzy hair so it’s something I’ve always wondered about doing so watching the video made me want to learn more about it. I tend to like the volume my frizz gives though because it makes my hair look like cotton candy so I don’t know if I could commit to completely straight silky hair, I’d love to see how easy it is to curl and style treated hair afterward though. Have any of you guys tried this kind of system? Did you enjoy the results? Next we all broke off to get treatments done, some girls went to get their hair styled while the rest of us went for nails. Celina was first up for nails because she needed to leave early and I sat in on her appointment to watch and take some photos 😀 The nail artist at Tsumiki is none other than Clara H who has a great reputation around Melbourne for doing the best Japanese style 3D artwork. I’d seen her work before online and she’d been recommended to me so I was excited to see her work and get to experience it first hand!
She did little flowers on Celina’s fingers and they looked lovely. She needed something work appropriate and the end result looked really beautiful.
I was next in line for nails but unfortunately I had some stick-ons which I’d hastily done that morning thinking there wouldn’t be enough time for us all to get our nails done. Because of the time constraints Clara removed my stick ons and redid some nicer ones with a beautiful floral bow design. She invited me to come back when there wasn’t a time limit so she could try out something more over the top and do full acrylics. I can’t wait to show you all the other set she did, they are AWESOME! Hint: they are themed on a certain bunny mascot who’s name begins with B and ends with ERGAMOT 😀
Wall of TINS polish… now I have polish envy too! XD
There were very fancy Hors D’oeuvres too by a famous local chef.
While we got our nails done the other girls were being treated to head massages and cut/colour/treatments. I was last through the hair area I think and it was nice because it gave me a chance to chat to the stylists as well as Taka himself!
I was given a shampoo and a lovely head massage then they completely blow dried my hair straight. Zomg it looks so long straight! Especially since I just cut a bunch of it off *_*
I didn’t want to do a cut/colour at the time so Taka suggested doing big crazy waves for styling instead and I loved that idea because I’ve never seen myself with waves. They had 3 stylists working to wave each section and tease it up with powders, it was so much fun watching the transformation in the mirror! I loved the style, it reminded me of Kumickey’s older mermaid hair 😀 SO CUTE! Actually having my hair like this makes me think getting a perm so I could do it properly for a few months!
Mermaid!
Once everyone was styled and had beautiful nails we were given a lot of information about the different products and sponsors of the store and I found quite a few products in the gift bag which I was interested in especially the Yuko Aqua G Base Hair Water which I’ve already started using.
So overall, I felt like a princess the entire time I was at the salon. The design and fit out really give a feeling of luxury and I found it really easy to drift off and relax in such a nice setting. The staff were genuinely friendly and really went out of their way to make our stay relaxing. I know it wasn’t just politeness put on for the event too because when I went back to get my nails done by Clara today every single one of them remembered me, asked questions following on from last time and were just as lovely. So yes I would totally recommend both the salon section and the nail section if you’re interested in Japanese styles and techniques. It was very cool to be in a salon that had magazines I actually read and whose stylists knew all of the trends and styles I see online. I’m absolutely looking forward to going back when my budget allows for it! Thank you so much to everyone at Tsumiki for such a wonderful day and making my hair awesome! Thank you to Clara H for super cute nail art, I can’t wait to show you all the finished proper acrylics she did for me today!! Bonus shot… CHAIR ENVY POSING! >:D
Double bonus shot, while I was getting my nails done today Taka showed us this video of a day in his life that his wife made from their FB page, it’s so funny! Totally gangster XD |
