In this Issue No. 10 - Nail design

Simply type in #nailpolish as tag search on Instagram and you will see more than 280,000 pictures of people's uploaded nail art and polish stashes. Look around in the blogosphere and you'll find tons of written instructions and video tutorials shared by people who are getting increasingly creative with their nail designs, almost to a point where nail technicians are no longer needed. From water marbling to using dotting tools to spot-on movie character recreations, nail art is becoming increasingly more sophisticated as jaw-droppingly amazing designs are conceptualized and carried out every single day. This ain't your mama's nail polish any more. Nail art has come into its own as an alternative form of artistic expression that is gaining serious respect.

Personal websites such as All Lacquered Up, Vampy Varnish and The Daily Nail are just a few examples that document the amazing things that can be done with polish. In much the same way that personal style blogs really took off, nail bloggers are attracting corporate sponsors, PR pros and advertisers to their sites due to the large amount of traffic from viewers.

Though inspiration can be found everywhere for ideas on nail art, I liked InStyle's August 2011 spread on "10 New Style Statements" which featured a dark maroon and gold nail combo. Even though the style statement that goes along with the picture is about the new trend of long nails, I simply liked the color combo and the fresh approach to a slightly off-kilter french manicure.

 

The version I carried out was a bit different than that seen above, but the inspiration is still there.. I did the reverse french manicure using a dark maroon for the base and a shimmery gold for the crescent of the nail, and I really loved how it turned out.