12/4/2013 LOS ANGELES — Whether it ’ s bantam Union Jacks, dinner jacket, stripes, crystal flowers or caviar pearls, nail down art has gone mainstream .
no farseeing relegated to the subculture sidelines or the subject of jeer, nail down art has become an casual indulgence, and not precisely for aureate pop music stars like Nicki Minaj and Lady Gaga. It ’ s been sported by Britain ’ south Princess Eugenie, wear to the White House Correspondents ’ Association Dinner and shown up at the Golden Globe Awards .
“ Nail art has been around for years, but in kitschy ways, like a Santa Claus or a Christmas tree on your little finger nail, ” says Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, creative film director of OPI. “ But in the last five years, the emphasis on breeze through design has been huge. … Nails are an accessary. ”

Nail art is share of a larger vogue of individualize self-expression that includes tattoo, body pierce and raving mad, irregular hair color — all of which is being driven in no little contribution by our cultural compulsion to share-and-compare on YouTube, blogs and social media .
Welcome to the era of what might be called Kustom Beauty, doing for the individual what the southern California Kustom Kulture movement did for flashy hot rods .
“ Nail art has about crept into the mainstream a couple of times, ” says Linda Wells, editor program in chief of Allure cartridge holder. “ The closest call came when hip-hop artists Mary J. Blige and Missy Elliott were doing collar art with crazy designs like dollar bills and interior designer logos in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But then it disappeared. ”
now it ’ s not alone back, it ’ s booming. As of June 10, consumer outgo on nail products and accessories at the mass-market level had increased 23 percentage over the former year to more than $ 1 billion, according to Symphony IRI Group, a Chicago-based market research firm. And the number of breeze through salons countrywide doubled between 1997 and 2007 .
The boom is due in character to nail engineering advances. “ People can do this at home, ” Wells says. “ It doesn ’ thyroxine want going to the salon for four hours. possibly you can ’ t do Katy Perry ’ s three-d flowers at home, but you can do other things. Sally Hanson has stick-ons that look good because they are not stickers, they are made of nail lacquer, and they are compromising. ”
OPI recently released its beginning nail decals. Called OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps, they come in 14 designs, including rattlesnake, lace and fishnet prints, for $ 11.95 per package. Each kit contains 16 pre-cut appliques, which require merely trimming once they are stuck on the nails .
Gel-color manicures, which are baked on using UV light and death two to three times longer than a regular manicure, allow for durable decoration, including gradiated glitter and stripes, equally well as crystal and spell appliques .
The fashion world has embraced — and stoked — the nail art tendency. polish and cosmetics brands partner with manner designers to create raw colors and patterns that are presented during the fashion labels ’ runway shows in global manner capitals such as Milan, Italy ; Paris ; and New York. At New York Fashion Week in February, for example, MAC cosmetics created custom velvet-flocked nail tips for the bully presentation. For the Kate Spade indicate, nail pro Deborah Lippmann designed polka acid breeze through art. And, front-row regular, blogger and model Alexa Chung wowed the manner crowd with the Egyptian-style hieroglyphic eyeballs painted on her nails. YouTube how-to videos immediately sprang up teaching people how to get the count .
“ Years ago, you never used to see nail polish on the runways, ” Weiss-Fischmann says. “ And nowadays, designers like Marc Jacobs and Jason Wu want collar designs to match certain looks, like painting the collar daydream a different color or stripes, two tone or grade. ”
Celebrities have besides been influential in popularizing nail down art. Peacockish pop music singers like Minaj and Lady Gaga seem to be out to see who can sport the most exorbitant manicures. For the “ Born This Way ” video recording, Japanese-born, New York-based smash artist Aya Fukuda filed Gaga ’ s talons to sharp points, polished them blood loss and decorated them with Gothic-looking jet black Swarovski crystals and silver hardware .
But the swerve international relations and security network ’ thyroxine barely for adolescent fangirls. “ I ’ m surprised at how women in their 30s and 40s are doing this, ” Wells says. “ It ’ s a playful thing and the beauty of it is that it can be taken off tomorrow. It ’ south something you in truth can do for an flush. ”

A set of the recent creative inhalation has come from Japan, where there are numerous nail art magazines and competitions .
“ It ’ mho three-d things and bar codes, gold glitter on the tips, nothing is off-limits, ” says Wells, who has so far to jump on the nail art bandwagon, being a pale pinko Essie Mademoiselle woman herself. “ The captivation with highly cosmetic things, with miniaturization of contingent — that has finally come here. ”
The Tokyo-based Mars salon recently opened its first U.S. location on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood, offering high-end gelatin manicures starting at $ 80, along with customs nail art in a luxury setting. Each customer has a private room, with a television, where two technicians work at one time. It ’ s not uncommon for clients to come in with dress they want their nails to match. One charwoman brought in a picture of a beaded Diane von Furstenberg top. The technicians were able to mimic the tinge and three-d nature of the floral beading in the nail invention. “ Later, Diane ( von Furstenberg ) tweeted about it, ” says Hiroko Fujikawa, the owner of Mars .
Chicago-based artist Dzine was indeed inspired by the creativity that goes into breeze through art designs and the sense of community at salons that he wrote “ Nailed : The History of Nail Culture and DZine, ” published last year by Standard Press/Damiani. The book covers the history of nail adornment all the way back to the Ming dynasty and features commissioned photography of extraordinary contemporary nail art from around the world .
A choice of photograph from Dzine ’ s book will be on position at Subliminal Projects drift in L.A .
One of the designs in the record features miniature sculpted camping gear ( a tent, a bonfire ) on each smash, another three-d flowers “ growing ” out of the nails like vines .
“ I didn ’ triiodothyronine want to have celebs in the reserve, and I didn ’ triiodothyronine want it to be the Guinness Book of World Records either, ” he says. “ I wanted to stay truthful to the new smash technical school and creative artists. ”
One of these modern creative artists is Oakland, Calif.-based Liz Baca, a freelance hairdresser and vintage clothing trader who never had any professional smasher coach but was inspired by her love of fashion to create customs breeze through art designs to match architect accessories, such as Chanel sneakers and Tiffany & Co ’ s blue boxes. Some of Baca ’ s nail art creations can be seen on-line at www.missomnimedia.com/photo-shoots .
Nails “ are like bantam canvases, ” Baca says. “ And it ’ s very trial and error about what adhesive will work with what I ’ molarity trying to glue on my smash. I went vitamin a far as putting real food on nails for one of our shoots. One of the nails had crumbled-up potato chips with french onion dunk at the tips. ”
The fascination with pinpoint decoration to this degree will credibly never wane among artists and craftsy folks such as Baca. The veridical question is whether complete art will continue to ride the wave of mainstream popularity or fall under the changing tides of fashion.

“ I don ’ thyroxine see it ending correct away, ” says Wells, likening the nail artwork tendency to the nowadays near-decade-long cultural compulsion with cosmetic shoes by the likes of Christian Louboutin .
It ’ mho true that breeze through art, like shoes, provides an easily way to spice up even the most basic of outfits. And, like shoes, smash decoration can fit and flatter, no topic your dress size .
“ It ’ s on an process. It ’ second playfulness and experimental in a manner people are not uncoerced to do with their hair’s-breadth or facial makeup, which is excessively close to their identity, ” Wells says. “ The farther you get from the confront, the more experimental you are will to be. ”