Style at your fingertips

It's no longer your clothes, your hairstyle and not even your accessories... With your nails becoming the new way to express yourself, your style statement just extended right down to your fingertips…

Flower Power. Pic: nailartsdesign.com

Katy Perry used them to model then husband Russell Brand's face during her 'honeymoon' (pun intended) period, while Beyonce and Rihanna used them to show their political preferences during the last US general elections. Lady Gaga has always been known to use them in a gothic way, while our Desi girl, Priyanka Chopra was seen using them to promote her international music album. What?? Before you start getting all sorts of weird ideas in your head, allow us to throw some light on the above statement. We are talking about nail art and its growing fetish among celebs and commoners alike.
 

Katy Perry turned Russell's face into an interesting nail art. Pic: jaclynsantos.com

While Katy Perry used her nails to splash ex-husband Russell Brand's face at the 2010 MTV Music Awards, Rihanna and Beyonce painted Barack Obama's face on their nails to show their support for the Democrat. Lady Gaga is mostly photographed with gothic nail art, while Priyanka Chopra flaunted Swarovski on her fingernails on the cover of her new international music album.
Well, the point that we are trying to make is — applying plain nail polish is just not enough. With nail art increasingly getting recognition as a work of art, the days of nails being ‘that neglected part of your body’ are gone. Nails are now treated as miniature pieces of canvas, where nailists (as nail artists are called) can play around with nail paints ranging from shiny gold to envious green, metallic blue or yellow, top them up with crystals or glitter and make designs of any shape and size.

Most women feel or rather have a misconception that maintaining nails is a difficult task. But it isn't so. With the kind of products that are used these days, getting a crystal manicure or the all-time favourite French manicure is just a matter of an hour or less. Moreover, the stuff that is sometimes used to attach these crystals or other fancy products on your nails actually helps the nails from becoming yellow or wearing off."

The sponge technique. Pic: noboizallowed.com

Use your nails to express your creativity. Pic: naildesigny.com

The newspaper print is a hot one these days. Pic: media.tumblr.com

Red hot nails. Pic: fashionsy.com

Just like everything popular, nail art too is increasingly becoming accessible and has harboured many cheap imitations and D-I-Y (Do-It-Yourself) kits that are now easily available over the counter. If you want to channelise your creativity and think you have a steady hand to do artistic things on your nails, then D-I-Y kits are just the things that you should get. What’s more, you can do all this while sitting in the comfort of your home. These simple kits are armed with everything that you’ll need to adorn your nails — from crystals to glitter to little pearls, beads or flowers — just go for the one that you fancy and you will get assorted colour nail polish, nail varnish brushes, glue, painting pens, neon or glitter shades and much more depending on the kind of kit you buy. There are a lot of options available on online shopping sites too, such as eBay and OLX.

But, if you are thinking these things are meant for those who have ‘shit loads of time’ then you can go for nail art stickers — simple apply these stickers to your natural nails and voila, you’ll get an instant fashion update. This super easy method means that anyone can achieve gorgeous and professional looking nails in no time and with almost one-fourth the money you would dole out on a manicure.

For those who have brittle or weak nails (including those who bite their nails like myself) and are feeling helpless reading about all the great stuff that is mentioned in this article — there is hope for you all too. You guys can get pre-painted nails (also known as acrylic nails or nail extensions) in various shapes and sizes and designs — ranging from cracks, stripes, swirls, flowers, dots, crystals and many others. Just attach these nails to your original nails and you are ready to ooze glamour.

With so many options available in the market, it is only fair to say that nail art seems to be exploding at the moment — and with the pace things are moving, I don’t see this trend going away anytime soon. So, what are you waiting for — get in on the action, instantly update your nails and hop on to the glam wagon.