From The Straits Times    |

From “glass” nails to shadow nails, Korean nail artist Eun Kyung Park, founder of Unistella salon in South Korea, has long been a trendsetter in the nail art world. Since the glass nail trend caught the attention of Western media over a year ago, she’s gone on to cover runways at New York Fashion Week, magazine spreads, and is dreaming up more new nail art ideas than ever before.

This time, she’s given us not one, but five new nail trends. From Diamond Nails to High Heel Nails, here are the new manicures we can’t wait to adopt in 2017.

 

#1 Cuticle nails

 

A photo posted by (@nail_unistella) on

 

 

A photo posted by (@nail_unistella) on

 

The thing that excites me the most about this trend is that there are so many ways of going about it. You can use nail polish, nail stickers, or even embellishments to create this look. It also focuses on the cuticles, which is of course the area of your nails that you’re commonly told to avoid when painting your nails. If you’re using nail polish, all you need is a small nail brush (or a polish bottle with a thinner applicator brush), to carefully “flood” the cuticles of your nails with the nail polish.

If you take a closer look at her Instagram posts, you’ll notice she’s also used stickers that look like French nail tips, only just on the cuticle instead of the tip of the nail, as is the conventional practice. If you want to try some DIY but have always felt that nail art or even simple manicures are too tough to pull off, this one might be a good place to start.

 

#2 Diamond nails

 

A photo posted by (@nail_unistella) on

 

 

A photo posted by (@nail_unistella) on

 

If bling is your thing, then you can stop right here and consider the job done with these incredible diamond-like nails. While she has yet to release a tutorial on these nails, they look to be made up of many tiny fragments of holographic paper layered over each other. I expect you’ll need a little professional help in order to achieve them, unless you know where to get the raw materials and possess the infinite patience of a saint. The “diamonds” work great as a full manicure or as an accent nail, depending on how intense you want the overall effect to be.

 

#3 High heel nails

 

 

A photo posted by (@nail_unistella) on

 

These nails call to mind like the bottom of a shoe, and incorporates an element of two hot trends: Cuticle nails as well as negative space. If you’ve got wider nails and fingers, it can also be one way to create an illusion of narrower nails. I’d say it’s important to use 3D nail embellishments to create the “heel” as this will give the look the drama and dimension it needs.

 

#4 Tattoo nails

 

 

A photo posted by (@nail_unistella) on

 

While the idea of relying on nail stickers to create nail art isn’t new by any means, they definitely haven’t been this popular in a while. The specific “tattoo” element to the Unistella nails is also more chic and sophisticated because the emphasis is on black and clear stencil-like designs instead of cute little character stickers, which can come across as a tad too juvenile for the workplace. While certain designs might also be possible to pull off with a brush and some black nail polish, these tattoo stickers are a lot easier for DIY manicures because they don’t require much skill to apply. They also look great over bare nails, so you don’t even have to paint them first.

 

#5 Half and half nails

 

 

A photo posted by (@nail_unistella) on

 

These nails are also incredibly easy to achieve, with a huge part of the appeal being the ability to play around and utilise many different bottles of nail polish. The trick is in picking shades that go well together for each nail, so that means deciding upon a contrasting or complementary colour scheme. If you have a steady hand, you can definitely freehand this design, but if you struggle with that, you can also lay down a base colour on the whole nail, wait for it to dry, and then use some tape to create the “guideline” for the middle of the nail. Just don’t forget to peel off the tape before the second colour dries so the line looks clean.

 

READ MORE: 5 incredible cult beauty brands we want to see in Singapore in 2017, beauty tips and tricks to make your eyes look bigger and brighter, and find your lucky colour in makeup for Chinese New Year!

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