Nail art

Nail art is a creative way to decorate nails. It is a type of art which can be done on fingernails and toenails. It became commonly known in beauty salons and it is considered as fashion activity.

Nail art techniques, cracked and matte effect

Nail art on toenails.

History

Nail art firstly emerged in Babylonia when males colored their nails with kohl. The nail color gave a clear indication of one's status. Men of the upper class wore black while men of the lower class wore green. From 5000 B.C. to 3000 B.C., In Egypt women used nail art to indicate their social status. They decorated their nails using the juice of the henna plant. For example, Queen Nefertiti used a red color to decorate her finger and toe nails. Compared to Nefertiti, Queen Cleopatra used deep rusty shades with an undertone of gold. Ordinary women were not allowed to use the same color as queen. In ancient China, during Ming Dynasty nail lacquers and varnishes were created from the mixture of beeswax, egg whites, gelatin, vegetable dyes and gum arabic. As in Egypt, the color of the nails represented class. In 600 BC, during the Zhou Dynasty, royalty used gold and silver . Later they preferred the colors black and red to indicate their status. The well known French manicure emerged from Parisian runways in 1976. Jeff Pink, the founder of cosmetic company ORLY, wanted to create nail style that would be practical and versatile. It's said Uma Thurman started the dark nail polish craze during the 90's due to her appearance in the film Pulp Fiction. Her character in the film wore a dark red nail polish called Rouge Noir by Chanel.

Today nail art is used as a way of self expression.

In popular culture

In 2012, the United States witnessed a surging popularity of nail art. A documentary NAILgasm, was released to explore the growing trend of nail art from subculture to high fashion. In January 2014, Nailpolis: Museum of Nail Art was founded for nail artists and hobbyists to share their designs.

Pokeball Nails

In the last 20 years nails techniques had changed from a thick nail to an oval one to a squared and thin and so on. The decoration of hands and fingernails in the course of time has always been a real status symbol of belonging to high and privileged social classes; if in the '90 and in the first years of the 2000 women preferred the natural way of art nail, nowadays something has changed.
The popularity that art nail is having in 2000 has made part of a consumer culture, it is not just a way to take care of nails, but it's especially a cultural way that involves young women (from 25 to 34) to show their personality through nail art.
The reconstruction techniques of the nail decoration have enabled over the years and in particular in Italy in the last decade, since the twenty-first century an even spread of new professions, places work, thanks also to the spread of many products (also eco-friendly), tools and accessories of good quality level. Girls could finally learn by themselves or by following tutorials on YouTube on how to make the perfect nails.
In the United States of America, this trend has become so fashionable that they organized the Nail Olympics also called Nailympics, where girls show all their creativity on the use of innovative techniques’, colors, drawings, designs, jewelry onto nails and so on.
As it has been mentioned, young women are trying to show their personality through nail art, but also their values, their fashion savvy, creativity and even humor.
Some example of this trend we had seen from some pop stars or Hollywood actresses, just to mention Rihanna, Miley Cyrus or Ariana Grande that show their nail art on their Instagram accounts to express their own personality.

Social Relevance

The interest for Nail art passes by the symbol of femininity in the society, in how girls identify themselves as girls and the peer-to-peer relation, as a way of identification among their friends and the belonging into a group.

Long nail trend

Nail art is also a way to create its own identity through fashion, using colors and shapes as a disruption of childhood and entering to the female teen/adult world, also leaving the influence of their parents to create their own selves.
The nail is also part of the puzzle of mounting the gender identity, the nails for teenagers and adult women represents a piece of the symbol of what is a woman and how the woman should present itself. Even though the women use nail art to express their womanliness, the different types of art define as a woman with particular personality, as using French manicure (delicate) or using black nails (aggressive).
The trend of metrosexual (term first said in 1994, but became a trend a decade later) men in the 2000s brought to the males also the sensibility of taking care of their hands and nails. As David Beckham, demonstrating how a football player, a husband and a father could also take care of himself showed men that they could also invest money and time in appearance and still keep their masculinity.
Before the metrosexual trend, the punk subculture also used the black nail polish in a “dirty” way to show how rebel they were against social rules, also the nail polish in a role of showing their disdain to any rules and meant to shock the society.

Media

Nail art’s popularity in media started with printed press with women magazines. It had an important role but it was not a mainstream fashion trend before 2000’s. After the internet age and the common use of the social media, the trend became major subculture among women. Social media made it easier to connect to the mass audience and with this people started to share their designs as a way of their creativity and use the nail as their blank canvas. YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter are the major platforms, which provides millions of new ideas and designs for the subculture. However, among these Pinterest is the most important platform for the new beauty trends according to a study. “When asked which online resources respondents use to stay informed about beauty trends, Pinterest was the most popular (66.3%) among Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, StumbleUpon, and Tumbler. “

Pacman art

“The Beauty Industry’s Influence on Women in Society” (Page 16) By Ann Marie Britton, 2012 University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository YouTube with its nail art tutorial videos also has an important place among this subculture. The most followed YouTube channels for nail art is “cutepolish” with 2.748.950 followers and 360.335.219 views.

The Nail Market

Nail Polish Market

The nail polish sales rose by 14% in 2010 in the UK while in 2012 it rose by 41.8% in the US and by 7.8% in France. With regard to this market growth in the western countries some journalists and experts of the beauty sector speaks about the nail polish index as the new lipstick index. The lipstick index has been used by Leonard Lauder (Estee Lauder’s Chairman) to describe the correlation between the increase in sales of lipstick and the recession of the 2000s. This correlation seems to be also true for the nail polish and has been explained by the fact that in time of recession women tend to buy less expensive beauty product.

Nail polishes

However, even if there is a general growth in the nail market different market trends have been observed. First of all, brands are proposing long-lasting nail polish and more color variety, with for example Essie proposing ninety different colors. Another market trend is the result of a growing concern regarding the composition of nail polishes, with more and more brands proposing “natural” nail polishes. Finally, luxury brands such as Dior, Kenzo or YSL also entered by launching their own nail polishes which act as jewelry.

Nail bars

In the United States, the nail salons rose by 400% in the last decade and represent 8.51 billion dollars in 2015. Another aspect of these industry is that 51% of the nail technicians are Vietnamese. While 85% of salons offer nail art, it represents only 3.5% of the industry revenue in 2005 and is considered as a challenge for professionals. Finally, the total numbers of active licenses in 2015 were 404,154. As in the United States, the British Market of nail salons is expanding, it rose by 20% in 2012 with one of the market leader being Nail Inc. which counts 58 salons across UK and Ireland.

Techniques and tools

Manicurists start with the same techniques as for the manicure or pedicure:

• Acrylics: a chemical mixture of monomer liquid and polymer powder that can be directly applied on the nails or on artificial nails also called nails extensions or enhancements.
• Nail gel: a chemical combination similar to acrylics. Manicurist applies several layers on the fingernails or/and toenails and lets it cure under a UV or LED light. When the gel is cured it hardens the nails. Gel is also common in a polish form known as gel polish, and, like other forms of gel, also requires a UV or LED light to cure. The difference between acrylic and gel is that acrylic dries naturally but gel needs UV light to cure. Similarly, where regular nail polish will dry naturally, gel polish will remain tacky until cured by a UV light.
• Nail polish/Nail varnish: a lacquer applied to finger and toe nails to protect or as a base color. Nail manicurists also use a base coat to protect and strengthen nails, as well as preventing the natural nail from yellowing or staining.

Several options are available for decorating nails:

• Glitters
• Nail art pens
• Piercing
• Water marbling
• Adding accessories
  • Studs, rhinestones, miniature plastic bow-ties, beads, and aluminum foil
• Acrylic powder for 3D art. The powder used for 3D acrylic nail art is a polymer powder which is used with a monomer liquid to create designs.

To decorate the nails, manicurist use several tools such as:

• Nail dotters, also known as "dotting tools"
• Nail art brushes
• Stationery tape/ stickers
• Thin, colored striping tape
• Sponges (for gradient effects)

Do-it-yourself (DIY), is a new concept of doing nail art without the aid of experts or professionals. Several brands developed products to enable high quality results at affordable prices.

Innovations

Some brands try to innovate by creating new kinds of nail polish with surprising and fun effects.

Velvet or Sugar Nails

• Textures: Microbeads or caviar beads are applied just before the nail polish becomes dry. These textures give a sand-like texture to the nail.
• Holographic effect: Polishes with holographic finishes give off flashy rainbow reflections when exposed to light.

Hologram nail art

• Velvet manicure: Velvet fibers called velveteen are sprinkled onto wet polish. The excess is gently brushed off, leaving behind a fuzzy velvet feel.
• Crackle effect: Nail polish pioneer brand Sally Hansen created the first "crackle" effect polish. Acting as an overcoat, a crackle polish is applied onto already-painted nails and dries to a shattered or cracked effect.
• Thermochromic polish: The nail polish changes color when exposed to hot or cold temperatures.
• Matte effect: These nail polishes can transform a layer of glossy nail polish into a flat matte finish.
• Inverse French: Also called a "half-moon". The half-moon is created on the root of the nail in one color while the rest of the nail is painted a different color.
• Nail stickers: A form of Artificial nails, there is a large range of nail stickers, strips and wraps on the market used to mimic nail polish without exposing oneself to the harmful chemicals found in polish.

External links

• Simply Nailogical
• cutepolish
• 100 Years of Fashion: Nails ★ Mode.com