The recently concluded Grammy Awards saw celebs get creative with their manicures. We invited a nail technician to share simple styles to give your nails an upgrade
Billie Eilish’s Gucci print nails. Pics/Getty Images
This year’s masked and socially distanced Grammy Awards might have made headlines for its memorable performances and well, snubs. But celebrities made a mark with their nails, too. Billie Eilish channeled Gucci head to toe and had the print recreated on her manicure as well. Harry Styles, on the other hand, opted for a simple but chic multi-coloured manicure, and Lizzo stunned with a gleaming blush and champagne. If you can’t wait to get your hands on a manicure, city-based nail technician Nitisha Menon of Nailed It By Nits recommends three simple techniques to jazz up your nails.
French tips 2.0
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Everyone loves a classic French tip but it isn’t easy to execute. Menon advises taking a vertical approach to the style instead. Apply a base colour on your nails. Use a thin brush and start drawing lines from your tips to your cuticles; each line can be of a different colour or a single shade. If you don’t have a brush, you can use a toothpick, too.
Dotticure
As the name suggests, dotticure is a dotted pattern; it’s both minimal and stylish, and you can choose to create a dense pattern or space out each dot. To get started, select a base colour. Then, find an instrument at home which can act as a makeshift dotting tool — a toothpick or a hairpin, for instance. “You could check out the primary and secondary colour schemes to gauge which shades suit each other best,” Menon says.
Ombre
This technique, facilitated with a sponge, creates a shaded effect by combining two polish colours. Take a neatly cut piece of sponge. Paint one half of it in one colour, say orange, and the other in another complementary shade, like yellow. Next, dab the sponge on your nail to create a gradient look.
Nitisha Menon
Take care with these tips
>> Oil your cuticles every day. If you don’t have cuticle oil, a hand cream will do, too. This area tends to develop a lot of dead skin especially if your work involves manual labour.
Harry Styles opted for a multicoloured manicure
>> Do not use your nails as tools. It tends to break the nail plate. If you want to open a container or tighten a screw, put your finger tips to use instead.
Menon suggests combining french tips with glitter polish or a holographic top coat to achieve Lizzo’s look
>> If you’re applying nail art on your natural nail and not a press-on, then always apply a base coat. It reduces the yellowness of your nails, especially if you keep changing the manicure for your natural nails. Seal every layer of nail art with a top coat too, but make sure every layer is a thin one. It will be a long process but will ensure the manicure lasts longer.
>> While polishing your nails, seal the free edge, ie the outward tips to avoid chipping of colour.
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