You know all those nail art ideas you bring to your manicurist every month? Most of those come from insanely talented Korean nail artists. In our new series Nail Report, we’ll shine a light on the biggest and coolest nail art trends coming straight from Seoul. This week we’re focusing on dry flower nails: the prettiest Korean nail trend right now.
If you’re obsessed with nail art, then you’re probably familiar with Eun Kyun Park (aka @nail_unistella on Instagram). The popular Korean nail artist is responsible for many of the recent nail art trends (think: wire nails and glass nails).
Now Park is bringing a new trend to the spotlight: dry flower nails. These are different from your regular gel nails with flowers drawn on them. Park takes actual dried-up flowers and fuses them onto nails. Take a look:
It’s pretty awesome. Sometimes Park takes the stem of a flower, tapes it to her customer’s hand, and meticulously creates a bouquet on the nails. Here’s a closer look at how she applies the flowers (there are three videos):
Of course, Park isn’t the only nail artist creating dry flower nails. Here’s a super beautiful version of someone’s version with flowers on only a few accent nails to really draw attention to the details:
And here’s another awesomely detailed version:
In 2015, Park told Korean blog kinseng how she creates the dry flower nails. First, she applies the base color, and then takes the dried flowers (that she usually buys from an art store) and rehydrates them using a cleansing wipe. She told the blog that it’s important to hydrate them so that they won’t get crushed during the application process. Then she usually removes the stems from the flowers and “taps” them onto the nails.
After cutting off any excess flower, Park may use a stencil to draw on flower designs, but as of late, it looks like the flowers she uses are enough to stand out on their own:
Our takeaway: If you’re looking for the perfect manicure to bring in spring, look no further than dry flower nails. After all, you really can’t get more in the spring spirit than literally putting the nature of the season on your nails.
+ Would you try dry flower nails? What do you think is going to be the biggest nail trend of the year? Let us know below!
Photo credit: @nail_unistella
