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 wire nails: the Korean nail trend that’s dominating Seoul and doesn’t show any signs of stopping…
Seoul Fashion Week is happening right now as we speak, which means you’re bound to see the coolest fashion and beauty trends that you’ve never even thought of before on your Instagram feed this week. But there’s one nail trend that gained widespread attention at the end of January and is still insanely popular in Seoul: wire nails.
Created by the master of all things Korean nail art, Eun Kyun Park, AKA Unistella, wire nails involve shaping gold, silver, or black wire into designs and painting them onto nails. Our friends at Closer LA are currently at Seoul Fashion Week and just spotted wire nails on a model:
Here’s a closer look at wire nails:
To create these awesome designs, Park told Marie Claire that she sources the thinnest wire she can find and manipulates them into shapes using tweezers. She puts the designs onto wet clear or colored nail polish and lets them dry under a UV lamp. And then… ta-da! You have a pretty easy chip-free manicure:
Park and her team have also created some extended riffs on the wire nail trend. On Valentine’s Day, they came up with this super cute heart wire nail look:
And if you don’t do too much work with your hands, you can try Unistella’s wire extension nails. This manicure creates a version of a press-on nail made out of wire:
Of course, Park has inspired nail artists from all over to create their own versions of wire nails. Here’s how Britney Tokyo, a manicurist in Los Angeles, created her wire nails with silver wire:
But the coolest thing we’ve seen so far is when the Unistella team mixes wire nails with their dry flower nails:
If you decide to try to execute wire nails yourself, don’t forget to treat your cuticles with a nourishing mask, like the Kocostar Nail Therapy. Since you may not be wearing any colored polish underneath the wires, you’ll want your natural nails to look as great as possible!