Nails come to life!..well not really! but...

It was suggested that I should have pictures of my designs on actual hands, so i've decided to do my own nails! The reason being that i had to get the hands well-photographed & i thought, well, i might actually have MY designs on MY nails!( self-promoting!)

So had my nails done, since ive got quite short nails & the designs look much better on long nails than short, i had to actually glue acrylics on (plastic nails)(you could have it done on shorter nails, of course but when photographed, long is the way to go!)
Had my hands taken by a professional photographer (thank you very much cos it was a last minute call!:) ), never thought it'd be that complicated to take pictures of just nails & hands!! (i will never underestimate a model's work ever again! ) Been great fun though.. my hands were aching after the shoot!! Some images are shown below :

One day after, i still got the nails on me! I had to go out & i was thinking ¨ Oh gosh, people are gonna think i'm a freak with nails like this!! ¨ But then i thought ¨Hey im a Chelsea student! im an artist, don't mess with me!¨
So took the tube at 10am, of course, full of people, i kept thinking ¨just be normal, im from Chelsea, ive got great nails¨! Everyone stared at my nails & looked at my face..then looked at my nails again! haha
Then walked towards Oxford St and a group of young women came up to me & told me i've got amazing nails (i was so happy! I also told them i did the designs for my uni's final project, should have seen their faces!)
I also had to go to the supermarket & the cashier lady also complimented my nails! She asked how much it was & when i told her i made them myself, she said ¨Well done!¨
(hehe woman like my designs! which is great feedback! cos they are my main clients)

Only problem was i couldn't get my card out of the machine cos my nails are too long!

The World's Most Expensive Manicure!

It has been featured on VH1's show ¨The Fabulous Life of...London¨. I remember i saw this and have been searching the net for the past couple of days, hoping someone kept the clip of it so i could put it up here..i found an article with images! (good enough!)

Why is this manicure the most expensive, you ask?

Well, because...

First off, it is done only in one salon, which is in London! At Harrod's Urban Retreat Spa more precisely. And the one who does this is Leighton Denny.
He actually places all sorts of coloured gems onto his client's nails. For example, on the picture below (which, by the way, sorry for the bad quality, it's because i had to take pics with my phone cos the website that has this article, disabled the right-click command!) anyways, back to the nails, this particular design is called ¨the diamond, sapphire and ruby encapsulization" which is nine carats of inlaid gems ..yes, applied to the nails!
It is said that this manicure is so popular, Arab princesses fly to London just to have their nails done!






Now you ask.. how much for this manicure?

Ready...this is insanely expensive! It costs US$32,000 (around £16,761)!!!!!!!!!!!



(I say you can just have the similar design for £20 with my designs! ;p
Either the ¨Studio'54¨ or the ¨Sparkle in the night¨, both have silver glitter or rhinestones applied all over the nail!)

HQ Pictures

Here are some of the images i took with Alex (photographer at Chelsea) 18.05.07

Thanks a lot Alex for helping me! :)

Take a look at what i found! Same subject, different outcome..

NY Exhibit, 2002. By Judi Werthein.


Artist, Judi Werthein, from Buenos Aires, had an exhibition named ¨Manicurated¨ at the Bronx Museum of Art in 2002. Ten works from the permanent collection were selected and installed on the walls of the gallery. Visitors were invited to have their nails done, with the ten selected artwork reproduced onto their nails.




















Links

• http://www.jessicamurrayprojects.com/artistsJudiWerthein.html


• http://www.jessicamurrayprojects.com/artistsimageWerthnManicure.html

Final set of designs

The ¨ Spin-me-around Collection ¨

(white nail with stripes of white glitter, gold nail with gold glitter stripes, red nail with red glitter stripes)

The ¨ Love Collection ¨

(red nail with white glitter written LOVE, gold nail with red glitter heart motifs, striped background with silver heart motifs, black nail with pink heartbeat pattern accross)

Designs (5)

¨ Sparkle in the night ¨

The ¨ Safari Collection ¨

¨ Raspberry Daiquiri ¨

Designs (4)

¨ Cameras, Sparkle, Action! ¨

¨ Dress code : Red & White only ¨

¨ It's Springtime ! ¨

Designs (3)

I've tried the ¨marble effect¨ which consists on dropping nail colour into lukewarm water then, with a sharp end, move around to mix the colours and dip the nail into it. The pattern sticks to the nail. I had to do this design several times until i got it right!

The ¨ You-make-me-Swirl Collection ¨

Also did it in different colour combinations,

Designs (2)

¨ French Riviera ¨

The ¨ Sweet Doll Collection ¨

¨ Vertigo ¨

Designs (1)

¨ Party at St. Tropez ¨

(white nail with glitter line accross)

¨ Tropical tips ¨

(red nail with colour accross)

¨Glitterati ¨

(any colour nail with glitter tips)

My designs

They're all done! Each set have their own names.

Check them out! :)

¨ The CandyCane Collection ¨

(assortments of colourful stripes)

¨ VIP's ¨

(pale pink with clear rhinestones)

¨ Studio54 ¨

Inspirations..

I've looked at nail art websites ( i never thought they'd be so many websites available on nail design!) from Japan, Korea, Canada, Brazil,... and also looked through books and fashion magazines.
I got inspired even by a piece of fabric, a pattern on a dress, random pictures, everything around me basically! And also did some that i always wanted to do for my own nails!


This is what has already been done out there:

While doing my designs, i always had to think of ¨simple¨ ones that the client could wear in their everyday lifestyle but also ones the beauty technician could re-do.

¨ i'm lovin' it! ¨ (no, nothing to do with McDonald's!)

It has been so much fun creating the designs! I used to look at other nail salons catalogue and always wanted to do my own and i got to do it with this final project! :)

And I also got to invent the fun names for each of my designs! hehe- the only drawbacks are the budget, which is limited to £20 (starts from £5) so i can't really design with total freedom because nails would be too expensive to recreate! Another inconvenience was that the names for my nails was causing a slight problem : for example, i had a ¨Barbie Collection¨. They've told me i can't use the actual name ¨Barbie¨ because i don't have the authorization from Mattel, the US toy company who does Barbie. (and most importantly, i don't want to be sued by them!!!!) so i've since changed the name and it is now ¨the Sweet Doll Collection¨, i found my way ;)

Why would someone choose to do this?! Freedom of choice... (!!)

Just thought i'd share this picture.. You can't deny it isn't original! The person must really love soda drinks! (the details are spot on!)

My project

I am working with a London nail company, their main store is in South Molton Street. I chose this salon because it's the most appropriate as their nail polishes all have quirky, fun names and the atmosphere in the salon is made to be fun, with music channels playing on tv screens.

They do nail art but don't have a catalogue for their clients. I will be doing my own designs and producing this catalogue for them which will be available for the clients so they can choose what they want done on their nails.

It will be available exclusively in their South Molton Street salon, for their Spring/Summer collection.

Nail art is much more serious than you think!

It's not just having your nails done in a salon, nail art has expanded so much during the last couple of years and there are even contests for best designs!


Of course, in these competitions, called ¨Nail Art Championship¨, nail art is taken very seriously and each design isn't something you would want to have on your own nails.. The nail is considered like a blank canvas and the nail artist covers it with their creative idea.





Look at these amazing nails (everything is thought of, the smallest details are there..wow!)