The Wire Nail Art Trend Makes "Getting Bent" a Good Thing

The brilliant nail artists at South Korean salon Unistella have innovated another awe-inspiring new talon trend: wire nails.

You may remember Unistella's techs made headlines in 2015 with glass nail designs and whipped up the bracelet manicure in 2016. However, founder Eun Kyung Park has really impressed us with this latest mesmerizing masterpiece. She utilizes tiny pieces of wire, sculpting them into small designs, including the outline of the nail, bitty accents on the half moon ("cuticle cuffs"), and even Picasso-like renditions of human faces.

Park told Marie Claire that this new technique was inspired by neon signs. "When you make neon signs, you have to bend the wires to make certain lettering," she told the magazine. "It's one long wire that's bent to create and connect the letters. I thought this was really cool and since nails are an accessory, I wanted it to be used for expression. Like rings."

While it takes a lot of patience and skill to carefully bend the delicate wire, the rest of the concept is pretty simple: just apply your creation on top of clear gel polish, cure the lacquer, then add a clear gel on top to secure it in place. The only true limit to the possibilities is your imagination, but Park advises that it's important to keep the placement of the edges in mind.

"Since it's a wire, you have to make sure the sharp end has a nice finish so it doesn't get caught in clothes," she says. Fair point! Read on to see some of the designs the Unistella team has created so far.