August 31, 2010 - Article
Prompted by the advice of a beauty business consultant, nail tech and wellness expert Maisie Dunbar moved from her old salon to the new branded Maisie Dunbar Spa Lounge.
August 30, 2010 - PhotoGallery
Nothing quite rings in the fall season like the toll of school bells indicating that class is back in session. So pull out your trusty highlighter and be sure to take notes during this lesson on the new fall colors. (Your clients might surprise you with a pop quiz later.) With reds, blues, purples, and grays all on the syllabus, you’ll want to keep these polishes on your supply list until at least winter break.
Photography by Vu Ong
Nails by Elsbeth Schuetz
Written by Sree Roy
July 30, 2010 - Product
Get a head start on the fall season with China Glaze's Vintage Vixen Collection, which captures the vivid and saturated hues of the 1940s with a seductively complex palette. These classic shades of the season recreate the timeless tableau of movieland mystique, perfect red pouts, and steamy nights where swing was the scene.
July 14, 2010 - PhotoGallery
Greige, variations of the moon manicure, and gritty textured nails were the hot nail looks on the runways at New York Fall Fashion Week, which took place last spring. This gallery is an expanded version of the article in the September 2010 issue of NAILS Magazine. Photos where a city isn’t identified were taken during New York Fashion Week. To submit your own Fashion Week photos for NAILS online and print consideration, e-mail photos with captions to Sree.Roy@bobit.com.
For more of the latest trends, visit:
The Style Channel by NAILS Magazine [Trends]
Go Greige: Trendy Gray-Beige Polishes
June 1, 2010 - News
The June issue of M Magazine announces this season’s best pink accessories, which include Color Club polish in Warhol and China Glaze polish in Bad Kitty.
May 11, 2010 - Product
Dip into summer with China Glaze’s Poolside Collection. Some of the brightest and most amazing neons are in this set, making them great for summer toes and active hands.
April 30, 2010 - News
The runway is being swayed by earthy influences, from florals and leaves to birds and butterflies, and there's some bright new polish to match that.
March 8, 2010 - Product
Popping with optimistic brights and sweet pastels, China Glaze’s Up and Away Spring Collection provides seamless and even coverage in a rich crème formulation.
March 5, 2010 - News
RedBook Magazine says mint "gives all your fashion and beauty basics a refreshing twist."
February 24, 2010 - Product
China Glaze's The Wizard of Ooh Ahz Polish Collection includes colors like Ruby Pumps, Good Witch, C-C-Courage, Dorothy Who?, Cowardly Lyin’, and The Ten Man.
February 17, 2010 - PhotoGallery
By Hannah Lee
Photography by Vu Ong
BIG. BOLD. BRIGHT. COLOR. That’s what we thought when we opened the 2010 spring polish collections. This season’s new nail colors are the brightest, boldest, most vibrant hues we’ve seen in years. So instead of showing you a few colors from each collection (which frankly wouldn’t do them justice), we decided to showcase the collections in full so you can get the same dramatic effect. For once, we have no props, no gimmicks, no stories — we’re simply letting the colors speak for themselves.
For more Spring 2010 trends, visit:
Spring 2010 Color Trends from the Pantone Institute
Spring 2010 Nail Trends from Fashion Week
January 22, 2010 - Product
Click your ruby pumps and come travel with China Glaze down the yellow brick road to meet “The Wizard of Ohh Ahz.”
December 29, 2009 - Product
The new Khrome colors from China Glaze bring a fashion forward, modern edge to a soft and sophisticated color palette, with shades of chrome that range from warm gold to icy cool.
December 15, 2009 - PhotoGallery
Showing up everywhere from automotive paint to mannequins to a myriad of beauty products (including lip colors and even hair products), the no-shine matte look has recently exploded in the nail industry too. More than a dozen professional nail polish brands have launched either a matte color line, a matte top coat, or both — and many of these launches were announced in just the last few months. “It’s all about a unique texture on the nails and a matte finish is very fashion-forward,” says Essie Weingarten, founder and president of Essie Cosmetics; Weingarten developed Essie Cosmetics’ first matte formula to match the matte finish of Mercedes-Benz Black Series during last season’s Fashion Week.
Once relegated to men, a matte finish is now being touted by women everywhere as a fresh, edgy, and confident style. The lack of glossiness increases the impact of the polish color itself, letting it “wow” without any distractions.
On a microscopic scale, a matte finish has a rough surface, explains Doug Schoon, chief scientific advisor for CND. A matte polish or top coat formula will include an ingredient, usually some kind of powder (like silica), to make the polish scatter light rather than reflecting it back to the eye. “Mirror finishes reflect light back to the eye, while matte finishes scatter light,” Schoon says.
Because the formula and the look are different, experts offer their advice for how best to apply these products:
> Work quickly, because matte polishes dry more quickly than traditional polishes. “The ingredient added to cause the matte finish does not need to dry. Therefore there is less solvent in the coating, so it dries faster,” Schoon says. Mattes will usually feel thicker during application, he adds.
> Don’t use a top coat or drying products during application. A glossy top coat will ruin the matte finish, making it appear glossy instead. You can try using a matte top coat (normally used to turn a glossy polish matte), which will keep the finish but may distort the color.
> Experts differ on whether to apply a base coat first or not. (Check the bottle to see if your manufacturer makes a recommendation.) On Zoya Nail Polish’s blog, the company says, “If you apply a matte polish to a base coat that has not fully dried, what occurs is that the polish and the base coat dry at completely different rates causing problems shrinking, rigidness, and a goopy mess that may take all day to dry.” The manufacturer goes on to say you can use a base coat with its matte polishes, but you must wait for the base coat to dry.
> Advise your clients that a matte polish will usually not wear as long as a traditional glossy polish (especially if you’re not using base and top coats).
> Don’t apply cuticle oils or lotions to the fingernails during a matte manicure. This will make the surface reflect more light, which will make it look glossy. However, once the oil wears off, the matte effect will return.
> Celebrity manicurist Elle, who helps create Barielle’s color lines, recommends applying a matte top coat with a striper brush to create texture between glossy and matte finishes for an eye-catching new nail look.
> Suzi Weiss-Fischman, executive VP and artistic director of OPI, suggests wearing OPI Matte together with the traditional gloss formula of the same OPI color (like on this month’s cover). “You can do a matte nail with a matching gloss tip, or a gloss nail with a matte edge. It’s like mixing different textures of the same color in an outfit.”
Click here to see a step-by-step of our December cover featuring a matte variation of the French look.
December 10, 2009 - PhotoGallery
Matte finishes, moon manicures, metallics, and nudes made up an exciting nail scene at New York Fashion Week, which took place September 10-17. This gallery is an expanded version of the article in the February 2010 issue of NAILS Magazine. Photos where a city isn’t identified were taken during New York Fashion Week.
To submit your own Fashion Week photos for NAILS Magazine online and print consideration, e-mail photos with captions to Sree.Roy@bobit.com.
For more of the latest trends, visit:
The Style Channel by NAILS Magazine [Trends]
How to Remove a Stain (Polish Preview: Fall 2009)