A client’s simple request motivated Rachael Waggoner of Dazzlin’ Digits (www.TheNailArtGirl.com) in Lakewood, Colo., to come up with her own technique for applying images onto nails. “I have a client who really wanted to help memorialize her sister — who passed when she was fairly young — on her nails. I knew there wasn’t a way to paint a picture of this young girl from the blurry old photo I had,” says Waggoner. “I figured I would start with my computer. I took the image and shrunk it down with my photo editor. I printed it out on plain computer paper and decided to go to the salon and play with it.

After a few failed attempts with pearls that were too wet or too dry, I found the perfect consistency and learned that I needed to work fast. I put the image on a form so I could lay a flat disk of acrylic over the image. Once it dried I peeled it off of the form and did the same to the back. When that was dry I filed and buffed the sides to the shape I wanted and then I set the disk on her nail with acrylic to bind it. My client loved how personalized her nails were and the sentiment was sweet.”

This technique has allowed Waggoner to encase anything she wants for a customer. “I have a client who is going on a New Kids on the Block cruise and wants to do nails with their pictures. I could never find tiny images of something so specific, but now I can make my own,” she says.