Articles

Nailgating: Super Bowl XLIX Nail Art

Whether you’re rooting for the Seahawks or Patriots these fanicures are sure to score big. 

Signature Services: The Chocolate Decadence Manicure

On the MenuA special Valentine treat for your clients, the Chocolate Decadence Manicure is a delicious hand treatment that incorporates a chocolate scrub, chocolate mousse mask, and a chocolate butter cream massage followed by a manicure.    

NAILS Next Top Nail Artist: Season 2 Finale Party

The nail industry came together to celebrate the grand finale of NAILS Next Top Nail Artist Season 2.

Signature Services: Dead Sea Arabian Renewal Pedicure

On the MenuThis luxurious treatment combines a wealth of indigenous Arabian ingredients including pomegranate oil, crushed dates, rose water, yogurt, sweet figs, pure Dead Sea salts and mud to relieve muscle tension and deeply detoxify the skin, saturating it with potent antioxidants.

Crowdsourcing: Clients on Cell Phones

This month we asked nail techs:  How do you feel about clients using their cell phones during a manicure? What do you do if it messes up your work?

Healthy Living: Salon Stress-Busting

Is your salon atmosphere harrowing and tense? Are you a stress case most of the day? NAILS takes a look at the phenomenon of frenzy and explores some workable solutions.

On the Road: Oxygenix Nail Spa

NAILS sent our student blogger Tisha Allen — who, as of this issue, will be a newly licensed nail tech — to find a clean and professional nail salon in her area for those days that she needs a little pampering for herself. This new West Palm Beach, Fla., resident discovered Oxygenix, a nail spa located just steps away from her home.

Behind the Scenes: Acrylic Watercolor Floral Nails

An Artist With Global Reach: This month's cover features delicate watercolor nails in acrylic by Ez Flow's Allie Baker-Bennett.

On My Mind: Are You Specialized or Diversified?

Demo: Dashing Diva's NailGuard

This video demonstrates how to use Dashing Diva's NailGuard to protect nails from gel and acrylic overlays. Click here to see a demonstration from ISSE Long Beach.

ISSELB15: Nail Looks Spotted on the Show Floor

Browse through the gallery and see what’s hot in nail art.

ISSELB15 Demo: Presto's Tokyo Swag Custom Color Gel Nails

At the Nail Labo booth at ISSELB15, Natalie Minerva (@nail_swag) demonstrated how to create a custom gel color using Presto's Tokyo Swag.

NAILS Next Top Nail Artist Smilebooth Pictures

Old friends (and new) came together to celebrate the grand finale of NAILS Next Top Nail Artist. Enjoy these pics from CND's Smilebooth. 

ISSE Long Beach 2015: Around the Show Floor

Browse through the gallery to find out who was there and what the industry had in store for those in attendance.

Next Top Nail Artist: Season 2 Challenges

Here's a 10-minute recap of NAILS Next Top Nail Artist: Season 2. We selected 24 semi-finalists for our second annual NAILS Next Top Nail Artist competition. The field was narrowed down to our Top 12 after two pre-challenges. For 10 weeks in September 2014, we gave our finalists a new challenge each week to showcase their skills in creating nail art looks based on a theme created by NAILS and each of our weekly sponsors (Bio Seaweed Gel, CND, Dashing Diva, Entity Beauty, Gel II, Gelish, INM, It’s So Easy, Orly International, SuperNail, and Young Nails). In addition to creating their nail art masterpieces, NAILS Next Top Nail Artist contestants shot step-by-step tutorials, video demos, and shared their entries via social media.

Next Top Nail Artist: Top 3 Q&A

The NAILS Next Top Nail Artist season 2 contestants were warmly welcomed by a crowd of cheers at ISSE Long Beach 2015. Danielle Costantino, Lavette Cephus, and Lexi Martone entertained questions by CND style director/co-founder Jan Arnold and NAILS Magazine editor Hannah Lee. NAILS Next Top Nail Artist: Season 2's final challenge asked our Top 3 to design five sets of 10 nails to be presented to Johnson Hartig for his fashion label, Libertine. We chatted with each contestant about two of their designs.DANIELLEPart 1: Check-in Report  |  Part 2: Final Nails  |  All Five DesignsLAVETTE:Part 1: Check-in Report  |  Part 2: Final Nails  |  All Five DesignsLEXI:Part 1: Check-in Report  |  Part 2: Final Nails  |  All Five Designs

NTNA Final Part 2: I Love Libertine (Lavette)

Top 3 contestant Lavette Cephus created five sets of nails (10 in each set) for the fashion label Libertine for Part 2 of the NAILS Next Top Nail Artist final challenge. DANIELLEPart 1: Check-in Report  |  Part 2: Final Nails  |  All Five DesignsLAVETTE:Part 1: Check-in Report  |  Part 2: Final Nails  |  All Five DesignsLEXI:Part 1: Check-in Report  |  Part 2: Final Nails  |  All Five Designs