Hair clients often come in with tear-outs from Cosmo or US Weekly showing their stylists exactly how they'd like their hair cut. This always seems to be a helpful tool; I personally never go to a hair appointment without a photo in hand. True, it often has to be tweaked for my hair's natural tendencies (i.e., for how bizarrely thick it is) and, ideally, for my face shape, but I seem to always walk out happy when I walk in with a photo.

But I get my nails done every month, and never once have I walked in with a nail art (or nail shape) photo. I'm not sure why this is. Maybe because nail styles aren't necessarily obvious in consumer magazine celebrity-photos? Maybe because I'm not sure of the nail artist's level of expertise and whether she'd be able to replicate a magazine style. I may try this next time to see how the nail tech reacts; I'm not sure if she'd be pleased that I thought about my nails ahead of time or frustrated that I picked out some difficult design.

Regardless, the nails in the photo above were indeed celebrity-inspired. Done by Teresa Shackleton at Tee's Nail NV in Ontario Canada, they were done for a client who requested that her gel nails looked like a picture she saw of singer Rihanna's latest set. You can see Rihanna's smiley-face nails here. Teresa advised that the yellow tone Rihanna wore probably wasn't ideal for the client's skin tone, so they came up with the above version instead. Well done!

Do you look at consumer magazines to get ideas for new nail art designs? Are you happy or frustrated when clients come in with a picture in hand (do your clients do this?)? Let me know in Feedback.

—-Sree