Collection: Nail Art

What counts as nail art here?

The finishes. A dip, gel or acrylic set gives a nail its color and its strength; nail art is whatever goes over or into that set to make it a design. On this page that means four things we make: Air Ombre, a dip powder you spray for a gradient; French and ombre glitters, laid into the set through a mould or a brush; chrome, a mirror pigment rubbed over a cured gel top; and BlingStones, boxes of rhinestones sorted into looks. No brushes-and-freehand-painting supplies, no stickers; the four finishes a salon actually sells, in the formats we make them.

If you came here for design ideas rather than the products, the blog has them: easy nail art trends you can do at home is the place to start, and the seasonal round-ups are linked at the bottom. This page is the shelf those designs are built from.

The four finishes

The grid on this page holds the Air Ombre, glitter and chrome products, 176 in all, sorted by hand with the glitter master sets first. The rhinestone boxes live on their own page and under tools. Each of the four finishes has its own page with the full how-to, the color list and the troubleshooting; this page is the map, and the table above is the shortest route to the one you need.

Which finish for which look?

• "Ombre" or "gradient": Air Ombre. A white or pink spray over a nude base is the French ombre most clients mean; a color spray over a matching base is the fade.
• "Glitter tip" or "glitter French": French Glitter through the mould. For a fade of glitter rather than a line, Ombre Glitter with a brush.
• "Mirror" or "chrome": the UniChrome palette over a cured gel top. Silver over white, gunmetal over black, or a color chrome over GelStar.
• "Something sparkly on one nail": a BlingStones box, one accent nail, stones sealed around their base.
• "The one with the stripe of light": that's cat eye gel, a magnetic effect and a gel color rather than a nail art add-on, so it has its own page. So does pearl gel.

How do the finishes stack?

All four go on at the end of a set and most of them combine. The order is always the same: color and structure first, then the finish that goes into the set (Air Ombre or glitter, through the powder step), then a seal, then the finish that goes onto the set (chrome over a cured gel top, stones over the seal), then the final top or edge seal.

1. Set. Dip, gel or acrylic, with the color you want under the art. Dip color is under Dip-Only Powder, the liquids under Dip Essentials.
2. Into the set. Spray the Air Ombre or lay the glitter during the powder step, then encapsulate with a sheer powder from Pink & White so the surface files level.
3. Seal. Sealer Dry, file, Sealer Dry, top. For a chrome, the top is a cured gel top from Base & Top Gel; that is the surface the chrome needs.
4. Onto the set. Rub the chrome and seal it under gel top; set the stones in gel or glue and seal around them.

The French Dip Mould does double duty across this page: it lays a glitter tip with a clean smile line, and it makes a handy dish for spraying Air Ombre into. The lamp, files and dust brush are under tools and accessories.

Nail art by season

• Spring and bridal: a pale Air Ombre French, a pale French Glitter tip, a clear-and-pearl rhinestone box at the cuticle. The quiet finishes.
• Summer and festival: the neon and metallic Air Ombres, chrome over a bright GelStar, the mixed-color glitters. Our festival nail art round-up is the mood board.
• Fall: the green, brown and wine Air Ombres over a nude, a rose gold Ombre Glitter faded into a matching color. Fall nail ideas has the sets.
• Holiday: red and blue glitters through the mould, chrome over black, the loudest rhinestone boxes. Must-have holiday nails is the list.

Stocking nail art in a salon

Nail art is an add-on, so stock it like one: a few of each finish rather than every color. A working desk usually carries four Air Ombre bottles (a white, a pink, a metallic, a dark), one glitter master set in whichever cut the clientele asks for, the chrome palette, and three rhinestone boxes (a bridal, a pink, a loud one). That covers most of the requests a front desk hears, for a few hundred dollars of shelf. The full 148-color Air Ombre wall and the second glitter set are for a shop where art is the menu.

Related collections

• Air Ombre 148 sprayed gradient powders at $12.00.
• Glitter Nail Art French and ombre glitters, 12 colors each.
• Chrome Powder The UniChrome rub-on mirror palette.
• Rhinestones 20 BlingStones boxes, sorted by look.
• Cat Eye Gel The magnetic line effect, two lines of 24.
• Nail Tools & Accessories The French mould, the lamp, files and dust brush.

Related reads

• Easy nail art trends you can do at home
• How to do ombre nails with a dip powder manicure
• The latest trend: chrome nails
• The hottest nail art for your next music festival
• Must-have holiday nails
• Fall nail ideas you need to try