Trend alert: this season’s nifty nail art

Here’s a question: what do your nails look like today? Bitten? Buffed? French manicured? Or neon coral with leopard print transfer spots and a peace sign dangling from the end? If the answer’s the latter, you’re either a Brazilian drag queen or you’re embracing 2010′s most micro micro-trend, scene-stealing nail art.

That’s micro only in dimension, because our smallest accessorisable body parts are suddenly huge again. After years of going au naturel, the coolest kids are rediscovering fluoro fingertips again. Not just colours either, but transfers, gems, nail charms and all manner of brilliant bling. Last year, it was tackier than half-dried paint on a hen night limo. This year, it’s hot.

Just ask Sophy Robson. Queen of the celebrity talon salon, Robson’s London studio has become the centre of the nail art revolution, tending to everyone from Rihanna to Vivienne Westwood. Her designs (above) are playful pieces of mini-art, often inspired by trends fresh from the catwalk. There are stripy nails, sparkly nails, floral nails, Dior monogrammed nails and Hello Kitty nails, all intricately painted, elegantly rounded and long.

It’s the length that is perhaps the most surprising, as for ages now long nails have spelled t-r-a-s-h quicker than you can say Snog Marry Avoid. We were meant to wear them filed short, because long nails were debilitating and try-hard. But not any longer – provided they’re softly rounded, not square, and long enough to give a sexy rap-a-tap-tap on a desk like a femme fatale from a movie but not long enough to get anybody wondering how you manage in the toilet, they qualify as a style statement again.

We should be excited too, because nails are a fantastic trend fix. Cheap, easy and reversible with the swipe of a Quickie pad, it’s a great way to try out this season’s colours without the long-term commitment of a clothing purchase. A jacket in bright coral pink might sit in the back of your wardrobe with the tag still on, whining at you every time you open the door, but the worst that bright coral nails are going to do is possibly make your fingers look like seafood sticks. Until you take it off and try mint green instead.

Barry M has one of the best ranges out there, with nail paint for just £2.95 in a gorgeous array of on-trend colours, including a new collection of delicious ice cream-inspired shades. We love the earthy Mushroom, a classy taupe shade, and Pink Flamingo, which looks great with this summer’s faded denims – check them out here.

The nail art is a trickier area, with all its connotations of late 90s slumber parties and, well, strippers. But it’s time to embrace the brash, and the best way is to take a deep breath and jump in headfirst with something fun and ironic – we love leopard print, flowers, or striped tips in different colours. Tropical motifs will be everywhere this summer, and they also look great on nails in Club Tropicana-style sunset colours.

Then, for the super-brave among you, there are nail charms. A hangover from that piercing bout that fashion went through in the late ’90s (remember hair piercing? Those tiny springs you put in your hair with gems on each end? Yes, mental), nail charms are one of the least practical and most frivolous ways we have of adorning ourselves. But when you think about it, they’re no more ridiculous than earrings. Really. Hollywood Star Nails in Peckham do a fun selection, with little peace signs, flowers and umbrellas to hang from your talons. The best way to pull off the look is with your tongue firmly in cheek, and plenty of ghetto attitude to match. Limit it to one nail per hand and don’t operate any machinery.

Image: www.sophyrobson.com