South Korea is rightly called the main global trendsetter in all matters related to beauty and personal care. Korean manicurists gave the world a lot of amazing ideas, and manufacturers do not get tired of delighting lovers of beautiful pens with new interesting materials for design.
Korea is the birthplace of such wonderful trends as stamping, aquarium technology, space design, singju, cobweb gel, liquid stones, rubbing, foil and molding, and this is not a complete list. One gets the feeling that they are inventing another novelty there, releasing it into the big world and immediately rushing to create something new.
Western masters continue to decorate nails with impressions with intricate ornaments, but in Seoul this has long bothered everyone. They offer to abandon trivial decisions and go beyond the ordinary. What is Korean manicure today? The answer to this question is as complex and difficult as Asia itself.
Short length and natural shape
Neat fingers with short-cut nails, decorated with just a couple of strokes, look cute and naive. Nude and pastel shades, naive pictures literally on 1-2 nails, a natural form without a hint of attempts to tighten the arch - this is one of the most fashionable areas in Seoul. Dried flowers, skeletonized leaves, colored threads are widely used for design.
Such a Korean manicure for nails of short length is perfect. The choice in his favor can be made by girls who do not manage to grow their nails, and they do not like building. As well as fashionistas, forced to wear a short manicure in connection with professional activities.
Free hands drawings
Can't draw? Excellent! So, you definitely should do a Korean manicure. For work, you can use not only a stationery liner (which many nail masters have long chosen), but also markers, felt-tip pens, gel pastes. The non-standard use of tools and material is one of the features of a purely Korean approach to nail art.
Feel free to decorate your nails with funny faces, cartoon trees and houses, animals. If you get a result that gives the impression of a child’s drawing, it means you’ve hit the bull's eye.
Some Korean-style manicure designs seem weird. Nails can be varnished in different colors, and from the decorations there are only dots, small squares, dashes. Very intentionally careless portraits in a minimalist style look very Korean, when, for example, only a profile line and eyebrows are drawn. A very popular drawing is the image of the eye.
The name of the free hands technique literally translates as “by hand”. But let’s tell you a secret: it’s still easier. There are plenty of sliders and stickers with primitive drawings on sale.
Color spectrum
Koreans today are simply obsessed with light colors. But no restrictions simply exist. If you can’t choose from 3-5 varnishes, which one to apply to your nails - take all 5. For the Korean style, this is acceptable. But it is important to observe the main condition - the colors should be in perfect harmony with each other.
Minimalism
A pair of small squares or circles is enough to place accents. Korean craftsmen simply adore minimalism. A manicure can be completely monophonic (usually in bright colors) or performed in 2-3 close shades. Colored paints are also acceptable, but are used more often for accents, and not for the background.
From extreme to extreme: experiments with textures
Along with laconic and modest minimalism, there is its antipode - the deliberately decorative and artsy style of Korean manicure. Who says rhinestones should be smaller than nails? Korean masters do not agree with this!
Not only rhinestones are used. Using unexpected solutions, as we already know, is a favorite tactic of Koreans. They even use buttons, rivets, spikes, LEDs, microchips, feathers, natural fur, ribbons, shells for design, for design ...
All this looks strange, impractical to wear, but such arguments are not enough for Korean creators. It seems they are not going to stop.
Beyond design
But the most interesting thing is that they are ready to go even beyond the limits of the nail plates. In Asia, a new trend is gaining popularity - stones, crystals, pearls, sparkles and beads on the cuticle, side rollers and the back of the hands.
Yes, for everyday wear, such an idea is impractical. But, for example, for a photo shoot, this decision may be the most advantageous.
Manicure jewelry
The author of the idea is the master and fashion blogger Park Eunkyung. She invents, manufactures and widely uses unusual rings in her works. Such jewelry is worn directly near the nail, their curly elements act as part of the design.
The world has already made sure that trends coming from Asia are delayed for a long time at the fashionable Olympus. Probably, the same fate is destined for Korean manicure. Photos of unusual designs that seem strange today are still viewed with interest by fashionistas from different countries. And the most courageous already in full embody the creative ideas of Korean masters.