Cuticle Art Is Spring's Prettiest New Nail Trend

Eun Kyung Park, founder of Korea's legendary Unistella salon (opens in new tab), is basically the Picasso of nail art. Remember her wire nail creations (opens in new tab)? Yes, we're still obsessed too. And now, the innovative manicure artist has a new style that's equally as cutting-edge and beautiful. Not to mention, turns the nuisance of the nail area—yes, the cuticle—into its pièce de résistance.

We first tapped into the trend over the weekend when Park posted gorgeous, rainbow-inspired cuticle art. And while it looks like something only a professional can yield, Park assured us she had her own hack for getting picture-perfect lines: French tip stickers.

"Put on a base coat and stick French guide stickers along the cuticle lines leaving 0.3 to 0.4 cm from the cuticle," instructs Park. "Then, put on the color of your choice and take off the sticker. Once you have the color cuticle line, prepare some glitter of a similar color scheme. Put a layer of top coat on the whole surface of nails, then put some glitter on the cuticle line. Finally, put on another layer of top coat."

When we took a deeper dive into the #CuticleOnly hashtag, we discover that Park, as well as other nail artists at Unistella, have been getting experimental with the streamlined approach for months now.

"Cuticle art should be very simple and minimal—the color or the design should be the accent," advises Park. "Don't try to do something too complicated."

Not only did we spot many instances where Park gave the cuticles the wire treatment, but she also capitalized on the beauty world's current chrome obsession (opens in new tab)—cutting up shiny material and placing tiny geometric pieces along the bottom of the nail.

While the base of the nail seems to be the primary focus for a reverse-French-manicure kind of vibe, Park has also gotten playful with the entire circumference of the cuticle. A few months ago, she spiced up negative space by painting ultra-thin horse shoe shapes along the sides of the nail bed—switching up the direction so that the base of the shape was either at the tip or bottom of the nails.

The moral of the story? Statement cuticles = hot right now, which is all the more reason to take proper care of them (opens in new tab).

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