This Season's Hottest Trend for Nails

When high-end fashion label Topshop’s models hit the catwalk at London Fashion week this year, it wasn’t their outfits that caused a stir, it was their incredible kooky black and white Dalmatian-print nails that had everybody talking.

But this wasn’t the first time prints have made an appearance on nails. Just a few months ago, actress Lindsay Lohan infamously attended a court hearing, sporting a multicoloured pastiche of pastel nail polish with a controversial phrase printed on her index finger nail. This was followed by a host of other celebrities including Rihanna, Katy Perry and Fergie showing up on the red carpet showing off everything from animal prints to smiley faces, initials and even miniaturised photos on their nails.

So it was no surprise when Sally Hansen released their own unique range of do-it-yourself printed nail strips in Australia this year and got everyone hoping on the printed nail bandwagon.

Though the Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips range features intricate designs such as ornate lace and leopard print, they’re surprisingly straightforward to apply. Simply:

1.       Ensure you have clean, polish-free nails. Using the stick provided, push your cuticles back lightly. 

2.       Try the various strip sizes against your nails to see which one fits best. Once you have found the perfect fit, peel off both the front and back strips, holding the strip delicately now at one end.

3.       Line the strip up perfectly with your nail (if you make a mistake the strip is actually forgiving enough to let you peel it off and readjust it at least once), then smooth it down. Using the nail file provided, lightly file away the excess decal overhanging your nail.

The strips look quite convincingly like freshly applied polish, only they’re dry right away and much more difficult to chip or spoil. They’re made using real polish, so can be removed in the same way you’d remove your everyday polish.

The Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips are available in 24 different fashion designs.

If you are a hardened nail polish addict and the mere thought of a strip seems like manicure sacrilege, you can try using a nail stencil kit to achieve the same look, like the Kiss Nail Designer Kit which comes complete with polish and stencil stickers. To use, simply:

1.       Paint your nails in your chosen base shade. If you are going for a Dalmatian print, you would paint them in a white polish.

2.       Next, once polish is thoroughly set and you have applied a second coat and allowed it to dry, peel off the stencil sticker backing strip and firmly press down to your nail.  Now you can carefully paint over the sticker with your chosen top colour – if you were doing Dalmatian spot, this would be black.

3.       Once the top coat has started to lightly dry, carefully peel away the stencil sticker. Allow the polish to set hard then apply a clear top coat to finish.

The Kiss Nail Designer Kit features 30 different stencils to choose from and the stencils are compatible with any polish.