Nail art breaks boundaries of classic manicure

NEW YORK -- Hand-carved three-dimensional fruit, intricate snakeskin and tiny faces all painted on a fingernail.\nIs it art? Or just a really good manicure?\nMaybe it's both.\nThe designs, part of a traveling art exhibit, may seem outlandish for an everyday hand, but they're just an extreme representation of the growing trends in nail design and manicures.\nThe beauty salon has long been a staple for wealthy women, but the business of affordable manicures and pedicures is booming. It's hard to go a few blocks in many cities and suburban shopping strips without seeing a nail salon.\nJudy Lessin, beauty editor of the trade publication Nails Magazine, said with the growth comes more daring design than the traditional one-color polish job.\n"It's like Starbucks for your hands," she said. "You can give yourself something special, a little treat, that's fun and relatively inexpensive."\nLessin said most customers will add a little flair like a rhinestone or a flower on one nail. "It may be quick, but it takes skill to do it well," she said.\nThe traveling exhibit is made up of designs that took hours -- and lots of skill -- to create. More than 100 manicurists created nail art for the nationwide contest, sponsored by a new fruity wine aimed at women called Frutezia by Wild Vines Vineyards out of Modesto, Calif. Hopefuls painted on acrylic nails, took photos of their work and mailed them along with an essay on what made it unique.\nThe winners each received a $1,000 check, and their finished nails were put on hand models and professionally photographed for the exhibit, which traveled to New York, Atlanta and Houston. The exhibit will eventually have a permanent home, but Wild Vines officials haven't figured out where just yet.\nLessin was one of the judges. She said the winners were chosen for originality, not necessarily wearability.\n"It's sort of like a runway fashion," she said. "You don't want wear them to the office. Maybe you'd wear a toned-down version on one nail or something, or go all out for a holiday."\nWinner Erica Plyter of Fort Stewart, Ga., filed bits of acrylic down to make three dimensional grapes, oranges and strawberries which hang off the tips of the nails she created. She said she spent weeks working on the idea.\n"I was standing in the grocery store line, and I saw this ad for the contest, and I was in the mood for a project," she said. "But I started feeling like a full-time artist."\nPlyter, 32, gives manicures out of her home. She hand-paints all her designs and does not use an electric drill. It may be time consuming, but she finds it calming and she likes the human interaction.\n"I have brushes that have only three hairs on it," she said. "I work better with a small space, so nails are perfect for me. I don't know what I'd do with a huge empty canvas."\nShe loves to do scenes that use one idea on each nail and tie the hand together. For example, she recently finished a theme called "under the big top" where she painted circus animals and balloons on each acrylic. Except she can't find anyone in her area whose willing to sit for hours for "extreme" nail art.\n"I haven't found anyone who really likes the flashy, big stuff yet," she said. "I at least try to put some sparkle or a rhinestone on at least one nail before they go out the door."\nManicurist Amy Lin said some of her original designs take up to an hour to create. She carries a box full of stickers, stencils and jewels along with nail polish.\n"This is art; it's just a more functional kind of art," she said. "It has a specific purpose, to make the client look nice."\nLin said demand for her work has grown so much that she only works on magazine photo shoots now. Hot trends right now? Company logos, like Louis Vuitton and Prada.\nThe growth of the business is thanks mostly to immigrants from Vietnam who opened up more affordable salons, said Hannah Lee, executive editor of Nails Magazine. The U.S. Census Bureau created a separate category for nail salons in 2002, breaking out from beauty salons, and there were more than 9,000 establishments across the country. That doesn't include more traditional beauty salons, where manicures and pedicures are part of the services; there are more than 74,000 in the United States.\nPrices range from $7 for a bare bones manicure up to $50 at swank salons. Nearly 38 percent of all nail technicians are Vietnamese, according to a Nails Magazine survey of 1,987 technicians.