How to Do Dry Flower Nail Art

Clear nail polish sounds like a pretty boring manicure, but turns out it only requires one more thing to take it to work-of-art status: giant flowers. Park Eun Kyung, founder of Unistella and inventor of some our favorite manicures ever (including the multifaceted diamond mani, cutting-edge wire nails, and mesmerizing sunglasses nails), is at it again. This time, she's created what she calls #dryflowerart, and it's not what you're thinking. Sure, we've occasionally seen manicures accessorized with tiny petals and blooms from real flowers, but not like this. Instead of restricting the flower to the nail bed, she lets it extend halfway down the finger, creating the optical illusion that your hands are sprouting flowers (a little weird, but very cool).

It goes without saying that this isn't he most practical of looks. In fact, wash your hands one time and it's going to get destroyed, considering how delicate and brittle dried flowers can be. But, if you're in the mood to snap an eye-catching picture, coat your nails in clear polish, find some pretty flowers, and attach them with a dab of nail glue. Who needs a green thumb when you can have a whole garden on your thumb?

Years ago when I worked in the food service industry, I remember priding myself on not being the “type of girl” to get manicures — a smugness that promptly dissipated after I finally got one for the first time and understood the appeal. For less than $25 and in less than 30 minutes, you get a relaxing hand massage and an unclumpy nail polish job that announces to the outside world “I’m an adult woman with money and a put-together outfit,” whether or not any of those things are actually true.

But there are many layers to unpack here, from the weirdness of having a stranger hold your hands to the questionable ethics of supporting an often exploitative industry (if you somehow missed it, please read the New York Times’ 2015 exposé The Price of Nice Nails). Not to mention the unfairness of feminine beauty standards; to maintain an un-chipped, perfectly polished manicure, you basically can’t use your fingers.