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nail art

Accessorized nails make even your X-rays a fashionable photo shoot.

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Purikura evolved: Design and print your own nail art with Sega’s new “Nail-Puri” machines【Video】

The machines are available at arcades and amusement centers in the “purikura” section and offer over 1,500 designs.

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Twitter user in Japan makes amazing, tiny nail art with nail clippers and a utility knife【Pics】

Typically, nail art in Japan is bold and colorful or just plain huge, but it turns out neither are requisites to being impressive! Sometimes small can be just as amazing as big (at least that’s what we tell ourselves), and one Twitter user has gone a long way to proving that with her diminutive and delicate nail art, created by literally carving the tips of her nails!

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Ganguro girl prepares to rival Wolverine with her epic claws

Japan’s ganguro fashion started among Japanese girls in the mid-90s. Ganguro fashionistas are difficult to miss with their deep-tanned (or darkly made-up) faces contrasted by seemingly sporadically-placed white makeup, wildly-voluminous hair, and brightly colored clothing and accessories.

While ganguro are a dwindling breed, specimens can still be found, like this Twitter user who has decided to take her manicures to the next level as well, leaving us wondering how she goes about her daily activities with those impressive talons.

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Your nail art may be cute, but is it Kabuki-cute? New style trend begins with 100 yen stickers

Nail art is something that’s increasingly popular among Japan’s ladies due to the fact that it’s an easy way to express your individual style. As well as DIY-ing it at home with 100 yen store nail polishes and nail stickers, you can also get reasonably affordable yet super-durable gel manicures in a salon which are set by UV light and last for at least a month. Nail art trends tend to come and go depending on the season and whatever’s in style, but occasionally there’s a “boom” for a certain kind of design, with more and more people jumping on the bandwagon. First came anime nail art, and now it’s the turn of traditional Japanese performance art, Kabuki!

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“Business Nail” – the latest trend among young Japanese businessmen looking to get ahead

In a country where concepts like uniformity and social cohesion are praised from kindergarten to retirement, and where those who seek out their own paths are considered quirky at best and troublesome renegades at worst, it is difficult for young professionals in Japan to stand out and make a name for themselves. For men especially, who more often than not must don the same black suit, white shirt and neutral-coloured necktie combo as their millions of peers, it’s easy to become just another face in the commuter crowd.

But a new generation of young businessmen has recently started bucking social trends in order to do precisely what they were always discouraged from: stand out and get noticed. Known as bijinesu neiru (“business nail”), thousands of men working in industries from pharmaceuticals to video game design are now paying hundreds of dollars a week to have their fingernails prettied up with gemstones, pastel-pinks, hearts and even company logos, with many claiming that, since getting their nails done, they have been rewarded with pay rises and promotions, and now have more friends and lovers than they could ever have dreamed.

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Meanwhile, in Japan: Puzzle game Candy Crush hires girl’s nails as advertising space

Japan knows a thing or two about human billboards. And now, from the PR company that brought the world adverts stuck to girls’ thighs on the condition that the girls wear short skirts and knee-high socks, comes a brand new marketing idea: Candy Crush are sponsoring this girl’s fingernails, with a wacky, candy-based design that’s as bold and colourful as the game itself.

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