Feb: fulerton files

NAILING TRENDS

"I’ve been getting lots of calls from beauty journalists, asking my opinion on nail trends for the spring/summer season, but how long is a piece of string?"

From what I saw at the preview shows, bright colours will prevail again – in all areas. I’m thinking pink – and the hotter and more vibrant the better. Valentino switched from his signature red to pink lips, while purple lips were the order of the day on the Louis Vuitton Paris runway. Bright yellow and gold eyeliner prevailed all over fashion week, along with oranges, such as Juicy, by Leighton Denny.

Any kind of nail varnish effect with bright hues will be on trend. My crack nail tech team – Sam Watkinson and Sabrina Malik – used an off-white colour for Manish Arora at Paris Fashion Week to complement mendhi-painted hands.

THE FUTURE'S BRIGHT -- AND PINK I didn’t feel there were any definite nail trends on the catwalk, though – more of an ‘anything goes’ attitude with nail art making nails funkier and more daring, but without looking cheap and tacky.

The Dior show saw some great nails playing with contrasting colours on the lunula and tips. They were beautiful – very precise. I can’t help but feel Marian Newman’s skills may have prevailed there…

Shapes? Unless you’re going for a maximum impact I think brights and neons are best left to short-to-medium nails. Believe me, there’ll be enough going on with the colour without the length too!

Got a dinner date? I quoted recently for a glossy about wearing neon shades from day into night. A quick slip into dark/black evening clothes will change the look of the nails and let them be the hero for the evening. Maybe along with a matching lipstick, which I feel is making a comeback.

So what else has been happening? My booking for a haircare company’s new ad campaign was cancelled the next day owing to the client wanting to cut costs – as usual, it’s the nail tech that gets the chop.

I, along with other session nail artists, try to ‘enlighten’ people on shoots that that’s not the way it’s done and how specialist session nail technicians work.

I have to stress though, I feel things on set have changed over the past few years, with more and more nail technicians being recognised and requested as an expert in their own field – a great achievement for nail techs everywhere.