A recent Twitter highlight for me was catching the entertaining New York Fashion Week backstage tweets from Fashion Magazine’s beauty editor Lesa Hannah as she hunted down the Fall 2010 beauty trends. Along with interviews with industry superstars such as makeup artists Dick Page, Tom Pecheaux, François Nars, Gordon Espinet and Gucci Westman (and an encounter with cranky hairstylist Orlando Pita), she snagged chat time with nail pros such as Nonie Creme from Butter London, Jin Soon Choi, who did a collection for MAC last season, Jan Arnold and Roxanne Valinoti of Creative Nail Design (CND), Deborah Lippmann and Yuna Park (in vid above). And happily for those of us who fell for Fall 2009’s grey shades for nails, there’s more to come:

 

Remember when Chanel tipped us off that they'd be debuting a new nail polish shade at their Spring 2010 runway show?

Well, today they did. And gray is the word for spring.

Fall 2009's must have shade, Jade, was designed by Chanel creative director Peter Philips to accent the sea green highlight tone in their Fall tweed.

And this putty-ish shade (According to Style.com, its name is Particulière) is similarly complementary, acting as a smart accessory to the mainly monotone beige, gray, ivory and black nubby weaves in the Spring show. And it offers and edgy counterpoint to the tattoos Philips designed for the show.

The shade, which commenters are sounding off on at All Lacquered Up, appears to be a purple based gray that's a hair paler and purpler than Sephora by OPI's Metro Chic - one of the polishes at the forefront of the gray manicure movement back in Fall 2008 - and cements the dark nails trend that emerged in New York and remained consistent in London, Milan and now Paris.

From blacks to grays, the outlook for spring tips is somber - in a good way.

Hand painted nail art can add a touch of glamor to a simple manicure or pedicure. It is easy to do and requires very basic materials to achieve gorgeous-looking nails. Read on for information on some hand painted nail art designs.

Nail art is the perfect solution to boring nails that are painted with different shades of nail enamel. Adding some designs to your nails can be a fun way to enhance the beauty of your fingernails and will also enable you to sport gorgeous-looking nails. Hand painted nail art is relatively easier to do on artificial or stick-on nails, but with a little practice, doing them on your nails will get easy. You can experiment with a lot of designs and come up with a few of your own. As far as nail art is concerned, sky is the limit for creativity. Hand painted nail art can be done on fingernails as well as the toe nails. The designs can be made to compliment a certain occasion or even for daily wear purposes. Here are some hand painted nail art designs to get you started.


Flower Nail Design

Supplies Needed

• Base coat
• Nail polish (any dark shade)
• Nail art paint or acrylic (white, green and yellow)
• Striper brush
• Liner brush
• Fine nib nail art pen
• Top coat

Directions

Paint your nails with a base coat, allow it to dry and then put on the dark shade of nail polish. Allow it dry and then apply the second coat and allow it to dry. Using a liner brush and white nail art paint or white acrylic paint, to draw four petals using a sweeping motion at the center of the nail. Draw another flower at the base of the nail, or maybe half a petal, depending upon the length of your nail. Between these petals, draw random long flicks using the striper brush. Add a few dots along the length of the flicks. Fill the center of the flower with a bright yellow dot using yellow acrylic or nail art paint. Paint some leaves using green paint, around the petals. Once the paint dries well, apply a top coat and allow it to dry.

Snow White Nail Design

Supplies Needed

• Base coat
• Nail polish (sheer white and electric blue)
• Nail art paint or acrylic (white and electric blue)
• Silver rhinestones
• Striper brush
• Liner brush
• Fine nib nail art pen
• Nail art glue
• Top coat

Directions

Paint your nails with a base coat and allow it to dry. Apply two coats of the sheer white nail polish to your entire nail and let it dry well. Then apply the electric blue nail polish, diagonally, to half the nail and allow it to dry well. Now, take the white acrylic paint or nail art paint and draw three, half portions of an arrow head on the blue portion. Then complete the arrow heads by drawing the other halves with blue paint on the white portion. Allow it to dry well. Using nail art glue, stick a silver rhinestone at the center of the second arrow head on each nail, then apply the top coat and let it dry.

Swirl Nail Design

Supplies Needed

Base coat
• Nail polish (white, pink and pastel blue)
• Nail polish with silver glitter
• Dotting tool
• Liner brush
• Top coat

Directions

Apply a coat of the base coat and allow it to dry. Apply the nail polish with silver glitter on the nail tips and allow it to dry well. Then, using a dotting tool, apply a dot of pink on the base of the nail, a dot of pastel blue in the center and a dot of white on the tips, one below the other. Using a liner brush, spread the dots in a circular motion, starting with the pastel blue, then pink and then white. The swirls should merge well and should be spread over the entire nail. Allow this to dry and then apply the top coat.