We had a blast partnering with Unistella for her New York Fashion Week debut at the Creatures of Comfort show, where the phenomenon of #glassnails was re-interpreted with a NYFW spin.

Glow Recipe is also excited to exclusively introduce – for a limited time only – a NYFW edition of Unistella’s glass nails stickers in celebration of her debut at fashion week. Recreate the look straight from the runway and bring out your inner artist!

Unistella backstage at the 2016 F/W Creatures of Comfort show

We originally brought Park Eunkyung of Unistella to NYC for our pop-up shop in October, and the #glassnail trend shows little sign of slowing down with new Insta shots populating the hashtag every day. At our pop-up event, Unistella recounted the story of how glass nails were inspired by the pearlized, iridescent shine of the inside of abalone shells. With inspiration in mind, she began the search for a holographic material that could capture the prismatic, multi-faceted shine of the abalone. At the Unistella salon, the film is sometimes cut into tiny triangles and gently layered onto wet gel polish to ensure the film adheres to the nail.

Prepping ‘glass shards’ at the Unistella salon

To make the glass trend more accessible to everyone, Unistella created special glass nail stickers crafted with a special holographic film for at-home manicures, designed to hug the curve of the nail.

Unistella’s special nail stickers are made with the same ultra-reflective film, but it’s pre-cut into triangles, making the glass nail look infinitely easier to achieve at home. Each nail film set comes with 20 unique shattered glass patterns. No gel polish is mandatory – just any regular nail polish will do in addition to tweezers and a steady hand!

Prepare your nails as you normally would with a basecoat. We’ve arrived at a juncture where you can decide to place the stickers on a nude nail or on a colored nail. Different base colors cause the film to pick up and reflect light in different ways. A dark base will pick up the emerald green tones of the film while a nude or pale-colored base makes the shimmering pink tones more apparent.

Using your tweezers, gently remove the pre-cut shapes from the sheet and place onto nail. If you aren’t sure which arrangement of triangles would look best, the sheet is organized into nail-shaped clusters to guide your placement. Otherwise, you can mix and match whichever shapes you want for a personalized glass nail look.

A pair of sharp tweezers really helps for precision application!

Make sure all the edges of the sticker are properly adhered to the nail and immediately finish off with a generous amount of topcoat. In fact, Unistella personally suggests at least 2 layers of top coat to ensure that the stickers don’t lift and peel off. Another option is to seal everything in with a layer of gel polish. Make sure to extend the topcoat to very tip of the nail so that it’s ‘gripping’ your nail for extended wear.

Et voila! Beautiful glass nails that are ready for the runway and for everyday. You can find the exclusive limited edition glass nail sticker here. (We’re proud to be the only authorized distributor of official Unistella glass nail stickers in the US!)

Don’t forget to show us how you rock your #glassnails (or #glassnail) by tagging @unistella_official and @glowrecipe in your photos. See below for some of our favorite looks from Unistella as a bit of inspiration!

Get your #glassnail glow on,
The Glow Recipe Team