- September 17, 2018
- Nail care
- Anna Sklyanukhina
Manicure is the calling card of any avid fashionista. And men, as they say, will look at a girl’s hands first (after her eyes, of course). That is why we all love to create beauty on our nails and do not spare money for it. In this article you can read about one of the newfangled trends - ethnic, and specifically Greek, manicure.
Ethnic manicure
Ethnic manicure is one of the main fashion trends of the outgoing spring-summer season. “Ethnicity” in relation to nail design implies traditional designs of a national culture. For example, Indian style manicure is in great demand. India is all about special angular patterns mixed with soft feather elements, dream catchers and bright colors that create an unusually rich and rich palette on your nails. However, India, although one of the dominant ones, is still not the main ethnic trend of 2022. Manicure in the Greek style not only took first place among designs in colorful national traditions, but also supplanted many fashion trends independent of ethnic groups. You can count on the fact that girls who strictly follow trends, but who have fallen in love with Greece on their nails with all their hearts, will not have to give up their favorite design. Most likely, the Greek manicure will linger on the hands of fashionistas for a long time (at least for the autumn season).
Beautiful manicure in Chanel style
Chanel is the love of all girls. Even the most indifferent to fashion can find the famous little black dress in their wardrobe. This style will be popular for a long time. It is associated with elegance and impeccable taste. When doing a chic manicure in the Chanel style, don’t forget about this. Throw away everything unnecessary. Black, gold, white. Here are three colors you should stick to. Don’t get carried away with the abundance of accessories, otherwise Chanel will look “cheap”. The logo itself is painted with a brush, or special metallic stickers are used. A beautiful manicure in the Chanel style looks strict, fashionable and very impressive.
Beautiful manicure in Chanel style
Greece on nails
What is a Greek style manicure? Photos of this design literally filled the feed on social networks and various Internet sites. Often its main components are calm, pastel colors and a traditional Greek pattern: square curls, simultaneously reminiscent of labyrinths and real sea waves. It is unlikely that you will be able to follow the instructions in the “Greek manicure step by step” section on your own and do something really worthwhile on your nails. Why? It's simple: such a design will look dignified and expensive only if professionally executed. Its main components are: even angles, parallel, confident lines, and the absence of varnish smudges, which can be justified or veiled in soft designs. Greek manicure is expensive, elite and it should look five stars, no less.
How to do a Greek design
One of the easiest ways to create a Greek-style manicure on your nails is with stickers. Prints with Greek patterns are what can decorate your nails even at home. Specialized stores now sell many options in different sizes and colors; you just need to choose what you like best. And go ahead! To bring beauty to your own favorite hands!
Greek manicure is usually performed on each nail plate, but this rule only applies if the print (or design) is not very bright, of medium size - one that does not catch the eye. If your print is quite massive and flashy, you shouldn’t become a Christmas tree and sculpt it on all ten fingers. Not to overdo it in this matter is also an art.
Beautiful ombre manicure
Ombre is one of the most popular styles in makeup, hair coloring and, of course, manicure. Ombre manicure or gradient manicure is a combination of several shades with a smooth flow from one to another. Depending on the chosen color scheme, this truly beautiful manicure is perfect for both special occasions and as an everyday version of a fashionable manicure. It is done quite simply. Two or three shades of varnish are poured onto the foil next to each other, into which the sponge is dipped, then the resulting pattern is carefully transferred to the nails. For durability and smoothing of edges, a colorless fixing varnish is applied as a final layer. Evening ombre manicure is often performed using small sparkles. The ombre design itself is beautiful and, as a rule, does not require any additional decor. Although it is not uncommon to find ombre with a pattern or rhinestones.
Beautiful manicure in ombre style
Beautiful colored ombre
Matte ombre design
Gradient nails with sand
French style in Greek style
French manicure in the Greek style looks very unusual and quite interesting. What is he like? The same ethnic labyrinth frames the ends of the nail plates. In the language of “home service”, the unusual wave-like Greek pattern replaces the “white tip” familiar to the French jacket. This French manicure will be a wonderful addition and highlight to any fashionable look! It will also be suitable as a wedding manicure in the Greek style!
Beautiful manicure in Tiffany color
Young girls love this style because it is very gentle, sweet and touching. If we talk about a beautiful manicure in the Tiffany style, then we immediately remember the turquoise shade, bows and thin lace. The color scheme of this manicure is very pleasant. When creating it, in addition to turquoise, it is permissible to use white, pink or beige varnish. Bows and lace can be painted on with a thin brush or using stamping plates or stickers. Additional decor can be silver sparkles or varnish. For this style, a moon or French manicure is suitable as a base.
If you are doing a Tiffany manicure, then pay attention to ensure that your image is complete. Clothing and makeup should also be as close as possible to this style. By the way, the Tiffany color is perfect for a seaside manicure.
Beautiful manicure in Tiffany style
Is it just pastel?
The most familiar, classic version of Greek manicure is the design in calm, muted colors. However, no one canceled the brightness on the nails either! Do you like red? Why not do just one nail in the Greek style? Let's say, draw that same labyrinth with gold varnish on the ring finger. A black base also looks quite interesting, especially if you cover one or two nails with a matte varnish. Black and white classics are also appropriate in this case and will look completely non-trivial, but completely unusual.
The most important thing to remember is that it is strictly forbidden to get carried away! One red and gold nail in the Greek style looks interesting and beautiful, but ten looks tasteless and pretentious. By the way, a dim rub or glitter coating would also look quite interesting, but again this is appropriate on no more than two fingers on each hand.
Beautiful manicure in swag style
Artsy, quirky, bright, unconventional, crazy. This is how you can describe a manicure in the swag style. It's something between pop art and graffiti. Swag design can be called an explosive mixture of bright varnishes, an abundance of decor and unusual patterns. This is not a manicure for every day. It is more likely for variety, some special occasions or just a good mood. They usually draw inscriptions on nails, anime, comic or cartoon characters, popular brands and much more. In a word, who knows what? Very often, swag manicure is done on long triangular-shaped nails. There are two directions in swag design: aggressive, shocking and infantile. As for the latter, bows, cakes, and candies can be used as designs on nails. Everything is pink, sugary, girlish, powdered with glitter and covered in rhinestones. Swag design is quite interesting due to its originality and creative approach. Whether a manicure in the swag style is beautiful or not, everyone decides for themselves.
Beautiful manicure in swag style
Greek pantheon
Greek manicure, of course, is not limited to one pattern, even if it can be used in the most unexpected and beautiful combinations. We are all well aware of the traditional pantheon of Greek gods. Haven’t yet had time to get acquainted with the mythology of mysterious and alluring Greece? It's time to open a book or even go to the Greek islands (you'll swim in the sea and understand the culture!), because these are the faces that may appear on your beautiful nails!
Of course, the most profitable and high-quality option for depicting one of the Greek gods on your nail is a print sticker. However, if you are one hundred percent confident in your nail technician, you can trust her (and maybe even him, who knows) to show all her artistic abilities on your nail and use a brush to paint the deity by hand. But remember that if Zeus doesn’t like his image, he may become angry!
What, besides the gods, is depicted in Greek manicure designs? The photos you find in your feed will show both columns and traditional Greek temples. For example, the temple of Artemis or the great Athena. Yes, yes, this happens! You can depict the labyrinths of the Minotaur on your nails or understand the intricacies of the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders. While the master is processing the cuticle, you can enlighten him, and then demand that he put his knowledge into practice by drawing that same Ionic order on your hands!
Three main “surpluses”
The first and, perhaps, main danger is rhinestones. Rhinestones are beautiful, always interesting, but inappropriate in the case of Greek manicure. This element is quite possible in a design in which one nail (or two) is made in the Greek style, but if all ten fingers are given over to the power of this wonderful country, there is no need to introduce an element of modern American vulgarity into expensive ancient Greece.
The next danger is prints. Prints are a new fashion trend of the outgoing trend season, with which, however, you need to be as careful as possible. This is an excellent decoration option for a home manicure, but prints also require a special approach, so by applying them at home, you can not only ruin the intended design, but also make your nails untidy and unkempt. Also, prints carry a hidden threat of overdoing it. They need to be handled wisely. Let's talk directly about Greek manicure. Quite often, girls and women, instead of limiting themselves to Zeus and Hera, try to fit all their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren on their nails. Naturally, there is still not enough space, but even twenty-one pairs of eyes staring intently at your interlocutor can seriously strain him. And keep in mind, only one pair is yours!
One of the most obvious, but, nevertheless, no less rare “excess” is pretentious multicolor. This is especially true for the Greek style nail design. If you want Greece on your fingers to look really expensive and chic, you should not make the traditional pattern for this style (labyrinth waves) with all the colors of the rainbow. This seems absurd, but such a danger exists! Why not make all three rows of parallel lines in different colors? But for some reason everyone forgets that in the end such a design, in addition to stealing all the mysterious charm of Greece, looks cheap and vulgar.
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It is known that a wavy repeating pattern, used in decorative art back in the days of Ancient Greece, is called a meander. MEANDR (Greek maiandros, Latin meander; meatus - “movement, flow, circulation”) - in ancient art - a motif of a geometric style ornament, formed by a broken line at a right angle or spiral curls. According to one version, the element of this ornament comes from the image of a trap, a hunting trap for an animal. On this basis, a meander is considered a type of labyrinth. At the same time, its connection with the motif of the cross - the swastika - a symbol of fire and perpetual motion is obvious. The ancients saw a deep magical meaning in the meander ribbon of the ornament; it reflected the flow of human Life. Straightforwardness and the straight path symbolized virtue. A meander can only consist of right angles, which give the line additional rigidity and correspond to an increase in virtue. As an ornament, the meander was often used in Etruscan and ancient Greek, and then in ancient Roman, Byzantine, Romanesque architecture on vases and small household items. The inclusion of a swastika in the meander indicates the presence in natural life processes of an additional factor of supernatural grace, which ultimately becomes the dominant, organizing node of each segment of the path. Such a meander is still called nandavartaya (nandyavarta) in India, i.e. "twisting" or "circle of happiness."
Spirals, circles, swastikas, as well as waves (water motif), zigzags (signs of lightning and thunder), are depicted on clay vessels from Susa in Mesopotamia and stone ones from the island. Naxos. Therefore, there is reason to believe that the meander motif is one of the oldest symbols of the elements, and only later it began to be associated with the winding bed of the Meandros River (now Greater Menderes) in the western part of Asia Minor. At the beginning of the 1st century. n. e. Strabo mentions this: “The flow of the river becomes so winding that from this all kinds of meanders are even called meanders.” However, from this statement the logic of the origin of the name is unclear; it can be assumed that the name of the river also came from association with the ancient motive of movement (compare Greek maieia - “midwifery, movement of life”; Sansk. maja - “movement, transformation”).
A strict, chaotic, free image of a meander in combination with dolphins, flowers... everything is suitable for modern nail design... And this is only the beginning of approaching the Greek style.
During the period of ancient classics, the abstract principle prevailed in the meander - absolute rhythm, a metric grid based on a somewhat elongated rectangle (architects call such a figure an “unequal square”). The continuity of the meander and its asymmetry (direction in one direction) ideally express continuous movement. Therefore, the meander is used as decoration for friezes, architectural drafts, pilasters, and platbands. In the art of Rome, a “double meander” was more often used with the superposition of two zigzags and a metric shift of “half a step”, as a result of which a swastika is formed at the point of intersection of the zigzags. Such a meander adorns the horizontal belt of the “Altar of the World of Augustus” in Rome. In the art of European classicism of the 18th-19th centuries. The meander motif was called “bordure a la grecque” (French, “border in Greek”). And these are variations on the theme of meander or geometric manicure style.
MEANDERS, a system of loop-shaped bends (bends) of natural origin that make up the river bed. Meanders are formed due to the fact that the flow of water, in its movement, bypasses all obstacles that cannot be eroded, such as outcrops of hard rock. The term comes from the name of the aforementioned heavily winding Meander River in Asia Minor. As Seneca points out, the Meander River “is a subject of exercise and play for all poets, winds through frequent bends, approaches its own bed and turns again before it has time to flow into itself” (Seneca. Letters to Lucilius CIV:15).
Series of messages “Image of Urumki and Romei.”:
Uryms and Romans are two ethnic groups of Greek Christians who came from Crimea and settled in the Northern Azov region. We use elements of national design in a modern way.
Part 1 - Greek manicure style
