The latest in nail art is giving new meaning to "lady lumps."
On Instagram, women have been sharing photos of their "bubble" nails the past few weeks and the trend is slowly catching on. But will it become mainstream?
The trend finds its roots back in 2009, when Nail Magazine did a feature on a bubble nail art created by a nail technician from Philadelphia. But the technique hasn't become popular until today.
"It was prevalent five or six years ago, right at the beginning of nail art, but it never gained popularity," said Pattie Yankee, a celebrity nail artist, via Today.
Beyond color experimentation, this nail art appears to give the nails a 3-D effect. The process of creating bubble nails is not so simple, and according to the news outlet, this is not a technique taught in schools for nail techs.
To achieve the effect, a ball of acrylic is placed in the middle of the nails before anything else, then the nail tech forms the hump. "The nail has to be thin at the cuticle, then it gradually gets thicker as it gets to the middle of the nail plate. Then from the middle of the nail plate it has to gradually get thinner at the tip of the nail, like a nice smooth hill. The curve has to be perfect," nail tech Hoa Bui said in the Nails Mag report.
Half of the fingers have be soaked in acetone, a flammable substance, in what is called an "acetone bath," according to Times of India.
"If done properly it would be safe as long as it's not worn for a long period of time. I would wear for at the most a month and then switch to a regular style," said Yankee.
The cost for such a procedure is an additional $10 to $15 on top of the base price for a regular manicure.
A photo posted by News GE (@garotoestupido) on Aug 15, 2015 at 2:27pm PDT
While plenty of women have tried bubble nails, it is, in fact not very easy to work with. "It's sort of like you're wearing thimbles on all of your fingers or that you have mini (sparkly) visors protecting your nails," wrote Heather Cichowski on The Gloss.
Others, however, haven't been convinced about this trend. "(it looks like) [a]n infected fingernail or something," said Jami Suiter, a regular client at a day spa, according to 13WMAZ.
But nail technicians embrace the trend as it gives them a chance to display their ability. "Initially, when I look at it, if I'm looking at it from a client's view, I wouldn't understand it. But from a technician's standpoint, I think bubble nails are really made to give you a larger platform so you can draw," said Dana Cody, the star of the Oxygen series "Boss Nails," in an exclusive interview with HNGN.
