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Posted on: August 3, 2012

Fall fashion for 2012 is, in a word, decadent, with gilded Baroque looks, lace and a palette of muted jewel tones and metallics.  It is no surprise that manicures and nail art are following suit to enhance it. Five of the biggest fall trends rely on unconventional techniques to elevate nails to works of art.

Lace It Up

Lace has had a strong showing throughout the summer season and that will continue into fall. A current manicure look pairs pale mauve or taupe nail polish with an overlay of black lace from a local craft store. The lace is secured with nail glue and finished off with a clear, protective top coat. For a twist on the trend, try pairing one of this fall's hot new hues, such as deep coral or chartreuse lace with the nude polish instead.

Working for Tips

The trend of painting sleek, cat-like nails with colored tips and nail beds, a la Rihanna and Lady Gaga, is still going strong. The latest take on the look plays metallics off of jewel tones. A good pairing is a rich plum or grape with burnished gold tips or nail beds, but it can also be an opportunity to play up this year's color blocking trend by putting two colors that are close on the color wheel together. An example is teal and plum or deep red and coral. The nail design is also edgy enough to support a palette such as maroon with neon pink tips.

Foiled Again

This fall is a good time to embrace foiled textures on top of metallic nail polish. The most popular design is a bright gold polish with the addition of gold leaf from a craft store. This trend comes on the heels of gold leaf being used at the edges of smoky eye shadow. Variations can include silver and copper nail polishes with flecks of metal. Nail tips should be painted jet black for strong contrast.

Fade to Black

Looking much like the summer hair trend that ruled the beaches, ombre is finding its way onto nails everywhere. For fall, a good pairing is a candy apple red that gradually gets darker until it fades into a warm black. Purple or teal work just as well with ombre. This look can be achieved by either airbrushing the nail or making textural strokes to resemble tweed for a rougher take on the trend.

Hey, Stud

A final look that's heating up fall is the pairing of glinting "spikes" or "studs" of silver polish on top of matte black to mimic a tiny version of punk bracelets. The dots should be tiny, but raised up enough to read as tiny bits of metal for a rock star feel.

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