Today, one of the most famous nail designs is painting with hieroglyphs - signs that residents of eastern countries use in writing.
From this article you will learn about the types of such designs, execution techniques, suitable colors and the meaning of popular designs.
We’ll also tell you how to do a manicure with hieroglyphs yourself.
Hieroglyphs on nails
Spectacular black and white manicure with hieroglyphs
Most eastern countries use hieroglyphs in their writing: China, Japan, Vietnam, Mongolia and others.
Egypt and Korea are also added to their number, where residents remember, but rarely use such a letter.
Painting nails with hieroglyphs is suitable for girls who love the East, mysterious representatives of the fair sex.
This design can be made for a theme party, evening event, or to attract love, luck, wealth and other positive factors into your life.
For which nails is a manicure with hieroglyphs suitable?
An example of a manicure with hieroglyphs on medium-length pointed nails
The optimal length of the nail plate for this design is average. On short or too long nails, the hieroglyph becomes disproportionate. Their shape can be absolutely any: from oval to square.
There are also no restrictions in the choice of coating: hieroglyphs can be applied either to a colorless base or to colored varnish or gel. This will only change the application technique.
Oriental style manicure colors
The background of the design can be anything from red to white and transparent. It is important to choose the right hieroglyph color to achieve the perfect combination.
Best combinations
- Black hieroglyph on white, blue, red, transparent, beige, pink colors and their shades.
- White marks on black, brown, eggplant and other dark colors.
- Blue and green designs on nails covered with a nude base.
The most common combination is black hieroglyphs on a light background.
Red jacket with black hieroglyphs
Meanings of hieroglyphs
Hieroglyphs are words, phrases and even phrases. Therefore, it is not possible to calculate their exact number. The average number of hieroglyphs in one letter (for example, Chinese, Japanese or Egyptian) is over 62,000.
Feng Shui hieroglyphs and their meaning
There is a belief that these symbols attract their meaning (for example, Feng Shui).
It is believed that if you apply such a sign to a part of the body, clothing or elements of your home, then its energy will attract the desired factor to the owner.
Therefore, before applying a hieroglyph to your nail, carefully study its meaning.
You also need to check the correctness of the drawing several times: one extra dash can change the meaning of the symbol in the opposite direction.
The most common hieroglyphs used in the beauty industry are considered to be Chinese.
Popular Chinese hieroglyphs and their meanings
| Hieroglyph | Meaning | Description |
| 健康 | Health | This sign not only preserves health, but also helps get rid of diseases. |
| 富 | Wealth | It means an increase in material income, an increase in spiritual satisfaction, and positive vital energy. |
| 錢 | Money | This sign symbolizes monetary well-being - receiving a bonus, salary increase or career growth. |
| 愛 | Love | It not only attracts your soulmate, but also promises a strong marriage, the extinction of mutual conflicts, harmony and happiness with your loved one. |
| 力 | Strength and power | It will give you self-confidence and fill you with energy to accomplish your plans. We are talking not only about physical condition, but also about mental strength, foreshadowing the emergence of new ideas. |
| 運 | Luck | It promises success in your career and personal life, the fulfillment of long-standing desires, and victory over life's difficulties. |
| 繁 | Prosperity | Attracts a better life, means the development of old and the emergence of new ideas, improves material and moral condition. |
Manicure tools and techniques with hieroglyphs
There are several ways to apply symbols to nails:
- Drawing. To do this, you need to have certain skills in applying drawings using a thin brush.
Alternatively, the symbol can be applied with a waterproof felt-tip pen or gel pen. Drawing hieroglyphs on your own is quite difficult, so before doing such a manicure, practice on paper or false nails.The design is applied to a dried base and topped with topcoat.
- Stickers . The simplest, but short-lived way of applying marks to a plate. A sticker is applied to the dried base, then covered with drying or topcoat.
- Stamping. This is a way of transferring a design from a steel plate with prints to a nail, in other words, a stamp.
Suitable for girls who do not know how or are afraid to paint the nail plate themselves. Varnish is applied to the selected design, then the image is transferred with a rubber/silicone stamp using a rolling motion.Avoid sudden jerks so that the pattern on the nail matches the print on the plate. Wait for the symbol to dry. Cover with top coat.
Classic jacket, decorated with images of hieroglyphs
Decorative stickers for manicure with hieroglyphs
Watch a master class on using color stamping in manicure:
Additional Tips
- The principles of Feng Shui in manicure can be combined with fashion trends of 2021. The design of your nails will be especially relevant in delicate pastel colors, in metallic colors using the “chasing” technique, in “wet” painting, in designs with a stone effect and inlaid with colorless rhinestones.
- To attract love, money, luck, etc. You can use not only colors, but also symbolic designs, and also decorate your nails with hieroglyphs. You can place drawings on one or two nails, which we highlight, and it is better to highlight one finger on each hand with hieroglyphs.
- When doing a manicure according to Feng Shui, use colors that are in harmony with each other. Even completely multi-colored nails should not irritate you - buy pastel-colored varnishes for this case or select well-combined shades.
- The specialty of the science of Feng Shui is the order, harmony and clean space necessary for the free circulation of energies. Manicure should be approached according to the same principles: before applying varnish, nails should be thoroughly cleaned, strengthened and filed. You should not paint a different color over a strictly layer of varnish - each time start your manicure with a complete cleansing.
Hieroglyphs on nails at home step by step
You will need:
- Two contrasting varnishes (one for the base, the other for the sign);
- Thin brush (can be replaced with a toothpick, gel pen, felt-tip pen);
- A flat surface (such as a sheet of paper).
- Fixative.
Step-by-step instructions for beginners:
- Apply the base polish to the nail plate and wait until it dries completely.
- On a flat surface, drop a couple of drops of colored varnish with which you will draw the symbol. This is necessary in order to avoid applying too much material to the plate and preventing the pattern from smearing.
- Mentally break the hieroglyph into lines. Apply them in order with light movements.
- Wait until the drawing is completely dry.
- Cover with sealer.
A video tutorial will show you how to do a manicure with hieroglyphs at home.
Trends in manicure in Korea
Hi all! We talk about so many Korean secrets about care, makeup or choosing cosmetics, but we forget about such an important topic as manicure. It's time to fix it! Manicure in Korea over the past couple of years has been something extraordinary. What don’t Koreans come up with! But actually, what is in fashion now in Korea and what kind of manicure do Seoul fashionistas do? Now we will tell you all this!
About nail length
But here – you can safely rejoice at the question “why can’t you grow your nails?” answer - “it’s fashionable”! Korean designers have set a course for maximum naturalness in the length of nails, so the most fashionable shape of nails in 2021 has become short and ultra-short nails (2-3 mm of free edge). Cheers cheers! It should be noted here that this is the most comfortable length for working at the computer and for sticking to the phone. Perhaps, given that Korean women spend the lion's share of their time on smartphones, this is definitely connected. In general, in Korea, excessively long nail extensions or your own nails have long been out of fashion, regardless of shape.
About the shape of nails
Everything here has not changed much - the soft square is still the most popular nail shape. And in general, even if you like a different shape, in Korea they will still recommend somehow rounding it off a little. Any nail shape in 2021 tends to have a soft curve. Well, it should be noted that this particular shape, the so-called “soft square”, looks good on short nails. Coincidence? We don't think so!
Now let's move on to the trends in manicure themselves:
Manicure with dried flowers
A relatively recently appeared feature, exactly ideal for spring and summer. The author is Eun Kyun Park, the most famous Korean nail art artist. In general, if you have the desire and straight hands, you can repeat this manicure at home yourself: the trick is that after you put flowers on your nails, you need to wet them with wet wipes so that they stop being so fragile. Well, then secure it with topcoat.
Using wire
A very controversial trend, because wire seems a little inconvenient for manicure decoration. The wire creates designs on the nail plate or outlines the “shape of the nail.” As for the designs, most often these are strips of different lengths or chaotically located circles, inside of which decorations like stones or “broken glass” are placed. Sometimes drawings, figures or even faces are made from wire. But, given that the wire still “sticks out” a little on the nail plate, this option is not very comfortable to wear - it will cling to everything. Now some girls have gone further, and a “wire manicure” can be put on and taken off on the nails - it looks like a decoration that follows the shape of the nail and further, lower to the phalanx, ends with a wire ring.
Ideas for a beautiful manicure with hieroglyphs
- These symbols become unusual decorations for French manicure. Apply them to the plate without affecting the “smile”. You can change the traditional colors of the jacket to more oriental and bright ones - red and black, purple and silver.
- On deep blue varnish, golden Egyptian hieroglyphs look very mysterious and interesting.
- It is not necessary to apply hieroglyphs to all nails; on some of them you can draw other symbols of the east, such as bamboo or a cute panda.
Red and white jacket with hieroglyphs
Manicure with hieroglyphs in Egyptian style
Pink manicure with oriental motifs
Design
After choosing symbols whose meaning is close to you, you need to take care of how to present them advantageously. Nail designs with hieroglyphs look good in contrasting colors: classic black outlines of signs on a light solid background or with a white or colored French manicure. Choose new combinations of textures, and you won’t get tired of this type of nail art for a long time.
To make nails with hieroglyphs less eye-catching, you can use contrasting textures: matte and glossy or translucent and shiny.
Chinese characters: photo and meaning
The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about oriental nail design is a Feng Shui manicure with a visually highlighted ring finger, an example of which you can see in the photo:
By the way, read our article about Feng Shui manicure!
The white jacket, in which the nails are decorated with signs denoting basic life values, serves as an example of a winning combination of Eastern and Western cultures.
A special 3D effect is achieved with the help of black shadows around silver symbols: Scarlet French manicure, complemented by black and gold lines, looks truly luxurious:
It is not necessary to use different hieroglyphs in manicure, their meaning is more important! The hieroglyph “happiness” repeated in this design, combined with lushly blooming flowers, will definitely give you at least a few pleasant minutes while you admire its austere beauty:
The hieroglyphs also look good against an iridescent glitter background. To make thin black lines stand out better, use a contrasting white outline, as in the photo:
You can do without the last trick if you use a light polish with delicate shimmer as a base, see the following photo:
You can enhance the spirit of the East by complementing the inscriptions on a pastel background with a delicate pattern depicting tree branches in bloom:
