Cosmoprof: Technology and Nails

I’ve always been a bit of a tech geek and am usually first in line when new gadgets come out, so I really enjoyed seeing how technology is playing a role in the world of nails during my Cosmoprof trip!  Did you know that you can turn your fingernail into a stylus for your touch-screen devices?  Or that you can actually print designs directly onto your nail?  Well you can…

Nano Nails

Nano Nails is a new product that came out earlier this year.  They are press-on nails that can be used as a stylus.   Interesting concept, right?  How often do your nails get in the way when you’re trying to type on those little touch-screen keyboards?  The photo below is courtesy of Hannah at The Dalai Lama’s Nails.  I didn’t make it to the Nano Nails booth, but I did run into one of the women running the booth on the Cosmoprof floor and she gave a demonstration of the Nano Nail and explained a little about how it works.

Nano Nails come in packs of 4 for approximately $10.  The Nano Nail is glued onto your natural nail and will last about a week.  It won’t work if applied over a false nail (acrylic, gel, etc).  The Nano Nails are grey in color and can be polished or designed to your liking.  You can use non-acetone remover on them to change the design.  You can also use gel polish on them, however you can’t cap the tip or the technology will cease to work.  I believe that the Nano Nail only currently comes in one length, it has a square tip shape and the tip is a bit thick.  I was told that you can file down the sides to make the nail fit your natural nail and that you can change the shape slightly by filing just the corner edges, but you cannot file across the tip.

I think the idea is awesome, and can’t wait to see how it evolves over time.  I would love to see these nails come in different shapes and sizes/lengths and be a little thinner.

If you’d like to read more about Nano Nails, please visit their website at http://www.nano-nails.com.  A couple of my blogger friends also posted video demonstrations of the Nano Nail on their Instagram accounts.  Check out this video from Hannah at The Dalai Lama’s Nails, or this video from Katy at Nailed it!

Tat’z Nail’z

One of the booths that caught my eye at Cosmoprof was Tat’z. There was a lot of buzz around the booth and they had these big white machines on each corner. I walked by several times checking it out, but didn’t actually stop over until Judy (from BeautyJudy.com) showed Sarah (from Chalkboard Nails) and I her fingernail with her logo perfectly printed on it! What?! So Sarah and I headed over to the booth to investigate further.

Tat’z Nail’z is a new breakthrough in nail art… it’s a printer that allows you to print any image or design directly onto your fingernails.  You can take a photo with the machine, upload an image, or select from one of thousands of pre-installed patterns.  You can print onto any type of nail surface… gel, acrylic or natural nails.  I sat down to demo the machine and was going to have my logo printed onto one of my nails.  Below is a photo of the demonstrator taking a picture of my media card with the machine.

Once you select your image, you simply slide your hand into the round hole and get one finger in position.  It prints one finger at a time, but the printing process doesn’t take long.  You could do a full set of nails in less than 15 minutes.  I was already wearing a funky gel polish design on my nails and we attempted to print over one of my glittery nails.  That unfortunately didn’t turn out well… you couldn’t see the ink over the glitter.

So we went back to the drawing board, and this time the demonstrator painted two coats of white Vinylux over my glittery nail so that we had a solid base to work with.  I don’t remember how it came about, but Sarah and I were joking around about putting her face on my nail and I said I would do it.  So she had her picture taken and I printed it on my nail!  LOL  This is the photo that Sarah took and posted to Instagram (photo credit Chalkboard Nails).

It didn’t turn out perfect… the demonstrator said I must have moved my finger in the printer because the nail ended up with some scratches (right down the middle of Sarah’s face!).  But you can still see clearly that it’s a picture of her face and it made for good conversation.  I saw many other nail designs done on other people that turned out cool.  The image on my nail was topped off with one coat of regular top coat and unfortunately the image faded terribly within a day.  They said that it would last the full length of a manicure and that you could top coat with gel polish.

Even though my two attempts didn’t turn out perfect, I still think the idea and technology are cool.  The brochure says the machine retails for $10,000 but the salon price is only $3,995.  They have some payment plans and there’s also a $29/month service agreement.  Obviously this isn’t ideal for personal use, but it could work well in a salon setting.  I would love to see a smaller personal version.  I heard that there was one at the show, but I must have walked right past and not seen it.

If you’re interested in learning more about Tat’z Nail’z, check out their website at http://www.tatznailz.com.

LED Lamp Technology

I also wanted to note that I learned about some new technology with LED lamps. While visiting the LeChat booth, they showed me their new LeChat SMD LED Lamp which has Surface Mounted Device LED lights. The lights are mounted into a circuit board which impacts the way the light is directed. The revised bulb design is supposed to make the curing of gel polish more efficient and effective. I didn’t get any pictures of this lamp, but you can see pictures and read about it here on LeChat’s website.