Ever want your dream guy at your fingertips? Just within your grasp? Eating out of your hand?
Well, now you can. That is, if Ryan Gosling, Robert Pattinson, Zac Efron, Joe Jonas and Pharrell are on your list.
They made the cut on Chrissy Mahlmeister’s list of hot and cool guys the 25-year-old Columbia College Chicago graduate came up with when she thought of putting faces on fingernails. It all started with Ryan Gosling. Thinking about Gosling. Joking about Gosling.
“Oh my god, wouldn’t it be amazing to have Ryan Gosling on your fingers?” she thought. “What if I put my top five hottest dudes and call it Hot Man-icure.”
So she did, with the help of her college boyfriend, a graphic artist who designed illustrations of the celebrities. The nail designs, which come in a package of 20, are sold for $18 online at shop.radnails.com.
“People are flipping out over these nails. It makes me so happy. I’m glad people have a sense of humor,” she said.
The designs, which are printed in suburban Geneva, stick on to fingernails using an adhesive. A clear top coat of polish can be applied, and voila–hot guys on nails for three to seven days.
“I’m obsessed with nail art,” said Mahlmeister, who now lives in Brooklyn and works as MTV Style assistant editor.
She worked on a DIY nail art prom guide last year, met with nail artists, blogs about nail art and often stops in Sephora in Times Square to check out their nail supplies.
“Whenever I come and visit Chicago, people flip out when they see my nails. They think it’s really amazing,” Mahlmeister said.
This goes beyond basic polka dots and stripes. With a nail arts scene developing into a major trend–just look at the nails of Lady Gaga and Rihanna–she wanted to find the next new thing.
“I’m not a good artist. When I tried to do nail art myself, I was really bad,” she said.
So her product, she said, can be for people dying to try nail art but don’t have the skills.
She also sells other designs called Boob Tube with designs of color bars and static; Smell My Finger, which are bubblegum scented and inspired by scratch and sniff stickers; Cut It Out that have cutout cuticle triangles; Dollar Slice made of pizza-shaped cutouts.
“It’s supposed to be fun and funny,” she said.
lvivanco@tribune.com | @lvivanco
