A storybook page, painted on your fingertips
She grew up around Horta e Costa in Macau, and has loved to draw for as long as she can remember.
Potted plants on the windowsill, afternoon light slanting through the glass, the scent drifting out of the little neighbourhood shops — these ordinary moments were quietly tucked into her sketchbook, page after page, until they became small stories.
Later, she became an illustrator. The paper grew larger and the stories grew more, yet she began to wonder: could these drawings find their way somewhere closer to everyday life?
The answer landed on her fingertips.
Ten tiny nails, like ten miniature frames. She shrank the bouquets, ribbons and starlight of her illustrations into brushstrokes on a nail — and discovered, for the first time, that a story can be worn, too.
And so, Nabi was born.
Why we paint every nail by hand
Printing can be fast, and perfectly neat — but it can never print the warmth of a brush.
Every nail is painted by Nabi with a fine brush, stroke by stroke: first the base colour, then the outline of each petal, and finally one tiny dot of starlight. The softly raised texture of the paint, the uneven blush of each petal — these are marks only a hand can leave.
And because they are hand-painted, every set of the same design is slightly different — like the same song, sung each time with a different breath. That little imperfection is exactly what makes it precious.
Each set of ten takes about 7–10 working days to paint. We are happy to go slowly, because what we want to place in your hands is a small work of art.
Each season, we first paint a storybook scene, then take ten corners from the picture and hand-paint them into a set of Japanese-style press-on nails.
It is not just a pattern, but a page of a story;
and when you wear it, you become part of the story.
✦ ✦ ✦
Each time you glance down,
may you catch a little gentle light.