Meet Scrapbook Nails, The Retro Manicure Trend That Will Be Everywhere in 2025

There are early adopters of trends and those who set the trends themselves. I’d categorise Park Eun Kyung aka “Unistella” as the latter. She is, after all, the creator of the shattered glass nail and the go-to manicurist for global trendsetters like Jennie from BLACKPINK and G-Dragon.

With the new year just beginning, I caught up with Park to talk about all things nails: What’s in, what’s out and what’s to come. For starters, she’s taking a step back from 3D embellishments, which I was initially surprised to hear considering she’s well-known for her sculptural designs. 

For Park, the pendulum has swung in the other direction. “Lately, I’ve been into softer, classic nail shapes and more muted, nostalgic nail art,” she tells me over coffee in Seongsu-dong. As such, she’s been favouring shorter, rounded off tips over super sharp or pointed shapes and utilising good ol’ fashioned scrapbooking techniques to craft her designs. “I cut out specific words or images from scraps of paper and paste them onto the nails,” she explains. 

After seeing a few of her references and obsessively researching a few more of my own, I’m calling this burgeoning trend “scrapbook nails”.

A bit retro or even a tad kitschy depending on the exact colours and designs used, scrapbook nails resemble something your secondary school self might have collaged for your notebook or binder. Think cute little doodles or pasted on typeface cut out from newspapers or magazines. There’s no rhyme or reason to crafting scrapbook nails — just vibes, which is a large part of their charm.

Ready to get crafting or book an appointment at your nearest salon? I’ve pulled together 11 scrapbook nail ideas to inspire your next manicure.

For my minimalists out there, let’s start with a classic French manicure and add some light lettering to just the thumbnails — en Français, bien sûr! (P.S. The words Park chose for this particular design translate to “right hand” and “left hand”, which is just about as cute as that little pom-pom ring she paired with the manicure.)

If French tips are a little too simple for you, perhaps this mix and match design will be more to your liking. Incorporating a muted colour palette of milky whites, black and grey, this is definitely a design that would be easy to match with pretty much anything in your wardrobe. Also, the subtly studded stars on either pointer finger offer a nice counter to the free flowing letters.

Prefer more colours? Here’s a doodle-filled delight to consider. The hand-drawn design incorporates both polish and coloured pencils, which I’ve seen manicurists throughout Seoul use to sketch art directly onto your nails for better precision and to get that charming colouring book effect.

For even more charm, here’s a smattering of designs drawn entirely with coloured pencils. The soft, almost watercolour-like art is anchored by super fine lines and detailed shading throughout.

Old meets new with this love-themed design. Blending 3D metallic embellishments with a milky base colour and sketched on letters, this is a solid option for someone who wants to rock both futuristic and retro elements on their tips. 

It doesn’t get much cuter than this thumbnail-sized love letter. The whimsical design includes a tiny envelope and corresponding note adorned with wishes for the year ahead. (Note: You can actually see the coloured pencils in action here.)

Presenting: the “art” in nail art. Notice how the manicurist layers tonal shades and textures to create that scrapbook paper effect before adding the birthday design on top. Speaking of birthdays, a masterful manicure like this would make an excellent gift to yourself — just saying. 

Is it even a scrapbook if you don’t have at least one guest appearance from a Sanrio character in it somewhere? This design features both Hello Kitty and My Melody aka the dynamic duo that decorated many a Trapper Keeper throughout the early 2000s.

If Hello Kitty was the icon of my tween years, Miffy is the mascot of my thirties. (Her official bio states that she “has a positive attitude and is always open to new experiences,” which is a smart way to approach life, if you ask me.) To honour the sentiment of this little bunny, I asked Park to add some Miffy to my most recent manicure, which she did by laser printing several variations of the character onto waterslide decal paper before cutting and transferring each one onto my nails. 

Here’s another look at a cut and pasted on print — of a sleeping cat, no less. I especially appreciate how the sharp edges of the printed photo are balanced out by the softer hand-drawn designs on the remaining fingernails. 

Last but not least, this one goes out to all of my daydreamers out there who used to draw all over their notebooks during chemistry class. Zoom in to see the intricate shading and sliver of silver that frames each nail.