London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 14, 2025

How Nail Artist Rayah Naji Turns Modern Manicures Into ‘70s-Style Ads

How Nail Artist Rayah Naji Turns Modern Manicures Into ‘70s-Style Ads

Using her keen eye for vintage typography, the graphic design student and nail artist creates gorgeous imagery that’s caught the eyes of beauty fans on Instagram.

There are some decades that evoke nostalgia so potent that you can't escape their influence. The '70s is one of those time periods. The decade gave us voluminous, bouncy blowouts, the ultra-glamourous disco era, and bold, graphic liner trends that we are still salivating over today. This time around, we're seeing its influence in artist Rayah Naji's work, in which she combines her beautiful nail art and graphic design skills to create stunning "advertisements" that look like they came straight from a '70s magazine.

Naji's "ads" got a significant amount of attention when her tweet showcasing her work went viral. The caption was succinct and effective ข "my design skills 🤝 my nail art." The designs typically feature a cute manicure (like the Louis Vuitton French tips below,) with slogans rendered in retro fonts.

    

The 21-year-old artist told us that her inspiration first came from some of her design classes. (She's studying graphic design at Simmons University and will be graduating this semester.) Naji's professor frequently shared vintage magazines with the class, and she quickly fell in love with the fonts typically used in the ads from back in the day. "I prefer old advertisements to current-day ads because the products were always presented in a more appealing and entertaining way," she shares with Allure. "I like to give new life to old ideas."

Her graphic design abilities may have been honed in the classroom, but her nail art skills were not. Her prowess comes from dutifully studying other artists on YouTube and lots of practice. This year, the self-taught artist has been taking the craft more seriously. "I love graphic design, but creating art with my hands brings a different type of satisfaction," she explains.

But how exactly does she put all this beautiful work together? Naji always starts with creating the manicure (typically using gel nail polishes from The Gel Bottle) before taking photos and beginning the editing process. On average, it takes anywhere from one to two hours to get the finished image.

Down With the Swirl


    

The white, orange, yellow, and brown swirls on each coffin-shaped nail give a retro vibe to this modern manicure. The gold chunky rings are the cherry on top. For the mock ad, Naji took inspiration directly from the Diana Ross and the Supremes 20 Greatest Hits album art. On the cover, each group member's red-manicured hands are adorned with a gold "Supremes" bracelet. Using that, she "began with choosing a single image, removing the background, and multiplying the image" to come up with the finished product.

Gator-Ade


    

We may not be able to tell the difference between alligator or crocodile skin over here, but we do know that this set is gorgeous. Naji combines two popular nail trends we've seen take off: crocodile manis and gradient nails. The square tips are shaped to perfection, and we love the contrast between the deep black color and pinky hues.

Orange You Glad


    

These lengthy Aprés Gel-X extensions give the classic French manicure a welcome twist. On the pinky, index, and thumb fingers is that traditional tip with globs of white polish and tiny silver gems artfully placed on each nail. The ring and middle ombré nails remind us of creamsicles with the nude beige hue that fades to a bright orange color.

Dennis Rodman Realness


    

As a fan of the eccentric, former professional basketball player, Naji drew inspiration from Dennis Rodman's iconic hairstyles. She recreated the different designs on an oval-shaped, French manicure because the tips "resembled a hairline". She discovered an old hair-color advertisement featuring Rodman from the December 1996 issue of Mad Magazine while scrolling through Tumblr and used that as the perfect template. In her remake of the ad, she changes all the text and replaces his face on the box with the unique neon manicure. We hope Rodman gets to see this tribute.

Steady Hands


    

It's amazing how Naji combined beautiful pink, teal, and brown shades to create a tie-dye effect that doesn't look like a muddy mess. We also love how she shaped this pastel set with a tapered squoval tip. If you look closely, you'll notice tiny Swavorski rhinestones on each nail, adding just the perfect touch of bling to this mani.

You can follow Rayah Naji on Instagram and Twitter to see more of her creative nail ads. We know we'll be watching to see what dope designs she dreams up next.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
×