Nail glossary

Cat-eye

Magnetic gel polish — a magnet pulls a ribbon of light through the wet colour.

Cat-eye is gel polish containing microscopic magnetic particles. While the colour is still wet, the tech hovers a magnet over the nail; the particles rush toward it and are frozen in place when the gel cures, forming a soft band of light that appears to slide across the nail as your hand tilts — like the eye of the gemstone it is named for.

The effect is strongest over dark, rich bases — emerald, sapphire, oxblood — and the magnet pass is a genuine skill: the stripe can run straight, diagonal, or radiate from a point. Cat-eye requires specific magnetic gels, so it lives in some artists' kits and not others — worth confirming before you book, which is exactly the kind of question Nailly's artist kit answers up front.

Now on the App Store

Now go design it.

Vocabulary is the map; a real set is the territory. Design your exact nails in Nailly and send them to an artist who can make them — live on the App Store for the US and Canada.