San Francisco Nail Artist Turns Manicures Into Wearable Art Rooted in Mexican Heritage

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Against a sky blue backdrop, Laysa Cazares painted a series of California poppies. With a tiny brush, she used shades of orange to create petals just a few millimeters wide that looked like they were fluttering in a breeze.

A lifelong artist, Cazares’ favorite medium may seem unusual: fingernails.

“It’s a little canvas where you can put whatever you want, and it’s wearable art, which I think is really cool,” the 29-year-old said.

Cazares, raised in Manteca and now based in San Francisco, is among a growing number of high-end nail artists elevating traditional manicures into works of art amid the booming multibillion-dollar beauty industry. She has built a following for her three-dimensional, airbrushed and hand-painted nail designs that incorporate fashion, her Mexican heritage and meticulous artistry.

On a recent morning, her right hand featured metallic charcoal gray adorned with polka dots, which she said are trending. Her left hand showed a light blue-hued design with three-dimensional spheres inspired by a bubble bath.

Cazares, who goes by the moniker Nail Bruja — “nail witch” in Spanglish — uses a variety of gels to layer on clients’ nails, create longer nails and sculpt 3D objects from scratch. She then applies paints and polishes to create intricate designs and effects like a cat-eye shimmer or reflective shine.

For one client, she created a tiny cat that looked like it was poking out from behind a nail. For another, she shaped long, pointy nails to resemble plant leaves dotted with 3D ladybugs and raindrops.

“It’s almost like clay, so you can just mold it and then you paint it and you can do whatever,” she said. “That wasn’t a thing 10 years ago until recently, so it’s really cool to be able to make whatever you want on your nail.”

Her love affair with nails started early. She remembers waking up early — and sometimes being late — because she painted her nails in the morning to match her outfit. She credits her older sister for introducing her to painting, ceramics and other crafts.

After high school, Cazares decided against college but wanted a career in art. She didn’t see a clear path until her sister suggested she become a licensed nail technician, which she did in 2015.

Her parents were skeptical at first, questioning how she could earn a living wage doing manicures and pedicures. Nail technicians made an average of $16.66 per hour or about $34,660 a year in 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The industry has a history of labor exploitation.

“I have immigrant parents, they’re from Mexico, and my mom, one of her favorite sayings, ‘I didn’t cross a country for you to not be successful,’” Cazeres said. That made her more determined to pursue nail art in a way that would be lucrative.

Six years ago, she immersed herself in nail art while working at a Fremont salon specializing in designs with long acrylic tips, which were popular at the time.

“I had a full clientele and it just clicked like, ‘Oh, I really could actually live off of this and have it be my career full time,” she said. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘Oh, maybe going to school would have been cool, too.’ But I love nails and I love art. So being a nail artist just works. I get to combine both.”

In 2022, she moved to Miami, which also has a robust nail industry. She returned to California last December and now works at Sparkle SF, a salon in San Francisco’s Mission District.

“San Francisco is just such a fun, quirky, unique place where even the older generations are into nail art,” she said. “Younger people will do all the crazy stuff, and they’re not scared to get 3D. They’re not scared to like chrome or airbrush or anything. They’re down to try it all.”

Sparke SF is strictly for nail art and doesn’t offer pedicures, massages or facials, said owner Mia Rubie, who started the salon more than a decade ago and has watched nail art continuously evolve.

“Now, there’s so many possibilities with nail art,” thanks in part to social media, she said. Clients “are making it a very personalized experience, like something tailored to their own interests or something that they’re into or dedicating nails to somebody else or things like that. People are discovering that you can use it as a valid expression of art.”

“The history of nails is very multicultural,” said Jillian Hernandez, a professor of women’s studies at the University of Florida who leads the Full Set Project, a team of scholars researching the nail industry. The intricate nail designs innovated by Vietnamese nail techs caught on with Black and Latina women, who helped turn long, brightly decorated nails into bold fashion statements.

Her team plans to release a documentary, Nail Tech: Portrait of an Artist, in December, chronicling the career of Miami-based nail artist Kro Vargas.

“Over the last decade, particularly the last five years since COVID, there was increasing interest in self-care practices, but also famous women of color like Cardi B, for example, entered the mainstream and also entered spaces of fashion and brought their own aesthetics to these spaces,” Hernandez said.

The shift from seeing nails as simple grooming to fashionable art is slowly changing how workers in the industry are viewed, Hernandez said.

“It gets to this fundamental question of how do we value workers? We tend to undervalue care work because it’s associated with women and people of color,” she said. “All nail techs are artists, and they should be respected for their labor, whether they’re in the corner salon or whether they’re in these highly specialized studios doing nails for celebrities. That’s extremely important.”

The cost of nail art is also rising as designs require more expertise and time. At Sparkle, prices start around $60 for a basic manicure, but intricate designs can cost a few hundred dollars and take several hours. Cazares said her designs typically last about a month.

The most expensive set she has ever done took eight hours, covered both hands with Swarovski crystals and cost $1,400.

“Nails aren’t a necessity; they are a luxury,” Cazares said. “I love the feeling of feeling put together, and for a lot of people, this does that for them. For women who work corporate tech jobs, their jobs are so demanding; this is a form of self-expression.”

That resonates with San Mateo resident Cristina Medina, 30, who had her first manicure in middle school.

“My mom always had her nails done for as long as I can remember, so I think I got it from her, the habit of getting my nails done,” she said. “I’ve always correlated getting my nails done as a way of self-pampering, of taking care of myself. It helps me feel more put together.”

Medina has a standing appointment every three weeks. Her designs range from a simple French tip to more seasonal creations.

“I like to spice it up during the holidays,” she said. “For example, Halloween and Dia de los Muertos are coming up, so I might mess with orange, brown colors or even pumpkin. It really gives me that creative freedom and gives me a way to express myself throughout the year.”

Cazares is hosting an event this month called Hexed by Nail Bruja & Friends to showcase nail art the way an art gallery exhibits paintings. The Friday event will also feature vendors, tarot card readings and cocktails, and will run from 6–9 p.m. at a retro pinball arcade at 1767 Waller St. in San Francisco. Tickets are $30.

Clarification: An earlier version of this story said “Latina and Black women pioneered long, brightly decorated nails as fashion statements well before the mainstream embraced the look, she said, while many Vietnamese women have worked in salons.” To clarify, the professor emphasized that Black and Latina women helped popularize and bring visibility to nail art as a cultural fashion statement, while Vietnamese women, many of them immigrants, played a central role in the nail salon industry where the style was widely practiced.