Winnie The Pooh, Arthur, and Rugrats, oh my! Nail extraordinaire Lana Sheen has gained Instagram popularity for her nostalgia-inducing nail art and we are totally obsessed. Life & Style is peeling back the paint to fill you in on the secrets to her gorgeous nail art creations, while getting to know the artist behind the brush. Check out Lana Sheen’s most nostalgic nail art below!

lana sheen
Instagram

lana sheen
Instagram

At the young age of 13, Lana became infatuated with nail art. The little artist always had a soft spot for long, painted nails, but it wasn’t until she saw how much attention a fellow student was receiving after she came into school rocking DIY cheetah print nails. Lana accepted the challenge, and went home to recreate her own version of the nail design. Immediately, she fell in love with the craft. It wasn’t long until the teen was staying up late on school nights and weekends just so she could create cool art on her nails. And just like that, she found her own unique way to stand out among the crowd. 

After taking a year off from school, Lana pursued her passion for nails and graduated from the Nail Studio Program at Blanche MacDonald in Vancouver in 2017. Since then, she has been encouraging women to design their own nail art around the world with her Instagram account. Having very trendy and meme-worthy nails are easy when you get inspiration from all around you. Lana reveals that she pulls inspiration from lots of places. “Anything I love like Disney movies, cartoons, TV shows, artists, really anything that I’m feeling in that creative moment!” she told Life & Style exclusively. “Anything that’ll make me happy when I look at my hands, that’s what I love to paint.” 

The intricate designs aren’t as easy as one, two, three. The nail pro explains that one finger could take anywhere from 5 minutes to a full hour depending on the amount of detail. The two exceptions and hardest pieces she has faced so far? Well, that would Ariana Grande’s “No Tears Left To Cry” cover and Robin Eisenberg’s artwork. “The Ariana one was difficult because it was my first colored portrait which includes a lot of shading, and the Robin Eisenberg ones had very tiny details that were important to get in the right place to ensure it resembled the original image,” she explained. “Those definitely took me a longer time than usual to create.” But well worth it! Take a look below to see how they came out:

lana sheen

(Courtesy of Lana Sheen)

lana sheen

(Courtesy of Lana Sheen)

Not everyone can be as talented as the pro — us mere mortals struggle with not smudging basic color paint onto our nails. But the secret is all in the paint! “This past year I’ve made the switch over to gel polish for my art instead of regular nail polish. I love gel polish because it dries instantly while curing it in a UV/LED light, and stays fresh until you choose to cure it,” Lana shared.

lana sheen
Instagram

“No more fear of the risk of damaging art I’ve spent a lot of time on, and if I make a mistake or paint a line I’m not too happy with I can just wipe it away without smudging anything!” Literally, where have you been all of our lives, Lana? “Before gel polish though, I would paint my base color with regular polish, wait for it to harden, and then paint all of my art with acrylic paints. Those dry much faster than polish, and are smoother and easier to work with,” Lana explained. “Then, once finished I would top coat with a fast drying top coat, my favorite is called Seche Vite.” 

BRB, gotta go throw out all of our basic nail polish and get gel.

Be sure to follow Lana Sheen on Instagram for more nail art here.  

All Images courtesy of Lana Sheen/decenails on Instagram.