Linh Nguyen
When it comes to choosing an office appropriate nail color, the standard advice is to play it safe. Think of subtle shades like pink, nude, or white.
But some workers prefer to make a statement with their manicures. Painting each of their nails with a different application from Microsoft Office — a standard tool for the 9-5 class — may be a way to show they're passionate about their job.
Linh Nguyen, a Southern California-based professionally licensed nail tech, offers a design in which each nail is painted with a different Microsoft Office application. She told Business Insider she came up with the design during her last corporate job in regulatory affairs after a friend jokingly suggested that she create Microsoft Excel nails for her next set.
"I then joked back that I should do the entire Microsoft Office collection of icons," she said. "It was so funny, but I didn't necessarily want to do it on my own nails."
The full set she now offers is inspired by the 2016 version of Microsoft Office and includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Skype, Paint, and OneDrive.
Linh Nguyen
Once Nguyen created the design, she posted it on her Instagram page as "design inspo for my clients." To her surprise, someone booked it just hours later. Nguyen said the client, who worked at a law firm, half-jokingly told her she'd "accepted she was a corporate slave" and thought the design "would be kind of funny."
Nguyen does the design entirely freehand and said it takes about 3 hours and 35 minutes to complete all 10 fingers. She initially charged $170 for the set, but the next time someone books the design, she said she'll likely charge about $200 just for "how long it takes to get the details crisp."
The design lasts at least a month, Nguyen said, and she doesn't recommend keeping them on longer than that.
