Once Staid, Nail Polish Becomes Fashion Accessory Samantha Rapp for The New York Times Tie-dye (light pink), python patterns (dark pink) and neon gel manicures done at Marie Nails in SoHo. WHEN she was no more than 10 or 12, Lizzie Jagger liked to paint English landscapes on a set of fake nails that she toted with her everywhere. Her inspirations were whimsical, even rarefied at times. "I was really into Turner," recalled Ms. Jagger, who was living in London at that time with her father, Mick, and her mother, Jerry Hall. " "Crossing the Brook," was my favorite painting," she said. I used bristles cut out of my hairbrush so I could make the work really fine. Eventually she abandoned her hobby, partly, she joked, "because I couldn't see a future in it." Oooh, Lizzie, if only you'd had a crystal ball. These days you might find yourself besieged by a veritable army of product developers, all eager to pick your brain for ways to turn nail polish, that once staid cosmetics staple, into a must-have capable of transforming nails into miniaturized canvasses for some of the nerviest experiments that fashion permits. In recent months, cosmetics makers have invested in lacquers a kind of daring all but unheard of a decade ago, introducing innovations from glitter and crackled surface treatments to stick-on nail art and even scents, and imbuing their products with every color known to nature. And even some that nature would abhor. Muddied orange, toxic green and shrieking mauve, rare in the marketplace six months ago, are crowding the shelves of department and drugstores, snapped up by consumers intent on releasing their inner Nicki Minaj. Women's enthusiasm for brazen tints, three-dimensional effects and quirky patterns (think python, cobweb or cheetah spots) has propelled nail polish into the fastest-growing segment of the beauty trade, surpassing even lipstick as a recession-proof cosmetic enhancer. "Nails come in any way, shape or form," said Karen Grant, a senior analyst with the NPD Group, which tracks cosmetics trends. They've become a fashion accessory. And they're an add-on that has driven sales to giddy new highs. Eye-popping tints, long-lasting gels and special effects have contributed to a 67 percent increase in the sales of department store brands in 2011 over the previous year, and a jump of 29 percent for their mass-market counterparts, according to NPD, which tallied the combined sales at $710 million. The advent of brashly adventurous, and sometimes garish, colors and designs coincided roughly with the collapse of the Dow, when consumers came to regard lacquers priced from $10 to as much $30 as a cost-effective way to brighten their turnouts - and outlooks. The eye adjusts, and today the acid tints and swirling patterns that five years ago were outré have entered the mainstream. The more radical they are, the more desirable, it seems, kinky nails having acquired a cool factor more recently reserved for niche fragrances. So hip are the new lacquers from mass marketers like Essie and Sally Hansen, and from trendsetters like Nars, that pop stars including Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Avril Lavigne, and even the designers Thakoon Panichgul and Prabal Gurung, have attached their names, and their images, to high-end and drugstore brands. "We used to talk about the lipstick index," Renato Semerari, the president of Coty Beauty, the parent company of top-selling brands like OPI and Sally Hansen, said, referring to the theory that lipstick sales are inversely correlated to economic health. Now we talk about the lacquer index. Mr. Semerari ascribed stellar sales mostly to the fact that "these days there is so much more to buy." Indeed, there are more colors than in a pack of Skittles, many of which can be applied in one's bathroom. That D.I.Y. appeal has been a plus for mass marketers who, according to Kline & Company, a consumer research firm, are racing to offer colors and glazes approximating those of the priciest salons. So successful are some shades that they have spawned cults (among them, Particulière, a mushroom gray-brown from Chanel that in 2010 engendered wait lists and bidding wars on eBay) as well as a raft of copycat shades.