Nails are a visual subject. A French tip gradient, a builder gel finish, or a short nail design only makes sense when you can see it, which is why nearly every guide on Painted Pinkies is built around pictures. Because images matter this much here, we take where they come from seriously. This page explains, in plain words, where the images on Painted Pinkies come from, how we credit the people who made them, and what to do if you find your own work on this site.
Our Good Faith Promise
Painted Pinkies believes, in good faith, that every image published on this site is used in a way that complies with the fair use doctrine or is in the public domain. We never set out to infringe on anyone’s copyright or intellectual property. Where an image is not ours, we use it because we believe we have the right to: a license, a permission, an open archive, or an editorial reason that the law recognizes. If we ever get that judgment wrong, tell us, and we will put it right. That promise shapes everything else on this page.
The People Behind the Pictures
Behind almost every nail photograph is a person: a nail technician who styled the set, a photographer who lit the shot, an illustrator, a designer, or a brand team. Painted Pinkies respects that work. Good nail imagery takes skill and time, and the creators who produce it deserve credit and fair treatment. This page exists so that respect is not just a feeling but a working process, with a simple way to reach us and a clear promise of what happens next.
Where the Pictures on Painted Pinkies Come From
Painted Pinkies draws its images from a handful of sources. Most fall into one of the groups below, and where a picture comes from shapes how it is credited.
Made for Painted Pinkies
The largest group is imagery created for this site. These are nail photographs and graphics produced by the Painted Pinkies team and its contributors, made specifically for our tutorials and guides: close-ups of filing angles, step-by-step application shots, finished manicures on real hands, and comparison images that show two shapes or two finishes side by side. Images in this group belong to Painted Pinkies outright, and we are glad when readers share them with a link back.
Free-to-Use Photo Libraries
Some images come from libraries that share photography under open licenses, mainly Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay. Many of these pictures are released under terms close to Creative Commons CC0, which allows reuse without payment, while others carry Creative Commons licenses such as CC BY or CC BY-SA. Painted Pinkies follows the terms of each license. Where a license asks for attribution, we give it, and where a platform asks for a source link, we include one.
Public Domain Collections
A smaller group comes from public domain collections: images whose copyright has expired or whose creators dedicated them to everyone. Our usual sources are Wikimedia Commons and open institutional archives such as the Smithsonian Open Access collection and the Library of Congress. These images appear mostly in background reading, such as the history of a nail shape or the story behind a classic manicure style.
Licensed Stock Photography
Where a guide needs a polished studio shot we cannot produce ourselves, we license stock photography from commercial libraries, including Shutterstock and Adobe Stock, and use it under the terms of the license we bought. Stock images are never resold or passed off as our own photography; they illustrate a point in a guide, nothing more.
Brand and Editorial Images
Painted Pinkies reviews and compares real products, so some images show branded nail polishes, gels, lamps, and tools, including pack shots and press images supplied by brands for editorial coverage. These pictures appear in a review, buying guide, or comparison context, where using them to show readers the actual product counts as fair use for commentary and reporting. Where a brand or photographer should be named, we name them near the image.
Pictures Sent In by Readers and Contributors
Readers and fellow nail enthusiasts sometimes send us photos of their own manicures, and guest contributors supply images with their articles. We publish these only with the sender’s permission, and we credit the person who took the picture. If you sent us an image and later change your mind, write to us and we will remove it.
How We Give Credit
Where attribution is required, Painted Pinkies provides it. That covers Creative Commons licenses that call for a credit line, editorial use of brand images, and fair use pictures where naming the source is the right thing to do. Credits appear in the caption under the image or at the foot of the article, with a link to the source where one is available. If you spot a credit that is missing, wrong, or linked to the wrong place, tell us and we will fix it.
When a Credit Goes Missing
Honesty matters here, so we will say it plainly: across a large and growing library of articles and pins, an image can occasionally appear without complete or correct attribution. It happens through oversight, through a source link that later breaks, or through an image that passed through many hands on social media before it reached us and lost its credit on the way. It is never deliberate. When a case like this is pointed out, Painted Pinkies corrects it quickly, by adding the credit, adjusting the image, or taking it down, as the creator prefers.
Found Your Work Here? Three Simple Choices
If you are a photographer, nail artist, illustrator, or brand and you find your work on Painted Pinkies, you choose what happens next. Pick any one of these three options:
- Proper credit: we add your name and a link to your portfolio, website, or profile wherever the image appears.
- A change to how it is shown: we adjust the display, for example the crop, the size, an added watermark, or the destination of the link.
- Complete removal: we take the image down from the site entirely.
To start any of these, send one email to contact@paintedpinkies.com and tell us which option you prefer. There is no form to fill in and no fee of any kind.
What to Send Us So We Can Act Fast
A short email is all it takes. Including these four things helps us handle your request without a long back and forth:
- A link to the page on Painted Pinkies where the image appears
- A link to the original source of the image, such as your portfolio, website, or profile, so we can confirm it is yours
- Your name and the best way to reach you
- Which of the three options you would like: credit, a change, or removal
What Happens After You Write to Us
When your email arrives, we confirm that we received it. We then check the image against the source you provided, which is usually a quick step. After that we carry out your chosen option, whether that is adding your credit, changing how the image is displayed, or removing it, and we write back to confirm that it is done. If anything is unclear, we will ask rather than guess.
No Lawyers Needed
You do not need to file a formal legal notice, and you do not need to hire a lawyer, before contacting Painted Pinkies about an image. A simple, friendly email is enough, and honestly it is the fastest route. We would far rather hear from you directly, sort things out between people, and fix the problem the same week than trade formal letters. Reaching out to us first will never count against you; it is simply the quickest way to get the result you want.
How Fast We Respond
Painted Pinkies aims to answer every image request within 48 hours. Straightforward removals can usually be completed within the same business day the request is confirmed. Credit additions and display changes take a little longer when an article needs editing, but we will tell you in our reply when to expect the change to be live.
Dates and One Last Word
Effective date: November 3, 2026. Last updated: November 3, 2026.
If you made something beautiful and you have any question or concern about how it appears on Painted Pinkies, our door is open. Write to us any time at contact@paintedpinkies.com and a real person will read it and reply.