Get the look: Nail gems, home manicures and marble nails
Indulge your creative side with autumn's nicest nail trends. Picture: CND.
No beauty relationship endures like the one you have with your nails. Hair greys, skin cracks and facial features shift but you can wear the nail colours you loved at school into old age. Nail trends are also unique, as even the weirdest fads (piercings, mini crucifixes, etc.), can be worn by anyone with fingernails. Autumn 2020’s trends are both easier than most and extremely pretty.
Nail gems seem fussy but trust me, they are (i) low-effort and (ii) valuable concealers for chips. The manicures at Simone Rocha’s autumn show began with a glossy clear base, then had one
large Swarovski crystal stuck on the side of the nail’s tip with four smaller crystals running along the tip and the inner edge of the nail in a right angle. These are as flash an embellishment as I’ve ever come across and can be applied with brow tweezers. There are heaps of similar strass (rhinestones) available via Amazon for less than €20 a box. Many are cut like diamonds (princess, oval, brilliant, etc.), and all look just as good with clear polish as they do the leafy shades that are always cool in autumn. Maggie Anne Nail Polish in Aoife, €11.85 at lovelula.com is a gel-effect burgundy worth trying this season, it is super rich and hard-wearing.
Melania Trump’s perfect nails were one of the more ridiculous White House controversies in this year of stiff competition. How could they look so good when manicurists (non-essential service providers) were forbidden to work in Washington? They couldn’t be gels or acrylics, her nail beds would show after a few weeks, noted vanityfair.com. Why would a former professional model living in a media fishbowl have learned to make a good job of her own nails? We may never know.
The First Lady favours a classic French manicure, which also made an appearance at multiple shows this year, including Valentino and . It is super-easy to achieve, I’ve been using Sally Hansen’s Hard as Nails French Manicure Kit, €6.49 at mccauley.ie, for years but you can team any two shades with stick-on stencils such as Salon Services French Manicure Guide, €2.99 for 10 at sallybeauty.co.uk and achieve perfect 'smile lines' on your tips. Clashing a nude base like L’Atelier Green Paris Polish in Naked Ambition, €18 at lateliergreen.com with wine or metallic tips is also very hot for autumn.
Marbling is one of the easier nail-art trends to copy at home because the patterns needn’t be symmetrical. It actually looks more authentic with inconsistent swirls and veins, no matter what the colour combination. Canadian nail genius, Rita Remark, a fixture at New York Fashion Week, reportedly keeps an iPhone image folder for inspiring tiles and stones alone. To get marble nails like those at Rag & Bone’s autumn show, you’ll need two colours you’d like to see marbled (white-on-black was the catwalk statement), a matte top-coat and some clingfilm. Begin by applying one or two coats of one shade and then, while it’s still wet, splash a couple of drops of the other on top. Apply clingfilm to each nail’s surface, pulling away quickly to create a smoky effect. Finish with a matte topcoat such as , for nails that look like polished stone.
Autumn’s nail collections include the predictable raft of wine and berry shades but blue is the real news. It is so much a part of this autumn’s fashion (the Pantone Colour of the Year 2020 is ‘Classic Blue,’ a shade “reminiscent of the sky at dusk,” according to the colour-matchers), that it’s made it into beauty. OPI founder, Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, travelled to Lombardy before the pandemic hit to research the brand’s Muse of Milan autumn collection, which includes — a beautiful sapphire.
One can’t help but notice how many designers prefer nails nude and natural, from Armani to Victoria Beckham. This is a little boring, especially for manicure maximalists, but I do appreciate strong, nicely kept nails. Nails are most flattering when shaped to mirror your cuticle line, so it helps when the latter is looking good. I love Margaret Dabbs Nourishing Nail & Cuticle Serum Pen, €15.35 at brownthomas.com, which is rich in hydrating, strengthening emu oil and fends off infections with tea tree-extract.
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