5 Celebrities Known For Their Nails
Painting and designing your nails are the most versatile and unique ways you can show the world your personality. Over the years, celebrities have started many different fashion trends, including how their nails are done. Some could be as simple as a colored French to as complex as three-inch-long acrylic nails with charms and rhinestones.
Many celebrities get the word out about their nail designs through social media, especially through Instagram. Nail technicians are quickly learning how to replicate these designs so people don’t have to do them from home. Here is a list of the five celebrities who are known for their nails and nail designs.
Who is Known for Their Nails?
It’s no conspiracy that celebrities set the trends that everyone follows, regardless of how extra they can be. Many of their nail designs are posted on Instagram and within hours people are in nail salons or learning how to replicate the design. TikTokers and Snapchatters create tutorial videos for people to learn how to do these designs too.
Not all celebrities have influence over everyone for how their nails look, but there are five who stand out compared to others. You can go almost anywhere and spot someone with a nail trend that one of these celebrities started and probably have worn one of these styles yourself. It’s also important to remember the designers who help create these unique creations.
5 Celebrities Known for Their Nails
The celebrities that stand out the most for their unique nail styles and how replicated their nail designs are, are:
- Kylie Jenner
- Gigi Hadid
- Cardi B
- Lizzo
- Billie Eilish
Kylie Jenner
Kylie Jenner has over two hundred seventy-one million Instagram followers on her main account. There’s also an account dedicated to her nail designs that has thousands of followers. It’s no wonder that so many people are copying her nail designs.
Not only does she have a huge population that she has influence over, but her nail designs are also appealing and not too over-the-top. Kylie also has her own popular cosmetics line, Kylie Cosmetics, which uses vegan ingredients and helps you easily copy her look.
It’s no secret that Kylie values how her nails look and how often she gets them done to maintain them. Kylie has also recently been in the news because her nails may have been a clue to her most recent pregnancy.
Some of the most popular nail designs that Kylie has shared are her classic ombre nails, birthday nails, water droplets, and paisley neutral.
Gigi Hadid
Gigi Hadid isn’t just telling everyone what to wear from the catwalk, but she also influences people’s style on Instagram with over seventy million followers. She works with different nail designers, such as Kawajiri, to create 3D nails. She is also known for her $2,000 chrome nails from the 2016 Met Gala.
Another popular look that Gigi has started with her nails was her birthday nails for 2021. It’s very easy to replicate this modified French manicure with varying colors such as red, orange, aqua, and yellow. Gigi and her sister Bella have been working with changing up the traditional French manicure during 2021.
Gigi Hadid has also used prints on her nails, such as with her fruit prints by Mei Kawajiri
Cardi B
The “Up” and “WAP” singer is known for many things, including her lyrics, clothing style, and most of all, her nails. They’re long, sultry, cat-claw nails that are often brightly colored and bedazzled with rhinestones and other things to make them 3D.
While some celebrities choose to go to different nail techs, Cardi B has one that she sticks with, Jenny Bui, who is known for her flashy nail designs. Bui’s designs that Cardi B wears are so popular; she has created a line of press-on nails to make it easier to get the look at home.
Lizzo
Lizzo quickly took the world by storm and has become “100 percent” that person that people have followed for nail designs. Lizzo was known for her rhinestone nails designed by Eri Ishizu. After her AMA performance, many people started to bedazzle their nails to look just like Lizzo’s. Some other designs that Lizzo has made popular are:
- Rose quartz on a claw-shaped nail
- Greek-inspired golden press-ons used for her “Rumors” album cover
Billie Eilish
Her music and dance moves aren’t the only things she’s known from. Billie Elish is also known for her acrylic nails and their designs. Billie wears long acrylic nails, even through all of her dance moves and performances.
Watch any of her performances or music videos, and she uses her hands to do everything, which, obviously, you’ll have to have amazing nails to show off while doing so. Billie is no stranger to 3D nails. She has sported her known Gucci nails, but at the 2020 Oscars, she wore a full set of black acrylic coffin nails with a simple crystal accent.
Do Celebrities Do Gel Nails?
It’s no joke that celebrities are just like us. Many celebrities who are known for their nails and nail designs use acrylic nails, but there are celebrities that get gel nails. There are different benefits to acrylic and gel nails, which come down to personal preference for what you and celebrities would want to use.
| Acrylic | Gel |
|---|---|
| Uses a powdered polymer for the shape. | Uses three coats of a liquid monomer for the shape. |
| Don’t need to remove and reapply the nail base every time. Can just fill in the growth if the nail is still strong | Need to remove and reapply the nail base every time. |
| Can use white or colored powder and can be more customized. | Only have a set of colors that are offered to you |
| Takes a shorter time for the set to shape. | Longer time to set shape. Many times you have to sit multiple times under a UV lamp to let them set. |
| Not as natural looking without polish. | Used for a natural look and on shorter nails. |
| Is more damaging to the nailbed. | Less damaging to the nailbed if properly removed |
| Can be removed by soaking in acetone. | Can be soaked in acetone as a start to be removed but should be filed down to aid with removal. |
| Must be maintained every two to three weeks. They can last up to six to eight weeks. | Must be maintained every three to four weeks. |
It depends on the look that the celebrity and their designer are going for, but celebrities do use gel nails to help achieve simple designs. Many designs with gel nails also use stickers and rhinestones to help glam them up a bit more. Other celebrities use press-on nails for specific events.
Make sure if you are using a UV lamp to set your nails to apply sunscreen before work is started. This can prevent liver spots, wrinkles, and skin cancer.
What are the Most Popular Celebrity Nail Designs?
Over the years, celebrities have influenced how our nails are. From the chipped nail style Vanessa Hudgens sported to the hundreds of looks Kylie Jenner has made popular, people have been using different designs that celebrities wear.
Remember, most of the time; it’s not the celebrities that create these looks; it’s their nail designers. The celebrities just make the designs even more famous. Many nail artists are starting to become as well known as the celebrities they do their work on. Some of the most well-known celebrity nail artists are:
- Jenny Bui, also known as “The Queen of Bling,” is based in New York City with two salons in the Bronx and Harlem. She has done work on Cardi B and Yandi Smith.
- Eri Ishizu is based in New York City and Los Angeles and has done work on Lizzo, Issa Rae, and Jennifer Lopez.
- Mei Kawajiri is based in New York City and has done work on Kaia Gerber and Gigi Hadid. Getting work done by her can take about ninety minutes and cost about $150, depending on the amount of detail and time spent doing your nails.
- Britney Tokyo is based in Los Angeles and has done work on Kim Kardashian, Katy Perry, and Hailey Baldwin. She is known for using extravagant accessories on nails and joining the Tokyo and Los Angeles nail styles.
French Manicure
One of the most popular celebrity nail designs used today and over the past few decades is the French manicure. How it is done has been significantly changed over time depending on the nail designer, celebrity, and occasion. Some variations that have been popular to the traditional French manicure are:
- Maria Bakalova’s 2021 Oscar look where instead of using white tips, the tips were made of gems.
- Zazie Beetz’s French manicure with black pointed tips instead of a straight white line.
- Kaia Gerber’s multicolored French manicure with different tips and an almond-shaped curve rather than a straight tip. Designed by Mei Kawajiri. Nikkitutorialz also had a take on this with a cat claw-shaped nail and Kylie Jenner had done this with straight acrylic tips.
- Carey Mulligan’s reverse French manicure with a gold stripe along the cuticle line.
- Millie Bobby Brown’s almond-shaped French tip with a gem at the base of her cuticle.
Solid Color Base With Accessories
The next in line for the most popular celebrity nail design that everyone is wearing now is a solid color base with or without accessories. There’s something traditional about a solid color base for nails that never goes out of style. Some of the most popular color trends seen with solid color bases are:
- Metallic and chrome nails as seen on Rihanna, Kylie Jenner, Meghan Trainor, and Bella Thorne.
- Neon nails as seen on Selena Gomez, Rihanna,
- Nude-colored nails as seen on Kylie Jenner, James Charles (with an added 3D twist), Billie Eilish, and Vanessa Morgan.
Along with the solid color base, many celebrities and nail designers have started to add rhinestones and stickers to nails, no matter how big or small. The stickers are much easier to use on nails for everyone and create more consistency. Some nail designs using rhinestones, gems, and stickers are:
- Demi Lovato’s butterfly stickered nails on an American tip.
- Kylie Jenner’s connected heart rhinestone nails.
- Cardi B’s hot pink nails with different shaped and colored rhinestones.
- Kim Kardashian’s pastel pink nails with 3D candy hearts.
Conclusion
Whether you want a celebrity look using acrylic or gel nails, it’s entirely your decision. Nail art is much more easily done on acrylic nails than on gel, but gel nails are easier to use for some. Following certain celebrities like Kylie Jenner will ensure that your nails will always be in style. You can work with your nail tech or learn how to do their designs yourself!
