Look at the fingernails of the A-listers at the Met Gala and you’ll notice something striking. No, not dramatic nail art or the charms we were used to seeing at Met Galas past – not even a classic French tip – this year was the year of the ‘no manicure manicure’.
Love Story’s Sarah Pidgeon (pictured above) wore her nails totally bare, with her manicurist Iram Shelton writing: “Understated natural nails are making a comeback! And no, they’re not boring. Clean nails are actually fashion’s reset. They pull everything back so the clothes can actually do the talking.”
Hailey Bieber clearly agreed, with her technician Zola Ganzorigt posting a photo of Hailey’s nude-looking nails. Popstar Tate McRae wore her nails naked, too. Purely nude was the way forward.
While I’m all for the naked nail trend, it is at odds with the recent manicure excitement I’ve been feeling after learning that millennial mint manicures are back.
No sooner had I heard that the pastel green shade was back on trend, I hotfooted it to my nail appointment to have my almond-shaped nails painted that exact colour. And you can only imagine my glee when I saw that millennial queen Taylor Swift stepped out last week with that exact shade on her nails (cue a million theories that mint green will be the colour scheme of her next era… can’t a girl just embrace her love of millennial mint?)
© h, GettyWhile I’ve happily admired my nails, the influx of naked nails at the Met made my mind flash back to a social media post I’d seen that said coloured almond nails are millennial. And they didn’t mean it as a compliment.
Do my nails make me look millennial?
“Almond shaped nails are popular with millennials because they strike the balance between polished and feminine without being too dramatic,” says nail tech Tinu Bello, Senior Ambassador of nail care brand Mylee. “They elongate and flatter fingers and feel quite ‘done’.”
Nail care brand Mavala’s expert Lynne Mason agrees: “Almond nails lean into a more structured, ‘finished’ look that was heavily embraced throughout the millennial era.”
In contrast, Tinu says for Gen Z nails, we’re seeing a shift towards square, more playful shapes such as short square or squoval, with slightly chunky, blunt edges – as seen on Maude Apatow at the Met Gala. “It feels more relaxed and a bit anti-perfection, which aligns with how younger clients approach beauty.”
She adds that for Gen Z, it’s less about a perfect manicure and more about self-expression. “This is why these lower maintenance, slightly undone shapes are popular right now.”
© InstagramLynne agrees. “This shift has come from a broader cultural move towards effortless beauty, self-expression, and practicality. Nails that feel wearable day-to-day, often reflecting to the popular ‘clean girl’ aesthetic.”
Lowkey manicures
As seen on the Met Gala red carpet and all over social media, you’ll see that the cool girls are rocking neutral, short nails, denouncing long, pointed nails as ‘out’ because they don’t lean into the clean girl aesthetic loved by the younger generation. Just like they prefer glowy, no-makeup makeup, Gen Z also prefer a natural nail look.
No big deal, it’s not my business how someone decades younger than me wants to wear their nails – so why do they care about mine?
I don’t remember criticising the gen above me (in fact, I admired Gen X – I still consider Kate Moss, Chloe Sevigny and Cameron Diaz as some of the coolest cool girls to walk the earth). I can guarantee I didn’t care how they did their nails.
I’d say that much of the reason Gen Z even has a platform to say my nails are millennial (or cringe, as they love to call everything that doesn’t fit their ‘aesthetic’) is that we exist on the internet together.
We share social media platforms in a way that wasn’t a thing for other generations. When I was growing up on MySpace, there wasn’t an older generation using the platform at the same time for me to be judgmental of.
But because millennials are quick to adapt to new platforms (we grew up doing it, migrating from MySpace to Facebook, Facebook to Instagram), we moved to TikTok with Gen Z, whereas by the time our parents were on Facebook, we’d moved on.
Media pot stirring
My final thought on the Gen Z V millennial nail debate is ironic, given that I’m writing on the topic and adding to the narrative myself, but I have to wonder, do Gen Z *actually* care how their elders are doing their nails? Or is it the media creating a war between us for the sake of clicks and comments?
Sure, Gen Z are creating millennial-poking social posts denouncing our side fringes and winged eyeliners as cringe, but maybe this content been created purely to rage-bait and garner comments?
Am I, and are Gen-Z, creating content purely to create reactions? Maybe. I’ll think about it during my next manicure.
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