‘Naked nails’ is the quiet luxury manicure everyone’s talking about

Hailey Bieber may be the high priestess of maximalist manicures. But against all odds, TikTok has made a hard pivot away from clashing mismatched nails, crowning naked nails and their silky pink afterglow the hottest trend of the summer.

Indeed, judging by the way naked nails are permeating our Instagram feeds, it seems few can resist the siren call of doing less as temperatures soar, with one TikToker going so far as to dub 2023 ‘naked nail girl summer’.

“I’ve seen a ton of people rocking naked nails,” content creator @sydneyv.nichols says in a viral video, which has already racked up over 1 million views. “I am so sick of going to a nail salon every two weeks to sit and get a gel manicure.”

Naked nails also reflects the current mood for ‘quiet luxury’. After all, a thoughtfully assembled, barely-noticeable manicure screams polished and put together in the same way as glossy, ‘no makeup’ makeup does.

The trend is exactly as it sounds: buffed, effortlessly elegant nails, where your natural tips show through clean and white. We’re talking seriously healthy nails here. “The look is timelessly chic and enhances the natural beauty of your nails, giving them a very fresh finish,” says Daisy Kalnina, founder of The Gel Bottle Inc.

Naked nails two ways

The internet is flooded with inspiration but ultimately naked nails can be interpreted two different ways.

1.Polish-free nails

The first iteration is a completely polish-free nail, with impeccably pushed back and trimmed cuticles, a buffed nail plate and little else except for perhaps a treatment base coat.