Turtle Manicures Are The Latest Beauty Trend — & It's Not What You Think

The words turtle manicure may conjure images of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-inspired nail art, but that's not the beauty trend that's taking over social media. Not yet, at least.

Instead, Teen Vogue reports that a nail-polish fanatic's terrapin twinning has gone totally viral. Twitter user @yagirlkeyy (real name Kiana) isn't painting turtle images on her tips. She's actually painting her pet turtle's tips.

Last week, Kiana introduced her followers to her new "dog," which was actually her new turtle, Juanita. It seemed innocent enough, but in the tweet, she added the manicure emoji, which got her followers to look a little closer. Yep, that tiny turtle's claws were fuchsia — and the haters can say what they want, because it's not Photoshop.

And lest anyone think it was just a one-off occasion, Juanita debuted a second manicure the next day. Kiana showed off her new mellow-yellow tips — which coordinated with her pet's own markings, we might add — and Juanita's updated paint job: a deeper red. Juanita's #notd photo has already earned over 109,000 likes.

Kiana and Juanita may have just started a new trend. After her initial tweet, fellow turtle enthusiasts followed in their fierce footsteps, posting their own fresh reptilian manicures. We're not sure if this trend has legs, because it must be hell to get turtles to stay still and not pull their little legs into their shells long enough to slap a coat of polish on. But it seems that Kiana will have plenty of time to collect a whole gallery of enviable manicures, since red-eared sliders like Juanita can live well over 30 years. That's a lot of time for mani snapshots.

Teen Vogue adds that if you want to try this for yourself, make sure you're using pet-safe polish and not your go-to OPI shade. Then, use a pet-safe remover when you're looking to swap shades.

Safety first, sweet photo ops second.