How To Get A ‘Glazed Chocolate’ Manicure

A shiny brown manicure is a lot like a brownie-colored lip liner or a chunky leather loafer. It's classic and truly nothing novel (hello, trend cycles), but this season, it feels like The Hot-New Thing To Wear.

Nowadays, nail trends pop off when a TikTok goes viral — which is what happened when Hailey Bieber posted a close-up clip of her brown-chrome nails, writing, "The chocolate glazed donut nails are really hitting for me for fall." Bieber isn't a one-off case. Betina Goldstein — one of our favourite nail artists who's always up on (if not creating) the latest trends — cosigns the early-in-the-season swing towards brown tones.

For this year's Emmys, Goldstein worked with actress Lily James who was styled (by Rebecca Corbin-Murray) in a copper-gold bustier gown by Versace. For the nails, Goldstein picked a glossy brown because it plays well with bronze. " As soon as I saw her dress, I knew the perfect polish for her was [Chanel] Le Vernis Implusion," Goldstein tells us. "Its rich tones of chocolate complimented the browns and bronze in her dress and the auburn in her hair." (Red highlights: another beauty trend we're not shaking.)

Close up, this particular shade of rich brown is nuanced enough to stand alone, without a shimmer topper or any chrome powder. If you're looking for the perfect polish, you'd find it in Chanel's Impulsion, a brand-new shade from the fall-winter collection. Goldstein used two thin layers of it, plus a gel top coat (also by Chanel) for shine and longevity. Goldstein used a brown polish for Julia Garner's Emmy's manicure, too. If you happen to have multiple shades of brown, you can throw them in a gradient manicure, like this.

Or, if you want to make your chocolate-brown manicure really glazed, like Bieber's, we'd recommend trading your clear top coat for a shimmery one. Something like Smith & Cult's Call Me Poetry or OPI's Rose Gold.

Another option: take this knowledge to your nail salon, find a brown polish that suits your skin tone, ask your artist to thin it out (this, Bieber says, is one of her favourite tricks to sheer out the pigment), then ask for a chrome powder over top. Seemingly, chrome dust is also not going anywhere.