Forget Cheekbones — Nail Contouring Is Slaying For Autumn

There’s a moment in Mean Girls when The Plastics take turns picking apart their own bodies. For her part, Karen, played by Amanda Seyfried says, “My nail beds suck.” And we feel her: Ours are short, squat, and wide. We wish they could be longer, like all those ladies handling things in commercials. Now celebrated manicurist Jin Soon Choi, creator of Jin Soon nail polish and arbiter of cool manis, has granted our wish. Because during NYFW, she introduced us to “nail contouring,” an easy trick that makes nails (and nail beds) look longer.

Instead of painting the entire nail, Choi lays down a dark coat of polish in the centre only, leaving the left and right sides bare or coated in nude polish. Just like with makeup contouring — in which shadow and light make noses appear slimmer, for example — that little omission of polish tricks the eye into thinking nails are longer. "This look is not only cool and creates the illusion of longer nails, it's really easy to execute because all you need is the brush that comes with the polish," Choi told Cosmopolitan.

Though the look has popped up on Instagram from time to time — including when Bella Thorne wore it a few years back — the manicurist reintroduced nail contouring for Vera Wang’s latest show. We couldn’t be more grateful, because now that we've realised the power of the stripe and its elongating effects, we can dedicate our attention to more important things (like learning to predict the weather with our boobs).