Did Selena Gomez just catalyse the nail trend of the summer?

It’s giving sunset at the beach vibes

BEAUTYcrew Beauty Editor / November 04 2022

Nail artist Tom Bachik is responsible for the digits of celebrities such as J.Lo, Hailee Steinfeld and Selena Gomez.

He’s also famous for his simplistically chic manicures, and often favours painting his clients’ nails with an understated slick of a single shade over more complicated designs.

Recently, Bachik made us revisit our love for a minimalist manicure. He painted J.Lo’s nails with a classic deep red nail polish — Essie Nail Polish in Bordeaux ($13.99 at Chemist Warehouse). 

Shaky hands and all, we tried desperately to copy the affordable look ourselves, with varying degrees of success. 

We naively thought our gig moonlighting as nail techs was officially over, but Bachik has managed to reel us in again with another easy and eye-catching celebrity manicure

For the premiere of her documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, the nail artist lacquered Gomez’s nails in a vibrant, “sunset yellow for our sunshine girl”.

Maybe it’s the way her manicure provided such a stark contrast to her magenta Rodarte gown, or it’s the imminent approach of summer, but we’re coining sunset nails the manicure trend of the season. In fact, we happen to think they’ll look great wrapped around a summer spritz. 

Be it sunshine yellow or golden hour orange, it’s the perfect time to try a sunset shade of nail polish…

6 sunset-inspired nail polish colours to buy for summer

1/ POKETO Nail Polish in ‘Ellsworth Yellow’ ($39.95 at Ithika)

POKETO Nail Polish in ‘Ellsworth Yellow’

2/ Smith & Cult Nail Lacquer in ‘Color Me Curious’ ($32 at Adore Beauty)

Smith & Cult Nail Lacquer in ‘Color Me Curious’

3/ Hanami Nail Polish in ‘Beams’ ($20.95 at Hanami)

Hanami Nail Polish in ‘Beams’

4/ HERMÈS Les Mains Hermès Nail Enamel Polish in ‘33 Orange Boite’ ($70 at MYER

HERMÈS Les Mains Hermès Nail Enamel Polish in ‘33 Orange Boite’

5/ Dior Vernis True Colour, Ultra-Shiny, Long Wear in ‘648 Mirage’ ($44 at MYER)

Dior Vernis True Colour, Ultra-Shiny, Long Wear in ‘648 Mirage’

6/ JINsoon Nail Lacquer in ‘Koi’ ($27 at MECCA)

JINsoon Nail Lacquer in ‘Koi’

You know what’ll pair nicely with that new manicure of yours? Taylor Swift’s favourite eyeliner — it’ll draw a “cat eye sharp enough to kill a man”.

Main image credit: Getty

Briar Clark got her start in the media industry in 2017, as an intern for Marie Claire and InStyle. Since then, her keen interest in fashion and beauty has landed her gigs as a Digital Content Producer and Beauty Editor with titles like Girlfriend, Refinery29, BEAUTYcrew and beautyheaven. She loves the way seemingly innocuous topics like skin care and style have the ability to put a smile on people’s faces or make them think about themselves a little differently. A big believer in self love and experimentation, Briar has made a point of becoming the Australian beauty industry’s unofficial guinea pig for unusual treatments and daring hair trends. When she’s not testing out the latest beauty launches, Briar is big on broadening her horizons, mostly in the form of food but she’s also partial to travelling to new destinations both near and far (and of course, allocating an extra bag to bring their best beauty offerings home with her).