They say three makes a trend, but when it comes to celebrity influence, two is more than enough. Such is the case with the latest animal-inspired nail trend that started building steam on social media at the end of 2018 and has now seen two of the most-followed famous faces — and by extension, hands — on Instagram embrace the look.
When Allure chatted with March cover star Kendall Jenner, we asked her if there were any particular manicures she’d like to try next. Without hesitation, she told us, “So there’s one that’s like cow print. I know that sounds really weird but it’s actually really cool. So we’ll see if that happens any time soon.” And happen soon it did.
On Saturday, the model posted photos and videos to her Instagram Stories revealing that she has, in fact, gotten a cow-print manicure. Her nails, squared off and just long enough to extend past her finger tips, feature a white base with carefully painted splotches of black — the unmistakable pattern associated with our gentle bovine farm friends.
Jenner’s manicure comes a little more than a month after Ariana Grande posted a photo to her Instagram Stories of her own cow-print manicure — or at least a cow-print thumbnail. The singer tagged @nailanatomy, a nail artist named Betty who works with Los Angeles studio NailSwag.
And while Jenner and Grande might take the trend to a new level of popularity, they were arguably late adopters. Instagram nail artists have been increasingly sharing their takes on the pattern for months. “It’s been a huge trend,” Glasgow-based nail artist Rachel Ann Bowes tells Allure. She recently created a long, rounded cow-print manicure for one of her clients.
But straight-up black-and-white isn’t the only way to incorporate the pattern into your manicure. Nail artist Amy Rickaby added a subtle metallic twist to her client’s cow-print nails. “Absolutely loving cow print right now,” she wrote on Instagram. “Bringing the print alive with gold Cleopatra cuffs,” which involves a thin stroke of color along the cuticle.
And speaking of pastel blue, there’s no rule that says the cow print itself has to be black and white. Nail artists like Vanity Projects Miami’s Yessenia and Megan Harrison in England have created colorful interpretations of the look.
Obviously, trends come and go, but we’d be more than happy to keep seeing this particular type of manicure — Yes, I’m going to say it, and I’m sorry — until the cows come home.
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