You can always count on a handful of celebrities for some exceptional nail art. In the beginning of last year, everyone from Lizzo [1] and Kylie Jenner to Saweetie [2] and plenty more set the bar high with the complex designs adorned on their fingers while attending red carpet events and award shows. While our gatherings look entirely different today than they did one year ago, the stars are still bringing their A-game in 2021 with boundary-pushing manicures that are award-worthy all on their own.
While some of the bigger nail-art trends [3] to take over last year included bold, geometric patters, crystal adornments, and abstract shapes, things are only set to get more dramatic in 2021 [4], and these celebs are the proof we needed. From manicures that celebrate body positivity [5] to the ones that acknowledge the start of a new year, we rounded up some of the best celebrity manicures we've seen this year so far.
Keep reading for all the nail-art inspiration you need.
Kendall and Kylie Jenner
The famous siblings started off the new year with multicoloured manicures: black and white melted squiggle nails [6] for Kendall and a pink and orange marble design for Kylie.
Jennifer Lopez
During her performance at New Year's Rockin' Eve, Lopez celebrated the start of a brand-new year with the perfect set of nails to match. The singer wore black-and-white themed nail art with "2021" written on them, embellished with crystals (of course).
Saweetie
The queen of outrageous nail art herself took things to a new level for her recent music video for "Best Friend," featuring Doja Cat. Saweetie wore four-inch-long gold stiletto nails to match one of her outfits in the visual.
Doja Cat
Saweetie couldn't be the only one in the "Best Friend" music video with over-the-top nails, of course. Doja Cat, who starred in the video with her, wore light pink pom poms on her nails to match her outfit and cotton candy pink hair.
Demi Lovato
In early January, Demi Lovato showed off her tie-dye pink nails [7] adorned with hand-painted boobs in different shapes and sizes as a way to celebrate body positivity.
Megan Thee Stallion
Megan Thee Stallion recently showed off her all-new set: a geometric blue pattern that subtly matched the zig-zag shape on her jean pockets.
Hunter Schafer
Hunter Schafer wore a mitosis-inspired manicure that gave us subtle flashbacks to our school biology classes.
Hannah Bronfman
Celebrity nail artist Mei Kawajiri [8] created this mismatched, multicoloured manicure for influencer Hannah Bronfman.
Justine Skye
Justine Skye's space and time manicure was all about shapes and bright colours on a black background.
Lizzo
Lizzo [9] recently wore a brown marble french manicure that reminded us of the chocolate nail art [10] she wore to the BRIT Awards in 2020.
Kylie Jenner
Kylie Jenner switches things up fast. After debuting her pink and orange marble nails, she quickly moved on to a lime green French manicure.
Rowan Blanchard
Rowan Blanchard recently wore a metallic pink, green, and white French manicure with pearl crosses on select fingertips.