I Tried Vivienne Westwood Nails: See Photos
I Tried the Vivienne Westwood Nail Trend — With a Twist
As POPSUGAR editors, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. If you buy a product we have recommended, we may receive affiliate commission, which in turn supports our work.
For someone who loves a good manicure trend, I usually keep my nails pretty simple. The reason for that is I don't have a nail salon I particularly enjoy going to and going through the process can actually feel kind of stressful. That aside, I always love the end result and can readily admit: a good manicure can feel like an accessory all by itself. This is why when another POPSUGAR editor discovered the Vivienne Westwood trend on TikTok, I knew I had to try it.
"Vivienne Westwood nails pay homage to the iconic designer and her brand by featuring a Vivienne Westwood-inspired orb fixed to acrylic nails," nail expert Liana Thomson previously told POPSUGAR. The rise in interest can likely be attributed to the rise of punk-rock-inspired fashion and the subsequent indie-sleaze beauty moment that we're currently experiencing as a result.
The trend typically features ornate details that almost look baroque, but I took the essence of the trend and made it my own to fit my personal needs. In case you're looking for your own Vivienne Westwood nail inspiration, read ahead to learn all about the process step by step and see the final result.
How to Get Vivienne Westwood Nails
Though I had a rough idea of what I wanted my version of the trend to look like, I wanted to go to someone whose eye I could trust, so I visited celebrity manicurist Julie Kandalec in New York City. We immediately got to work ideating, and it was during this time that I let her know that I would need the look to be as "bridal" as possible, as I knew I was likely going to get engaged at some point in the next few days. With that in mind, Kandelec got to work.
After cleaning up my nails and cuticles, Kandalec opted for the medium, stiletto-shaped, soft-gel tips for the foundation of the gel-x manicure. Then she painted on the base colour using Jello Jello's gel polish in the colour JJ-27, a peachy nude, before hand-drawing the french tip using Kiara Sky's Colour Base ($15) in the shade Milky White. This is where the fun really began.
A few of my inspiration photos had this beautiful iridescence, which Kandalec informed me was likely due to a chrome powder, the use of which has recently been popularized by Hailey Bieber. "To get this part of look, you want to use a no-white topcoat," Kandalec tells POPSUGAR. "Even though it cures 100 percent (whereas its counterpart cures around 97 percent), it still has this tacky layer that you can use to rub in the chrome powder without it skipping from being too sticky."
If this is a trend that you're planning to DIY, a pro tip that Kandelec shared was to cure the topcoat for half the time than is instructed to rub in your chrome powder, and cure it once more, just to make sure that it has a bit of extra hold. In keeping with the soft, bridal theme, we went for a chrome powder that had a pinky shift to it, the last step before we added the nail accessories.
The most integral part of this entire process that you cannot skip is the addition of Westwood's famous orb emblem. Whether it is hand-drawn, a sticker, or a 3D accessory like the one we went with, this logo captures the essence of Westwood's entire brand; a friend of mine even saw my final nails and immediately got the reference. We chose a silver one from this 3D Planet Nail Charms ($9) set on Amazon and placed one on each of my middle fingers. It was the best addition to really drive home where I was going with the look.
For the rest of my nails, the goal was to choose 3D decals that were fun but timeless. This resulted in small crosses on my thumbs, a pearl-encrusted smile line on my pinkies, and golden "clusters" on my ring and index fingers that had everything from geometric shapes to leaves and even stars. If I can say so, the manicure came out looking like an actual masterpiece. It also looked fabulous in my engagement pictures, which is all I could really ask for.
In the future, I would likely opt for Vivienne Westwood-inspired stickers instead of the actual orb. The edges of the metal piece do in fact snag on everything that they possibly can, but my nails look so good that I truly don't mind.
