No longer are round or square the only options you have to decide between when getting your nails done.
There’s now a new kid on the block and we’re not sure how we feel about them.
Introducing, the flare nails.
Also known as ‘duck feet nails’, the nail shapes fan out at the ends like the flared jeans or, erm, duck’s feet.
They can be long or short and are certainly not subtle, featuring in a range of designs from Hello Kitty to glittery to a twist on the classic french manicure.
They’re a significant departure from the long thin talon-style nails that have dominated of late.
While they’re currently gaining popularity, they’re not entirely new.
Art of Nailz nail artist Maggie Franklin wrote about them on her blog in 2011, describing them as the style many technicians were refusing to do.
“They are inherently structurally unstable. They are out of balance, with more weight off the nailbed than on it, and with that weight spread out over so much space, flared nails are a disaster waiting to happen,” she wrote.
“Too much free edge to get caught on things, leading to more lifting and breaking.”
They certainly do look like they’d make typical everyday tasks that little bit more difficult.
Franklin also perfectly summed up the cycle of nail trends.
“Believe me, in 10 years you’ll be looking at those duck feet nails in your photos and laughing at yourself for ever thinking they were “cool.” And five years after that, they’ll be back in again,” she wrote.
Nailed it.