No Nail Polish? You Must Be a Racist!
27th September 2026
How the Bare Nails Trend Became a Class Issue
BBC, a Voice of the Crust.
In recent months, artsy shots of glossy naked nails have been flooding social media and taking over fashion runways and red carpets, which some are viewing as the latest symbol of “quiet luxury”.
But critics argue the bare nails trend actually says something about class, the hamster wheel of beauty standards, and who gets to define what is considered tasteful.
Nail art’s historical and creative roots are linked back to black, Latino, and Asian communities and the suggestion that bare nails are now a sign of high status could stigmatise bold manicures, they say.
“That trend really promotes blankness and this kind of sameness and erasure of culture and identity that is so important to black and brown communities,” beauty journalist Kristina Rodulfo tells the BBC.
“They are often called elegant or tasteful, and these are often usually euphemisms that perpetuate white supremacist standards of beauty.”
Funny how men have lasted for thousands of years without nail polish. White supremacy goes back a lot farther than I realized. (If we’re talking about ‘white supremacist standards of beauty’, let’s talk about black women who do everything in their power to not look like black women. All of those black women on TV with straight hair and bleached hair must be white supremacists. Good to know.)
