Vanilla Glaze Nails: Why They Are The Worst
Glazed doughnut nails. French tip nails. Two of the most boring nails you could wear. What do you get when you add them together? A huge, even more boring trend: vanilla glaze nails.
Earlier this year I wrote about my nail art trend predictions of 2023. In that post I discussed my distaste for the current trend, glazed doughnut nails. Somehow, adding the world’s most boring nails together has created an even bigger nail trend for 2023. Unbelievable! Let’s take a look at why.
Glazed donut nails: what are they?
What are glazed doughnut nails? And why does everyone want them?
Glazed donut nails came about because Hailey Bieber wore them recently. She discussed her skincare routine as “making her look like a glazed doughnut” and that’s how the name came about for the nail art look.
The look is achieved by painting the nail with a sheer colour – white, usually, but pink or purple will do. It’s barely noticeable anyway. Then it’s topped with a “pearlescent” finish. This can be done with a regular white pearl nail polish/topper, or by using a chrome powder. The chrome powder can only be used when you’ve applied a gel polish or top coat. My advice? Unless you’re really into gel nails, don’t bother – it’s more trouble than it’s worth.
Pearl nail polishes or toppers have been around for ages and are always sheer.
What is a French tip?
A French tip is bizarre concept when you think about it, really. Instead of your natural nail being pink at the bottom and white on the top, you paint your nail bed more pink, and your nail tip more white. You can go crazy of course, and make the tip any colour you like, but that’s not what a standard French tip is about.
How to get glazed vanilla nails?
Add them together and you get: glazed vanilla nails. Paint your French tips in basic, boring colors – the idea is to choose shades even more muted than pink and white, such as beige and bone. Then, add the pearl on top, so the whole thing becomes even more muted.
Why is this a trend?
There are a few factors at play here. First, anything Hailey Bieber does is news. Second, I’m guessing, is because there are many people who want to have their nails done but either can’t have loud and/or colorful nails because of their workplace. Or, they don’t want to have bold nails.
These nails are also geared towards people who go to the salon to have acrylic nails applied – they’re easily achieved this way.
But you love neutral nails – aren’t you a hypocrite?
Possibly. It’s true, some of my favourite nail polishes are dressed up neutrals. However, I don’t understand the desire to have sheer nail polish.
Jelly nail polish is sheer, and designed for nail art – you can learn what jelly nail polish is here and then how to create cool nail art with it here. I like to use it for its intended purpose, not just to have a little something over a natural nail.
There are so many amazing neutral polishes with a little something, I just can’t see why you’d choose this over any of those. But that’s just my taste.
In fact, I feel so strongly about it that I’m going to make a post dedicated to it!
Why are they the worst?
In summary, in case you didn’t read any of this: the glazed nail trend is incredibly boring.
One thing I can say in defense of these nails, is that they’re probably much more striking in real life. Shimmer polishes can look incredibly underwhelming in photos, but in real life it’s quite exciting to move your hand and see a flash of shimmer reflecting in the sun. If you’re really into it, you might want to consider upgrading that excitement to holographic glitter or reflective glitter (read about that here).
