Orbit Nails: The Nail Art Trend We Spotted At New York Fashion Week

At the Jeremy Scott show during New York Fashion Week, the nail art was just as innovative, colourful, and exciting as the fashion. Catching up backstage with nail artist extraordinaire Miss Pop, who worked with Essie on the show, she introduced us to what she's calling "orbit nails," which you may know as "outline nails."

This look is not exactly for beginners. Playing with negative space, this design involves drawing a precise, straight line all around the edge of the nail. Any little nudge or budge could throw the whole thing off. "If you're a DIY girl and you love doing your nails, this look will take you an hour," Miss Pop says. "If you're not a DIY girl, then this is a project."

To achieve this look, Pop and her team first painted on Essie's Vanity Fairest, which is a light shimmery pink shade. Then they took a thin striper brush and outlined the edge in bright colours that coordinated with Scott's palette for the show — like pink, cobalt blue, and turquoise. You can also do this look on a completely bare nail, Pop says, and it looks much better on round nails than square. In total, Pop and her team did 42 sets of 24 nails, taking an hour for each set. That's about two days work.

But if you're looking at this right now and thinking, "Who do you think I am, Picasso?" Pop has a tip for you: Paint your entire nail the one bold colour you'd want as the outline. Then take an opaque shade that you'd consider to be your nude, and recreate that inner shape of the nail just by doing two rounded strokes within the nail. That's much easier than slowly outlining your entire nail, but still really not what we'd consider easy.

These outline or orbit nails actually aren't entirely new to NYFW. Last year, at the Zang Toi show, Sundays Studio did the look with a blue base and a white outline around the edge. Clearly this is a trend that's slowly catching on. If you're digging this look, check out some more "orbit nail" inspiration from the show, ahead.