The Best Brown Manicures, According To A Nail Artist

The other day I asked a nail artist a pretty broad question: What's the most popular nail color right now? I was expecting a sidestep, something like, "Everyone's different," or an obvious pick, like a milky or ballet pink or a classic red, but she surprised me and said: Right now, everyone wants brown nails.

On TikTok, videos tagging "brown nail designs" have 8.8 billion views — that’s double the popularity of black nail designs or white nail designs. The reason people are searching or sharing in their brown nail experience is because a single shade of brown nail polish carries a lot of nuance: Do you want more of a red undertone or a dark chestnut or a soft beige brown? Add in the art and design trends and brown are varied enough that they warrant their own feature.

You can talk about brown trending as a response to the fall season. Although nail artist Joelle Rodriguez notes a bigger trend, a kind of pendulum swing in aesthetic. "Back in the day, people were using excessive amounts of bling on their nails, but that's not really the trend right now," she explains. "Everyone's kind of toning down and finding a shade that aligns with their outfits." Latte browns are the fashion equivalent.

"Brown can be a really rich color, it's not like black that's flat," explains Rodriguez. "There are a lot of different variations." She recommends pulling a few different shades and trying them on. "When I'm working with clients, it usually takes about three or so tries to find the perfect shade," Rodriguez continues. "A lot of my clients also get up and look in the mirror so they can see themselves wearing the polish, rather than just looking at their hand."

If you're stuck, Rodriguez recommends matching the tone to a part of your body that is brown. "It is neutral and we all have natural parts of our body that have browns in them, like our skin or our hair," she explains. Here's an idea: match your brown to the shade of brown to the skin of your elbow or a specific freckle.  

On the heels of the "cherry lips" craze, "cherry mocha nails" — brown nails with a rich red undertone — have been surging in popularity, which many will credit to cozy sweaters and foliage. But Rodriguez says it's a specific aesthetic. "Everybody is into this Emily from The Devil Wears Prada aesthetic lately," she explains.

What's the best cherry mocha polish? Here, content creator Marianna Mäkelä is wearing a gel polish by Blazing Star in Cherry Wine. Rodriguez also recommends Essie Bordeaux, a brown-tinged burgundy.

Though they're not new, chrome powders continue to trend. "Chrome came out like eight years ago, but it wasn't popular because no one really knew how to do it very well," explains Rodriguez. "But now — since the Hailey Bieber thing — everybody loves chrome." Specifically with a light or dark brown nail polish, a chrome topper adds extra dimension. "Any shade of brown with a clear or white chrome on top would look gorgeous," adds Rodriguez.

This specific example by @nailsxmina uses a DND gel polish in Walnut Brown with Daily Charme White Chrome powder on top (in my experience, most salons have this on hand, given the demand.)

"Tortoise designs come around every year," explains Rodriguez. But the current trend she's seeing is a tortoise jelly nail, something a little more sheer. "I have seen a popularity in Korean gel polishes in jelly shades," she explains. "I think a brown jelly color, syrup gel, would look extremely pretty in a tortoise design."

Because a tortoise design is a little more involved than a flat brown or even a brown chrome, there are some custom kits that make it easier. "I use Nail Thoughts collaboration with Kokoist, which is a Japanese gel brand. She [manicurist Katie Masters] has done tortoise designs for years and years and perfected it, so she made a kit to make it easy for nail techs to execute a perfect tortoise look."

There are also cute tortoise press-ons nails from Static Nails and Dashing Diva, if you want a less involved process.