Everything You Need To Know About Lipstick Nails

Nail trends come and go, but the intrigue surrounding them is forever. The best nail design trends of 2021 inspired everyone to take control of their own nails as the COVID-19 pandemic continued, and these have undoubtedly shaped the nail art trends everyone will be trying in 2022. It's been another year of creativity while everyone's been stuck at home, but art always prevails — and the latest nail trends have blown us away.

Among these new trends is lipstick nails. Like other nail trends that become popular on TikTok and Instagram, this trend sees people having fun with their nails and not following simple color schemes or patterns. In fact, rather than centering on color or design at all, this trend is all about your nail shape (via Allure). It initially became popular on Instagram in the first half of 2021, and it's proven popular throughout the remainder of the year, too.

The lipstick nail trend simply sees people carving their nails at a slant to mimic the slanted edge of a lipstick (or not doing the slant and opting for a long, lipstick tube-like appearance). It's how people get creative with them that makes it so popular and fun.

The lipstick nail is perplexing to some, but they look incredibly cool when themed and actually done well. According to Suggest, the trend apparently started in South Korea and became popular after a professional nail artist with over 700,000 followers, Park Eun-kyung, posted about them on Instagram. Now, Eun-kyung, who owns and operates Unistella by E.K. Lab in Seoul, has taken the world by storm with her idea.

Eun-kyung began posting about them to showcase how this nail shape can transform even the simplest of nails. Suddenly, a simple black nail looks simultaneously more elegant and edgy, simply by it being filed down into the slanted lipstick shape. "As I was working at a photoshoot for cat eye-shaped sunglasses, I thought it would be interesting to shape my nails into that shape and gave it a try. It turned out like a lipstick shape, so I did it on my nails immediately," Eun-kyung explained to Byrdie about the shape's origin.

Now, people are finding more and more fun and creative ways to utilize this nail trend. People are turning their nails into festive lipstick designs or elevating simple looks like Eun-kyung. Others, as noted by Byrdie, are transforming this style further and creating iridescent lipstick nails, accent colors on the lipstick nails' tips, glittering the tips, and much more.