NYFW Beauty Trend Alert: Forget Glazed Donut Nails, There’s a New Nail Trend for 2023

While Glazed Donut nails had their moment, we’re calling it now—2023 is the year of the updated Aurora Nail!  Taking on an almost iridescent quality, the new Aurora Nail represents a pretty take on the swirling Northern Lights. It’s easy to recreate at home, even if you’re terrible at doing your own nails and highly customizable to fit your own color palette.

Inspired by Pamella Roland’s fall 2023 Aurora collection at New York Fashion Week (NYFW), Lead Nail Artist and founder of the Pattie Yankee brand, Pattie Yankee created mesmerizing nails to bring Roland’s inspiration to life. 

“These are really, really easy. You don’t have to be perfect.  You can be messy and swipe them and put the colors any which way you want; whatever shades you want to use to create it,” Yankee shares.   For example, if you wanted a more blue or green nail, you could switch the order of the colors for a nail that resembles the green shades, which are more prominent in the Northern Lights in certain areas of the world.

To get the look from the runway, Yankee started by applying her own line of press-on nails, Patty Yankee Inspire 24 DIY Pre-Glued Clear Almond Nails (available at Sally Beauty and PattieYankee.com) Of course you could create this look on your own natural nail as well, but her press-ons are a great alternative (and perfect if you have trouble painting with your non-dominant hand, since you can create the look and then apply it!)

Regardless, if you use a press-on or your own nail, start by applying a clear base coat over the nail.  Think back to painting with watercolors.  If you apply the color to a dry canvas, it will make a sharp line; but if you soak the canvas beforehand, the colors will spread out into gorgeous patterns.  You want to make sure you don’t skip this step to ensure your nails have that magical, celestial vibe.

Next, Yankee lightly streaks four shades from the Pattie Yankee polish line onto the wet base coat.  The colors she used are Flower Power, a soft pink, Unbothered, a pastel blue lavender, Heavenly, a sky blue, and Abundant Life, a mint blue green.

“We wanted to mainly focus on the pink shades, so I started making light streaks of pink in the middle,” explains Yankee who knew Roland was a fan of a pink nail.  On either side of the pink, she lightly applied a little of the purple shade, followed by blue on the edges and just a tiny dot or two of green. (Yankee applied a small dot on the top right corner of the nail and the bottom left corner.)

Don’t worry about making straight lines or pretty swirls; the beauty is in the blending.  Once you have the colors how you’d like them, apply a sheer, shimmery polish on top of the wet nail, dragging the colors together.  Yankee used Have a Little Faith, a peachy shade with a touch of sparkle, again from her own line at Roland.  “It just all blends together and looks like the Northern Lights,” Yankee exclaims.

One helpful tip when recreating the Aurora Nail, is to make sure to have something to clean your brush between applications, Yankee shares.  Then once the nails are dry, Yankee added one more coat of Have a Little Faith to add a little more shimmer and then a topcoat. 

Images courtesy of Janine Silver

However, an Aurora Nail doesn’t need to be pastel. Yankee also loves the look in darker shades and shared some sample nails perfect to wear for the next few months!  So, make the Aurora Nail your own and be sure to share your creations!  We’d love to see them!

— Janine Silver