‘Rose Water Nails’ Are Still The Hottest Manicure Of The Summer

A beauty editor essential during a heatwave? A rose water face mist. But dewy, delicate nails are having a moment, too. Characterised by their translucent, blush pink flushes, rose water nails are a sheer, tinted manicure that boosts your natural nail colour. Yep, fans of the ‘clean girl’ aesthetic, rejoice.

While sharing some of the hallmarks of blush and jelly nails, they involve pink shades in varying intensities, watery-thin layers of polish and a high-gloss finish. Imagine Benefit’s iconic Benetint Blush – but for nails. Or your stained fingertips after eating a raspberry popsicle.

Somewhere juicy between soap nails and ballet slipper nails, they’re the perfect shade for an effortless cool-girl look this summer. Here’s everything you need to know about the viral nail trend and how to achieve it yourself.

What are rose water nails?

Rose water nails aren’t exactly new. They’ve enjoyed spikes in popularity ever since Canadian nail brand Gelcare gave birth to the trend with a polish of the same name. “A delicate, jelly pink that enhances the natural beauty of your nails while giving them a glow 💗” is how the brand described its Rose Water gel polish in an Instagram post.

But rose water nails are currently enjoying a revival and flooding our FYPs for a couple of very good reasons. The first – and perhaps the most obvious reason – is that Gelcare Rose Water Gel Polish has been pushed to the top of the “trending” shades category on its website.

Then there are the current rising temperatures. Creams and milks no longer feel fit for purpose in the heat, and we’re leaning more into watery textures – from our moisturisers to the new raft of gel-like blushers that have launched this year so far. So it’s perhaps unsurprising that we’re stepping away from milk nails to embrace something lighter manicure-wise, too.

Low-maintenance nails in neutral shades – AKA the antithesis of ‘holiday nails’ in neon shades – are also the current zeitgeist. Princess nails and Dakota Johnson’s glass French manicure, for example, have both gone viral; rose water nails share a similar DNA with both of these manicure trends but are just that little bit juicier and pink-tinted.

And like the “BB cream nails” trend that Gelcare also coined, rose water nails share the same sheer glaze that masks any ridges on the nail bed and can be created using polishes containing nail-strengthening ingredients.