Who Cares About Hailey Bieber’s Nails?

Graphic by Molly Van Gorp.

Breaking News: Hailey Bieber invented black nail polish.

Featured in acclaimed beauty publications like Vogue, Nylon and Allure, Bieber debuted a new pitch-black manicure that is exceptionally “Halloween-themed,” and everyone needs to know about it. 

“Black nail polish for fall?” You may wonder, slipping into the sarcasm of the deliciously wicked Miranda Priestly. “Groundbreaking.” A manicure that’s as inseparable from autumn as pumpkin spice lattes seems like it should hardly be making headlines in one—let alone three—major magazines, but it’s not the first time Bieber has been applauded for supposedly reinventing the beauty wheel.

As the Internet’s resident “clean girl,” Bieber is well known for her minimalist beauty looks, often including feathery brows, a sleek “model-off-duty” bun and barely-there makeup. Her viral “glazed donut nails,” created by nail artist Zola, were a huge hit this past summer for an angelic take on classic nude polish; they even inspired spin-offs as the summer cooled down. Knowing Bieber’s all-natural style, her sudden switch to such a dark, distinct set of black nails is certainly a bold choice, but to pretentious guys in bands or anyone who ran a Tumblr blog between 2012 and 2016, the grunge manicure is nothing new. Only when discovered on a white woman who prioritizes aesthetic purity and “cleanliness” does black nail polish become revolutionary.

Before the manicure, Bieber’s “brownie glazed lips” on TikTok stirred up quite a buzz—and backlash. With lips lined in a warm brown hue and coated in a layer of clear gloss, Bieber’s look is unassuming enough, but the Latinx beauty community recognized this as a clear derivative of their beauty trends from 30 years ago. “My mom, tias and primas have been rocking that look since the 90’s,” TikTok user @cindymax00 commented on the video. In a separate TikTok, Latina fashion influencer Berenice Castro (@benulus) reacted to the viral video. “Y’all shit on my lips every single time I post,” she said, pointing toward a screenshot of a negative comment she received, “but a white woman does it, [and] it’s going to become a trend, it’s going to be praised upon.” 

Even as Bieber’s fans defend the socialite for never claiming the look as her own, they entirely miss the point: people of color are consistently mocked for beauty trends that originated in their communities, but when white women adopt the looks, suddenly they become en vogue.

This is the essence of the “clean girl” aesthetic, where white women capitalize off of trends with creators of color under the inherently classist and racist guise of “cleanliness.” Slicked-back up-dos, gold hoop earrings, acrylic nails: all of these are trends that, according to Nylon’s article “The Problem With ‘Clean Girl’ Beauty,” originated in Black and Latinx communities and only became fashionable when white women began to wear them. Bieber, as arguably the most famous follower of the style, exemplifies this double standard with each new trend she adopts.

The newsworthiness of Bieber’s noir manicure is a trickle-down effect of this phenomenon, crediting white women like Bieber as trendsetters for every miniscule beauty choice that deviates from their traditional “clean girl” image while sidelining creators of color. Until the same magazines who raved about Bieber’s new manicure begin to acknowledge this, we’ll continue to see articles boasting Bieber’s beauty ingenuity. 

Who knows? Maybe she’ll reinvent the color red during Christmas.