Or consider the exact flamingo pink that Harry Styles-currently breaking hearts on tour-personally chose to wear in his music video for the Grammy-winning “Watermelon Sugar.” When Los Angeles–based nail artist Sreynin Peng arrived to set that morning at sunrise, “a handsome, shirtless young man jogged past me, stopped to tie his shoe, and smiled,” Peng remembers. If a simple polish switch is enough, classicists pining for the perfect deep red can find their answer in Interdit, a moody crimson by Chanel. Here, at home, there’s a sense of customized control. (Even Rosalía has reimagined her signature nail adornments as twinkly adhesive jewels.) Now, one can experience the thrill of opening a tiny Hermès box to find the brand’s first-ever nail files-in signature orange, of course-or the instant satisfaction of the embellished press-on nails just released from Olive & June. The season’s coolest sets lean more DIY than hours-sitting-in-a-chair, and that abbreviated time commitment is 2021’s essence of true luxury. Typically, a “best fall nail” story might be read at the salon, in a hurried search for color inspiration.

Chanel step and repeat