Milk nails in all their different guises dominated our feeds in 2025, whether you opted for straight-up milk bath nails or the BB cream iteration. Now ‘cloudy French’ nails, also sometimes called ‘foggy French nails’, are stepping into the spotlight as the new successor to the nude nail crown – and they’ve already been given the cool-girl stamp of approval.
Celebrity manicurist Betina Goldstein debuted the look on Zoë Kravitz at the Golden Globes last week, describing her enviously glossy manicure as “soft natural nails with a touch of cloudy French” in an Instagram post.
Now I’m spotting the look everywhere, especially on friends and fellow beauty editors who are giving their nails a break from gels but still want “a little something” to make their tips look neat and polished.
So what exactly are ‘cloudy French’ nails?
As the name implies, it’s a twist on the traditional French manicure and taps into Pantone’s colour of the year: Cloud Dancer. But – as the close-up of Zoë’s manicure shows – rather than a pastel pink base paired with a stark white tip, the ‘cloudy French’ manicure has given this iconic neutral nail a sheer, hazy quality.
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Think of it as a soft French: a nearly bare nail and an off-white, almost naked tip the distinct colour of clouds on a misty January day. ‘Cloudy French nails’ are like the 2026 take on the Vanilla French mani that Hailey Bieber popularised three years ago, and, like milk nails, the effect is just as elegant with an elongated nail bed.
The fact that the colour on the tip is, well, off, may seem like a small detail but it’s actually the key to making the ‘cloudy French’ manicure look likethe traditional French mani’s cool, unexpected, slightly rebellious cousin.
@betina_goldstein/Instagram
How to get the ‘cloudy French’ nail look
In her post, Betina broke down exactly how she created her ‘cloudy French’ nail look, using all The Gel Bottle products. After applying the 2-in-1 base coat, she added a “thin coat” of Chiffon BIAB and an equally thin coat of Milky BIAB “Just on the tips of the nails to color correct”. A single coat of the Extreme Shine Top Coat finished the look.
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