If ever a manicure trend was designed with daydreamers in mind, it has to be cloud nails. While it’s not exactly new, the cloud nails trend is taking over TikTok, where it’s picked up over 39.8 million views and is igniting a new craze for this manicure.

Now Jennifer Lopez‘s favourite celebrity manicurist, Tom Bachik, has added a video to his Instagram of cloudy sky nails, which look like miniature works of art. And just like that, he has crystallised it as spring’s must-try manicure.

Tom is renowned for his intricate nail art designs. Selena Gomez’s recent ‘70s wallpaper’ flower nails is just one example, where hand-drawn yellow, purple and blue petals graced her black nails and looked so realistic they could have been pressed flowers. He’s also a master at different iterations of lipgloss nails.

But in his most recent post, Tom shows how he uses a pin-thin brush to draw tiny clouds onto milky nude, oval-shaped nails. He reserves the intricate details for the middle two fingers only, while the other nails bear a lilac and pink metallic marbled finish reminiscent of an early morning sunrise. 

As you can see from Tom’s work, cloud nails look exactly as they sound. Inspired by the skies above at different times of day, whimsical puffs of cotton candy clouds sit atop nude and blue bases, while others skew less literal and look not unlike a Monet watercolour at dusk. 

It’s also probably not escaped your attention that cloud nails are an offspring of cloud skin, which is having a moment right now and involves using fluffy and airy makeup textures. The vibe is the same for many of the cloud manicures: soft-focus, ethereal and a little hazy. 

Not to mention, the timing is ideal, too. Not only are we on a promise of sunny skies ahead, but the cloud nails trend also fits neatly into the current zeitgeist for dreamy escapism and our fixation with manifesting, sleep journaling and meditation.  

If you did want to try a DIY cloud nail manicure, it thankfully doesn’t require precise lines. However, depending on the level of detail and your nail art skills, these sky-scapes are probably best left to your favourite technician to recreate. 

Keep scrolling for the best ways to wear cloud nails and the mood board to take to your next nail appointment…

Crystal-embellished cloud nails

‘Cloudy-French’ nails

Rainbow cloud nails

Marble cloud nails

Gothic cloud nails

Pastel cloud nails

Nude cloud nails

Glitter cloud nails

Constellation cloud nails

For more from Fiona Embleton, GLAMOUR’s Acting Associate Beauty Director, follow her on @fiembleton.