The Princess of Wales is renowned for her polished and elegant style agenda, and this year’s bold blue Catherine Walker outfit she wore to attend the Easter Mattins Service at St. George's Chapel in Windsor was no different.
This year however, Kate sported something we weren’t expecting... a bright red manicure. "A red manicure never goes out of style," explains Venetia Archer, founder of mobile beauty app Ruuby, "While we may play with darker berry tones, or brighter apple reds… it’s a failsafe. We always ask that our nail technicians bring a minimum of eight red shades because it’s always a go-to."
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While red nail polish might seem like a classic choice, for the women of the British royal family it is anything but. Hence our surprise that Kate eschewed her trademark Essie ‘ballet slippers’, royal-approved neutral nails in favour of the scarlet hue. “According to royal etiquette, fake nails or brightly-coloured nails are reportedly not appropriate for public appearances,” explains Hello!’s Georgie Brown.
Indeed, our monarchs and aristos indeed tend to don protocol-appropriate nude tones for public events. The electric blue colour of her coat dress only served to highlight the contrast of her mani. Could she be taking cues from the ‘red nail theory’ which has gone viral on TikTok?
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What is Red Nail Theory?
The term ‘Red Nail Theory’ was originally coined by TikTok creator Robyn Delmonte (@GirlBossTown) and has since become a viral manifesting ideology and commonly used beauty practice. The idea is that by sporting a classic red manicure, you are more likely to receive attention from potential suitors and others believe the colour gives you the confidence to ‘manifest’ your desires.
“Every time I have red nails, a guy comments on it,” explains Delmonte, “They’ll be like, oh, I like your nail colour. I always thought red was a grandma’s nail colour… Then it hit me. In the ’90s, when we were growing up, women had red nails a lot, especially our mums… I think guys are attracted to our red nails because it reminds them of their mums when they were growing up, taking care of them.”
Since posting her original clip, videos related to red nail theory on TikTok have amassed over 235.4 million views.
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