While OTT trends like “junk” nails are losing steam, interest in nailcare itself is actually rising, says Addison Cain, a senior insights and marketing lead at Spate. Nailcare routines — which require products for things like nail prep and cuticle care — have grown 21.8 per cent year-on-year in the Spate Popularity Index, which shows a trend’s performance across TikTok, Instagram and Google Search. “It’s really the result of the skinification of everything,” Cain says, noting that consumers are now building multi-step routines for other parts of their bodies.
To help develop the products, Blumenthal enlisted fashion and celebrity manicurist Holly Falcone as founding creative director and brand manicurist. “I was not a nailcare expert when I started Celisse, I actually didn’t know how to do my own nails,” jokes Blumenthal, “and one thing that I learnt from my time at Avaline was the value of having experts at the table really early on.”
Falcone, who has worked with brands like Glossier and Sandy Liang and was a new mum herself, immediately connected with the vision. “I was also looking for at-home beauty solutions, and you can find so many today, but there was no elevated, simple, complete nail system,” she says. Plus, Falcone’s on-set experience familiarised her with the many questions people have about doing their own nails: how do you file them properly? What do you do with your cuticles? How can you prevent breakage?
There were some great luxury polishes out there, but no guidance on what to do before and after using them. Celisse, Falcone says, was looking at the entire “lifestyle” of having nails, whether that means a full manicure, or just a buff and shine on your way out the door. That’s not a conversation a lot of brands want to have, she explains, because it’s not all centred on buying new products.
“It’s such an oversaturated market and everything’s promising to deliver salon results without the education component,” Falcone says. “I think [what the consumer really needs is] someone just to get on their level and say, ‘Here, let me make this easy for you.’”
Photo: Courtesy of Celisse