Taylor Swift’s Neon Pink Manicure Is The Last Look You’d Expect From The Star

If all the colorful blocks on your Google Calendar are stressing you out, try this exercise for grounding: imagine you’re in charge of Taylor Swift’s schedule. Instant perspective, right? It’s hard enough to maintain work-life-love balance in today’s day and age, but factor in the NFL playoffs and Swift’s upcoming international tour legs, and you can’t help but wonder how she and beau Travis Kelce are managing it all. By the looks of Swift’s pink nails, though, it seems pretty well — a bold, candy-colored manicure this close to Valentine’s Day can really only celebrations are imminent. Romance factor aside, though, the “Dear Reader” singer’s manicure is more than a little unexpected for several standout reasons.

The sweet shade of nail polish was spotted in New York City on Jan. 23, when Swift stepped out for a Nobu dinner with friends Brittany Mahomes and Cara Delevingne. The star was dressed in her standard cold weather classics, including a demure bun and chunky black boots, but her bright pink nails stand in sharp, bold contrast to the rest of her muted color palette. There’s also the fact that, in several of the paparazzi pictures, Swift appears to be prominently displaying the nails by splaying her fingers out over her legs — she seems to be directing attention to the look on purpose. Or maybe it’s just windy and she’s trying to keep her skirt in place.

But Swift’s manicure is about more than just color. These artificial nails are much longer than her natural ones, which is what she usually paints, and filed into a very trendy square shape. It keeps up her recent streak of out-of-the-box manicures, too. For the 2024 Golden Globes, Swift wore extra-lengthy, almond-shaped nails covered in spangly silver glitter. Days after the ceremony, she was still wearing them, too.

The final component to factor in is her tour timing. Swift’s always had short nails in the past, partially due to her self-described biting habit, and partly because the guitar can’t be played with long nails in general. Swift picks her record-smashing Eras Tour back up in Tokyo on Feb. 7 — with a five-day gap that clears her to celebrate both the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day — so expect her to return to her short-nailed ways accordingly. In the meantime, though, just sit back and enjoy her newfound appreciation for all the aesthetic possibilities a major manicure affords.