There are regular manicures, and then there are bridal manicures. It’s not just a case of picking a shade and hoping it works: just like your hair, make-up and skincare, your wedding manicure requires research, prep and that all-important trial. So, if you’re a bride-to-be and looking for bridal manicure inspiration, look no further than Vogue’s guide to nailing your wedding nails.
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Georgia Rae is the manicurist behind Sofia Richie’s bridal manicure for her 2023 wedding, which subsequently became one of the most sought-after nail looks of last summer – the shade Sweet Candy Breath instantly sold out. Now Rae has curated an edit of her five favourite bridal shades from Bio Sculpture, the brand behind Richie’s wedding polish, to make future brides’ decision that little bit easier.
“I obviously chose Sweet Candy Breath for the bridal edit – it had to be in there because of Sofia,” says Rae. “But I also like mixing shades and over the years that’s what I’ve done for bridal manis, so these shades [in the edit] are the ones in my kit that have been consistently picked or mixed together. You can create so many different shades out of the five colours I’ve chosen,” she explains.
Rae recommends having a trial run ahead of your wedding, so that you can play around with colours and try layering different shade combinations, to determine the right hue for you. “Consider your skin tone,” she says, and “keep in mind whether you’ll have a self-tan on the day and the shade of your dress”. Rae tends to discuss dresses with her clients and take it from there. “Sometimes they’ve got [the dress] there and we can hold it against the nail colours as we try them and just see what complements it the best. I often find it’s not something that matches the dress necessarily, but a colour that complements it.”
