In case you don’t spend every single night and day swiping through TikTok (jk…I don’t TikTok during work hours…), lemme update you on the latest of the fast-moving, probs-gone-tomorrow TikTok trends: the light blue nails question. Basically, people across TikTok are currently asking their partners the very simple, very innocent question of “what color should I get my nails done?” and inexplicably, their answer is always “light blue.” Supposedly.
I know, I know—what? Huh? Stop? Hey, I don’t make the TikTok trends, I just indulge in them and force everyone around me to try them too. Which is exactly what I did with the Cosmo team, after every fifth video on my feed was about the light blue nails challenge.
If your TikTok FYP doesn’t look like mine, which is now a never-ending scroll of nail-polish stitches, then you probably have no idea what I’m talking about rn. So here’s a sampler platter for you:
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This content is imported from TikTok. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
This content is imported from TikTok. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
This content is imported from TikTok. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
So, naturally, I asked my boyfriend—gchatting him, as he is a VERY busy boy with a VERY busy job—what color I should paint my nails, a process I have never once involved him in. At first, he said purple (boo). But upon goading him into choosing another color, I got…light blue. Sorta.
Rightfully, he was super suspicious. So I took it to the Cosmo team to see if my boyfriend was just broken, or if the trend, which makes absolutely no sense to begin with, was simply just…not…real. Here are some of the glorious responses:
Mary Fama, print art director:
.
Jen Ortiz, deputy editor:
.
Rosa Heyman, deputy editor:
.
Our in-person, yelling-to-the-next-room attempts weren’t much more successful:
Lauren Balsamo, deputy beauty director:
Response from my bf: “I didn’t know light blue was a nail polish color.”
Jessica Goodman, op-ed editor:
“This is what just happened in my house:
Me: Hey what color should I paint my nails
Him: For what
Me: For anything
Him: What? Red. Why. Is this a trick”
Sarah Weldon, associate lifestyle editor:
Update from my partner: “I feel like this is that Tik Tok trap where I say ‘light blue’ and you get upset because I’ve seen that trend on Tik Tok and I don’t get the joke so therefore I’m scared of it. But if this isn’t a trap, I do think a nice spring color would be super pretty.”
Julee Wilson, beauty director:
“My husband was not into it. He kept asking me questions like ‘where are you going?’ ‘Paint them whatever color you want.’ ‘Why are you asking me this?’ I pushed him some more and he said ‘Red, Julee. Red. Are we done here?’”
HOWEVER! One editor (hi, Sami Roberts) did successfully get her boyfriend to say “sky blue,” after a full minute of him suspiciously asking WTF was going on, including, “Is this some sort of Cosmo boyfriend game you play?”
So…yeah. I’ma say that this trend—albeit funny—is not a real thing. And also, like, why would it be? The “explanation” (which isn’t an explanation) you see most often in the TikTok comments is that wearing blue nail polish is supposedly “code” for “I’m taken/in a relationship.” And, thus, subconsciously, our partners want us…to wear…light blue…nail polish. Which, again, is absolutely not a real thing at all.
Still, for the sake of comedy and ~happiness~, please go forth and ask your partners (or friends! Family! Dogs!) what color you should paint your nails next, and then, like, do w/e TF you want anyways.
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