A few months ago, my boyfriend of five years proposed. We were on a romantic vacation in Lake Como, Italy, and everything was absolutely perfect. The views, the culture, the food; oh my god, the food. Except for one excruciating detail: my nails were completely bare.
Before you judge that statement, I realize this seems like an awfully superficial hang-up about an otherwise picturesque milestone. But having polished nails has been a part of my identity pretty much since I could walk. I began painting my own nails at the age two, and before becoming a beauty editor, I had my heart set on being a manicurist. Nail art, glitter, decals, you name it, my nails have always had it.
But ahead of our trip, I was going through a new, strange bare nail phase. Of course, the thought had crossed my mind: “He might propose; you should get a manicure.” In fact, it crossed everyone’s mind. My mom reminded me, my best friend nudged me—even my boyfriend asked if I was planning on getting my nails done. “Nah, I don’t care,” I replied. And despite the nagging voice in the back of my mind that I’d probably regret my decision, I never made it across the street to the nail salon.
You know when you struggle to get your suitcase closed and break every nail in the process? That was me. I embarked on our Italian getaway with jagged, horrifyingly damaged nails. And neither my flying anxiety or my you-might-get-engaged-soon anxiety helped the situation. The 8-hour flight was spent picking at them, so not only were they unpainted, they were—in my opinion—really, really ugly. Which is probably clear from the fact that I even captioned my Instagram announcement photo, “I know what you’re thinking: no, I didn’t get a manicure.”
But the real question that kept replaying in my head was, “Why do my nails need to be painted?” I’d seen friend after friend get engaged with pristine manicures that they’d been maintaining for months in anticipation of a proposal. Remember the woman who used her cousin’s hand in her engagement photos because her nails looked better? It’s a somewhat absurd pressure—and one certainly propagated by the facade of perfection on social media. And yet, so many women I’ve talked to after the fact have all wanted to discuss it with me. Superficial or not, nails have become a major detail in that special moment. For me, I only cared about it for the photo—when in reality, no one would have actually noticed if I hadn’t called it out in my caption.
I didn’t get a manicure during the trip, nor did I even have a nail file or nail polish on hand. And that’s okay. Because here’s the truth: My bare nails didn’t alter my excitement—not even for a second.
Upon talking to a handful of recently-engaged women, I’ve found that literally everyone has some kind of story about their engagement manicures: some simply must have nails done at all times and some really wanted that perfectly-curated photo to send to their friends and family. But polish or no polish, one thing remains the same: we’re all too happy to care. Ahead, eight other women share their engagement manicure stories.
