Yesterday was an exciting day. I'm not even American, but I tuned in to the inauguration just like, I'm sure, loads of other non-Americans who were eager to watch the US usher in a new administration. And it was lovely, it was. The ceremony of it all was beautiful and inspiring and all of that... but honestly, I spent most of the day having a moment with the coats and by mid-afternoon I just couldn't wait to get home and put some coat inspired nail art on my nails - because apparently this is just how my brain processes seeing something I love, "Must put on nails now."

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I mean... Come on. These four women (and a number of other women too, but these were my favorites) just absolutely knocked it out of the park yesterday. I loved how much monochrome there was and how much bold colour they brought to the table. Honestly, I'm just full on obsessed with coat colours at the moment and would happily do a colour pairing based on what Dr. Biden and Madam VP Harris wore to the COVID memorial the other night as well. And a mani based on other coats from the inauguration.  Maybe a plaid mani with some sequins inspired by Ella Emhoff? Hell, even Bernie Sanders inspired mani could be on the horizon - what is my brain? And why are the coats so amazing????

I did not mess around when I was putting together this mani - I literally sat at my desk and held bottles of polish up to my phone screen to get just the right colour to match each coat. For Dr. Jill Biden's coat, which definitely had the most variation in shade, I went with Zoya's Rocky, which I think hit just right. For VP Kamala Harris's coat, I really only had one shade that even came close to her stunning neon purple coat, which is Color Club's Pucci-Licious. For Michelle Obama's absolute stunner, I went with a new to me polish in heroine.nyc's Lovesick. And finally, for Amanda Gorman's knock out sunny yellow coat, I went with OPI's Don't Tell A Sol. It's weird because I don't think it would have ever occurred to me to use all of these colours together... but I think they really, really work. 

For the nail art part of this mani, I will admit that I struggled. I thought about doing some stamping, but nothing seemed to fit the inspiration and I really didn't want it to be a throwaway. It wasn't until I considered just adding a bold swipe of black to each nail that the lightbulb really went on. I admire all of these women - they're all powerful and intelligent women who have and continue to leave their mark on the world and I think they've all shown a boldness that is really impressive to me. So. Swipe of black, leaving a mark.

And, you know, I kept it glossy as mostly a nod to their combined radiance. And voila!

Not gonna lie, this is a super simple mani, but I'm both super proud of it and kind of obsessed. Who knew that four boldly coloured coats could serve as such smooth inspiration for nail art?

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