Nail Artist Madeline Poole on How to Get the Manicure of the Moment

From wriggling sky blue amoebas to colorful geometric shapes, Madeline Poole’s charming nail art is a familiar sight backstage at shows like Prabal Gurung and 3.1 Phillip Lim. But of all the clever designs that the editorial manicurist and Sally Hansen ambassador has unveiled, her most whimsical proposition might be the traditional evil eye, tucked neatly against the base of each cuticle—a motif that has gone on to become a full-blown fashion phenomenon, popping up on the runways at Kenzo and Tome and offering a cheeky complement to Delfina Delettrez’s jeweled eye rings.

It was three years ago, ahead of New York’s Spring Fashion Week, that Poole first put the look together. “I wanted evil eyes on my nails to ward off bad energy during that extreme time,” she says of the Surrealist peepers, which she has reimagined here for Vogue.com in a bright springtime palette. Inspired by Neighborhood Watch signs and childhood eyeball doodles—“I drew and scribbled on every bit of paper that was put in front of me!”—the versatile half-moon design is meant to mimic the cuticle’s natural curve and requires minimal touch-up to stay sharp.

How to get the look? According to Poole, a round, even cuticle is key, best shaped with an orangewood stick and gently buffed. Poole then uses a striping brush to draw a moon-shaped crescent, to be filled in with gel polish, and outlines a small circle in the center for a dash of glitter. Once those elements are dry, a small black dot becomes the pupil, and the entire concoction is topped off with a clear gel coat.

It’s a look that even nail art neophytes can get behind. “I knew when I finished the first hand that they were major,” Poole says. “I can usually tell right away when I’ve struck gold.”

 

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