Pregnant Kylie Jenner Nail Art Is Going Viral, So I Officially Hate Instagram
I'm a pretty happy-go-lucky person. I believe in using beauty as an outlet for self expression (I've built a career around it), and I love it when girls own being over-the-top extra (sometimes I wish I was more like them). But, photos of pregnant Kylie Jenner nails just hit Instagram and I'm quickly losing faith in humanity. Please tell me I'm not alone here.
Beauty aficionados, influencers, and makeup artists have used Instagram as a platform to one-up each other in ridiculous approaches to makeup, skin care, hair, and nails. I think the most appalling thing I've ever seen was a girl using a slice of pizza as a guide to create a perectly straight contour. I wish I could say it stopped there, but it doesn't. Another girl used a Christian Louboutin heel (which is so embarassing, I'm pretty sure it can be considered slander) and a stack of money for the same reason. For a good six months, I couldn't escape the new trend in contouring. Videos of people using anything and everything they had around their house to help them apply their makeup was all over my feed. I've seen everything from people holding up knives to their cheekbones, bananas to their hairline, and a rusty-ass shovel to their eye for a straighter-looking cat eye. What has this world come to?
But the beauty antics don't stop with the risk of a tetanus shot (try to imagine just how rusty this shovel was). On any given day, you can find clips in your feed of girls curling their hair with tampons, drawing on wavy eyebrows, or applying fake eyelashes to their nostrils. Instagram beauty these days is one really big, not-so-funny joke, but every time I see someone doing it for the 'Gram, I just shake my head, swipe away, and hope that one day we won't have to live in a world where pictures of glitter armpits are all over our explore pages.
The latest in ridiculous beauty trends is taking fangirling to a new (and actually kind of creepy) level. While we've seen girls on social media use Kylie Jenner as inspiration — I'm of course talking about over-lined lips, waist-trained curves, and colorful wigs — Insta-popular nail artist Nail_Sunny just used the 20-year-old celebrity as her muse in a much different (and OK, I admit, kind of creative) way. She made a sculpture of her, tiny enough to fit on the tip of your finger, and glued it to an acrylic nail. And the sculpture of Kylie is showing off her pregnant belly!
Apparently the super creepy nail-art look was inspired by a shot of Kylie Jenner sitting in a two-piece by a pool showing in her birth announcement video. She looks totally natural and so happy as she shows off her baby bump. In that moment, even I got that warm fuzzy feeling. But I can tell you what didn't come to mind: "Hmmm, maybe I should make a teeny-tiny sculpture of this moment and glue it onto my nails."
First of all, even if that thought had come to mind, I would literally never have to time to mold a mini Kylie. Do you even have any idea how long it took to make this weird little thing? She's probably been working on it since Kylie released her pregnancy video and it's been almost a week now. This person even took the time to place a microscopic belly button on the tiny Kylie and I'm screaming!!
As if that wasn't bad enough, even more time was invested into painting on a miniature crop top, molding Insta-worthy waves and attach way-too-lifelike legs (this thing has legs!!).
Kylie Jenner has an effect on Instagram — there's not denying that. She's built an über successful brand around her following and influenced an entire generation in beauty, fashion, lifestyle, you name it. People repost her images and hasthag her name just for likes (and they get them). While Nail_Sunny has a pretty huge Instagram following herself (1.5 million followers), she's used the Kylie-Jenner touch to turn this video to gold. If I'm being completely honest, I've seen her create other mini sculptures before and never felt the need to write a story about it.
Similar to those who have put a stack of dirty dollar bills on their face and tampons on their hair, Nail_Sunny found a way to one-up her Instagram beauty competition. And while I can't knock the hustle, a part of me can't believe I subject myself to these shenanigans on a daily basis — it's starting to feel like an assault on my mind.
OK, I don't think I'll ever fully quit Instagram — it has become a serious life line for me. That's where I find story inspiration, keep up with friends, share my favorite beauty products, you know, normal stuff. But there are things that I find on there that just can't unsee. This is one of those things.
