Rihanna's Black Flame Tips Are the Coolest Take on the French Manicure

Most celebrities have one niche. Some are full-on beauty experts who have every tip under the sun for dewy skin, and others are fashion extraordinaires, always setting the latest trends. When thinking about which camp to place Rihanna, it’s both—she never misses a beat with her outfits and has single-handedly uprooted all outdated ideas surrounding maternity wear, and her hair and makeup never looks less than flawless. Her latest flex? It’s her flaming patent leather French manicure.

On June 21, Rihanna shared a video of her applying Fenty Beauty’s new Hella Thicc Volumizing Mascara ($19) while wearing a white robe and a Louis Vuitton chainlink choker. She’s doing her own makeup, and we assume she’s getting ready to head out somewhere fab because her glam—which includes cloud skin, pink eyeshadow, glossy pink lips, and slicked-back hair—is pristine.

Rihanna’s pretty-in-pink makeup is much softer than the gothy lip liner look she just wore to the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2024 fashion show—but she adds edge to her look with her mani. Her nails sit at a medium-length soft square shape, and feature a nude base. She wears a black patent leather French manicure, but instead of creating a traditional French shape, her nail artist painted curling black flames on each nail tip.

 “[The] French manicure is such an elegant design, yet so easy to coordinate with any wardrobe,” Aprés Nail manicurist Emi Kudo previously told Byrdie. “While the trend nowadays is so diverse, it's natural that French manicures have developed in a variety of versions.” The patent leather French manicure was a big hit at the 2023 Met Gala, with stars like Jenna Ortega, Phoebe Bridgers, and Jennifer Lopez all wearing a variation of a black French manicure. As if wearing a black French manicure wasn’t cool enough, Rihanna took it one step further and created flame-shaped tips, proving that this summer, there are no rules when it comes to your preferred nail trend.

And it’s a pretty simple manicure to achieve at home. First, paint your entire nail bed with two coats of nude nail polish and wait for that to dry completely. Then, use a polish pen or a toothpick to outline a flame shape onto each of your fingers. After that, fill your flames in with black nail polish and seal everything in with a high-shine top coat.