Calling All Brides and Nail Minimalists: Laufey’s Met Gala Manicure Will Be Your New Reference

There are many things we look towards the Icelandic musician Laufey for: our new favorite jazz-inspired pop songs, her breezy, ultra-femme style, and her minimalist beauty moments. Luckily, we were served with the latter at 2026 Met Gala, where the multi-hyphenate floated onto the mossy carpet in front of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art wearing a custom Tory Burch gown, a dainty pouch purse, and a very bridal-coded manicure to match.

This wasn’t Laufey and celebrity manicurist Yoko Sakakura’s first time working together. In fact, the two very recently collaborated on the star’s buzzy Madwoman music video, which included an ultra-buzzy cast list of Heated Rivalry’s Hudson Williams, Lola Tung, Olympian Alysa Liu, and Katseye’s Megan Skiendiel, to outfit the star’s nails for the big project. Sakakura tells Who What Wear exclusively that the two always have conversations about the nails beforehand—it’s not merely a day-of decision. “She enjoys exploring nail ideas along with her sister, Junia [Lin],” she tells WWW. For the Met, this meant all hands on deck.

These conversations centered around the dress: an ivory column gown decked out in small, flower-shaped sequins dotted by small pearls at the center. According to an article from Allure, the dress’s silhouette references her childhood instrument, the cello, in its curvature and shape. The cello not only sounds the most like the female voice, but it also looks the most similar to the female body, which bridged Laufey’s personal connection to the Costume Art gala theme perfectly.

The best beauty looks of the night all made small references to the fashion on their bodies, and Sakakura’s handiwork was no exception. She started with a pearly white gel polish (Aprés’ Astral Gel Couleur in Balance) to match the swan hue of her dress. Next up were the trendy accents. “For this specific look, I hand-made small flowers to mimic the details of her dress,” the manicurist explained. The request was that these 3D decals—a trend we’ve seen amongst Margot Robbie, Kylie Jenner, and the fashion elite—be made of sequins to match the Tory Burch embellishments.

In varying clusters of five to six holographic white sequins with small pearl deposits in the middle, Sakakura painstakingly placed every small disc. However, she promises that you, too, can achieve this look at home with a little patience. “It is very easy to create this look,” the nail artist assures. “Add five circle sequins, place them like flower petals, and add a tiny pearl in the middle and dry (if polish) or cure [if gel] to set the art,” she explains.

“This look is more editorial because of the 3D flowers,” says Sakakura, though she admits that she thinks it’s “trendy” to use small sequins, especially holographic ones, to make chic nail art in 2026. The placement feels intentional, with some nails left plain to show off the shimmery white polish, while one to two accent fingers bear the beautiful blooms. Though this look would also look stunning on long nails for wedding season, we especially love how each flower frames her short tips. “Laufey likes her nails natural and short because she plays instruments,” Sakakura explains.

Shop every product used below, plus a few other lookalike polishes, decals, and press-ons to recreate Laufey’s stunning Met Gala manicure at home.