A friend of Cassandra, who joined us at this year's Sessions for our Trendsetters panel, is Isa Rodriguez, a nail artist whose journey began assisting at NYFW and collaborating with designers and photographers to create unique nail concepts. At 23, she followed a wild dream and moved to Tokyo and had the opportunity to work at Sucre, one of Tokyo's renowned nail studios. There, she had the privilege of training under You-San and Hiro-San, where she developed her current style and learned most of her creative techniques. Returning to New York, she is now based at Akiko Nails, a Japanese studio in the Lower East Side.

We’re all familiar with clean girl makeup—effortless, natural, and minimal and the clean girl manicure, following the same groomed yet understated aesthetic we can't get enough of on TikTok. However, according to Isa, her wildcard prediction for a more natural and minimal-looking nail will be slightly more imperfect and messed up. Think grungey short nails from the 90s and chipped black polish or natural, bare-looking nails of different lengths and shapes. As for the maximalist look, big funky charms & nail piercings, and all ten nails with a different design on each one, connected by a theme- which has been huge in Asia--especially Tokyo--since the early 2000s, have become a popular request with bolder U.S. clients of late.

— Isa, 26, NY

While round, oval, almond, coffin, and square nails have been the go-to choices, a recent fusion of two trends has sparked curiosity, amassing 3M views on TikTok and giving birth to the Almondetto nail shape. Already sported by celebrities like Saweetie and Selena Gomez, this innovative style combines the elegance of almond nails with the edginess of stiletto nails, and it's proving to be universally flattering, as the shape elongates fingers and creates a narrow look that long-nail lovers seem to adore.

The Cassandra Daily team is off tomorrow to honor Veteran’s Day - we thank all who served. Enjoy your weekend, and we’ll be back next Monday!