Some people meet their idols on a red carpet. Jenny Longworth meets them at arm’s length, nail file in hand. She’s one of the world’s most in-demand nail artists and the creative force behind some of the boldest hands in the business, from Rihanna and Rosalía to Harry Styles and Adele.
So when we set out to design summer’s ultimate Electric Mani, there was only one person to call. We sat DJ and actress Rex Adams down with Jenny as she built the set live, and between coats, she spilled the lot: what it takes to make it in high fashion, the chaos behind runway prep, the night she got a spur-of-the-moment tattoo with Rihanna (yes, really), and exactly why she refused to let Rosalía walk away with a natural nail.
Settle in for the full transcript below, or hit play and watch it all unfold.
The glamorous (and not-so-glamorous) reality of being a nail artist
Rex Adams: You’re known as one of the world’s most renowned nail artists. It’s an honour to have my hands touched by the person that’s also done the nails of people I admire around the world. Being a nail artist, what’s the difference between what you actually do and what people think you do, and what that entails in your career?
Jenny Longworth: I think it’s one extreme to the other. When you say you do nails, people go, “Oh, that’s nice. Have you got a salon?” And I’m like, “No, not really, it’s a bit different from that.” Then you go into explaining it. So, it’s either that extreme, or the people that do understand what you do and understand the industry, they think it’s super, super glamorous.
Rex: If you were a mani, what would you be?
Jenny: Definitely something bold, something quite severe and uncompromising. It’s never going to be a “clean girl” mani for me. Like, that’s just not me,
Rex: I think we can both agree on that.
Jenny: That just doesn’t work for me. Nails are the thing that makes me feel feminine and makes me feel sexy. I think it has to be something bold.
Rex: You’ve got gorgeous nails now as well. They’re an extension of your energy, I guess, in some way.
Jenny: 100%.
Rex: When you’re doing this job, do you have questions that people never ask you that you kind of wish they would?
Jenny: All they want to know is what celebrities are like!
Rex: What would you wish they asked you instead?
Jenny: If people asked more about the artistic side of it, or where the inspiration for that came from.
Humble beginnings: From a Birmingham market to ID Magazine
Rex: How did that start? Do you identify with this journey starting with your 16-year-old self? How was the journey for you to get into this?
Jenny: It did start around that age. I went to college and was studying performing arts, and as a Saturday job, I was working in one of my dad’s clothes stores. My dad had ladies’ fashion stores all across the Midlands when I was growing up. I also had a job in a café in an indoor market in Birmingham. There was this tiny little nail bar in there, and they had a sign up for “try one nail for free”. Up until that point, all we’d ever had was press-on nails from the corner shop – the cheap plastic press-on nails that you got with a magazine.
I went and asked to try this nail. I said, “How long will it last?” and he said, “Two weeks.” So, I did this nail extension and I went to school and had it on my little finger for two weeks.
Rex: Just the one?
Jenny: Just the one, because no one knew what nail extensions were. They were just starting to emerge. I thought, “This would be such a good job, I could do this,” because you know when you get your nails done and you want to be like, “Just give me the file so I can do it myself.” I got a Saturday job doing nails and the rest was history. I just loved it – you know when you really take to something like a duck to water.
I was training to be a makeup artist and I would go on test shoots. Now you have a manicurist on every single shoot, but at the time it wasn’t like that. I got in there at a really good time and saw that I had a niche, and I capitalised on that. I met a girl who actually ended up being a fashion editor at ID and then Vogue, and she was the first person who got me in.
Rex: And how long have you been doing nails for fashion?
My first editorial was in 2005 for an ID Magazine shoot. It was just one page – it wasn’t the cover or anything.
Rex: Was that the deciding factor for you to go, “Okay, this is going to be my thing”?
Jenny: Yeah. I did that shoot and then my phone just rang off the hook for nails. People were ringing me up every day like, “Can you come and do nails on this shoot?” Because obviously, no one was doing it. Makeup artists were getting peed off because they had to keep doing the nails on these shoots. So when I was coming through, people were loving it. I thought, “No one’s doing this. I can clean up.” That was really where it started for me, and it just snowballed from there.
Rihanna tattoos, 3-day gold nails, and the Harry Styles revolution
Rex: I thought that I could maybe play a track by certain people that you have worked with, and you could tell me a little bit about what your experience was like. [Plays ‘We Found Love’ by Rihanna] You did mention earlier that people asking you about the celebrities you’ve worked with was not your favourite question, but I have to slide it in because at my core I am curious. You got a tattoo with Rihanna?
Jenny: Yes! She was in London and she wanted to get a tattoo. She was asking where to go, and I told her she should go to Frith Street. She had a massive piece done. That night I was probably just like, “Oh, what should I get?” And she was like, “You having a tattoo tonight, girl,” and I was like, “Okay.” We’d all been drinking, and I got this one
Rex: I love that, it’s for your 16th year old self.
Jenny: “Forever Young”. That’s basically my dad; in every birthday card he got me, he used to write the lyrics to Forever Young, the Bob Dylan song “climb a ladder to the stars, stay forever young”. I’d probably been thinking about getting it, and then I had it that night. We just hit it off, and thank God she’s just been loyal to me ever since.
Rex: Do you have a favourite moment when you’ve done nails with her?
Jenny: Probably those gold nails, because they were just so amazing. They took about three days.
Rex: Three days! Did you build everything from scratch?
Jenny: Yes, we made all the 3D flowers. This was before everybody had all this crazy polygel, so it was super time-consuming.
Rex: Gosh, three days, that’s a big commitment! I mean, it must have been shorter to do Harry Styles’ nails, right, with the smiley face? How did you come up with that?
Jenny: That was his idea, the smiley faces, I can’t even take credit for that.
Rex: But do you think he expanded the idea of nails for people?
Jenny: Oh my gosh, yeah, 100%. You know, there are some guys that have always had their nails done, like rock musicians like Ozzy Osbourne. But I think he really revamped it and brought it more popular for this generation.
Rex: Do you have a moment with him that sticks in your mind?
Jenny: Probably the Met Gala. That was super cool. And then we went to the afterparty at the top of some really big skyscraper in New York, and everyone was there. That was a fun trip.
Rex: And this is the last person I’m going to ask you about, but I’m so curious because I love her nails so much – with Rosalía.
Jenny: Oh yeah. The time that I did her, it was for ID Magazine and I think she was just launching a new campaign for the new album. We got there and she was like, “I think I’m just going to keep it natural.” And I was like, “Oh no, I’ll be damned if you have a natural nail, girl!” Somehow I managed to get a nail onto her and we did clean nails with 3D gems, and that’s what’s on the cover. Just my luck, when I do her, she wants a natural nail.
Gucci, Going Viral, and Becoming “Jenny Nails”
Rex: Which was the manicure that you think changed your life or your career?
Jenny: Those first nails that I did for Gucci that just went so viral. It was so massive.
Rex: How did that come about?
Jenny: I’d done a couple of smaller campaigns with them, and that’s how I came to work with Gucci. Obviously, collaborating with Alessandro, he always had a really strong vision for the nails, and it was always a collaboration between the two of us.
Sometimes my worst nightmare is when someone says to me, “Do what you want.” My head starts spinning! I need a reference point. But then also, if somebody’s like, “I think it should just be this,” it’s like, they’re just trying to do it themselves. It’s nice when you have that balance of collaboration, where someone gives you ideas but lets you play.
Rex: We all have our creative ventures, of course – like with my music and with my acting, that’s definitely a core part of who I am, because my day-to-day life requires me to utilise that in my career. I’m curious as to how nails transitioned from becoming just something you do to becoming something you are? Or has it always been a core part of you?
Jenny: I think when you’re an artist, it can’t not be who you are. It’s visceral. I used to joke and ask if people even knew what my surname is. People used to go, “Jenny who? Oh, Jenny Nails! Yeah, I know Jenny Nails.” It’s such a part of me, and I don’t have to do anything else anymore, to be honest.
Rex: There must be secrets that people don’t know behind the scenes, because this isn’t a simple job. What’s one thing you would reveal that people don’t really know about the process of nails in general?
Jenny: Probably when you’re doing shows and stuff, the way that we have to prep the nails. I think you just see it on the catwalk and you’re like, “Oh, that’s cool.” But you don’t realise it’s taken 10 people two days to make those nails. We’ll be told what the look is for a show at 10:00 p.m., there will be 100 models, and we have to be there at 6:00 a.m. the next day. You have to stay up all night making them. We don’t just go on the day and paint it on; it doesn’t work like that. It takes hours and hours, it’s so fiddly.
Dream clients and forever trends
Rex: If you could be one nail trend forever for the rest of your days, which one would you be?
Jenny: It’s got to be a red nail, babe.
Rex: Stiletto or square? You have to pick a shape.
Jenny: You can’t do this to me, this is so hard. I’m going to say stiletto.
Rex: Good choice.
Jenny: Red stiletto! Definitely orange-based red.
Rex: Do you have a nail trend that you wish you came up with, but didn’t?
Jenny: I always think people are really good at naming trends, you know? People go, “Oh, the glazed donut nail.” And I’m like, “That’s just a chrome nail.” But I would never think to call it that. I wish I was better at coming up with concepts or making things a trend.
Rex: Whose nails would be a dream for you to do?
Jenny: Dennis Rodman, because he’s like freedom of expression, and how as a basketball player in such a masculine world to be like that – I just love him and I’d love to do him one day.
Also Cher would be mega, because she was just so innovative and always had a nail look that was long and embellished; she was doing something quite different at the time.
And then just someone who I think would be major, probably Celine Dion. I just think she’d be lols,
Rex: I think hanging out with her would be amazing.
Jenny: She looks hilarious. It’s not even for the nails, I just want to go and hang out with her!
Rex: I don’t blame you, I would too. She looks like heaps of fun. Well done. Can you give it a name?
Jenny: This is your “Electric Manicure.”
Rex: I love it. I think you’ve got me ready for Ibiza.
Jenny: Amazing, babes, always happy to help. So, Rex, I’ve got a question for you. If this manicure had a soundtrack, what would it be?
Rex: Do you know what, I think I’m going to show you!
The final result: bold, uncompromising, and electric
Here’s what Jenny taught us: a great manicure isn’t about following the rules, it’s about collaboration, expression, and landing on the set that makes you feel unstoppable. Whether you’re prepping for a Gucci campaign or just a weekend that deserves a bit more drama, the magic is the same. The right nails change how you carry yourself.
From hyper-detailed 3D flowers to the perfect orange-red stiletto, summer’s electric mani is your sign to ditch the bare nails and go bolder than usual. You don’t need a red carpet. You just need an hour in the chair and someone who knows exactly what they’re doing. So go on, let your hands do the talking.
Ready for your own nail reset?