‘I live and die in chrome’: Nail artist Angel My Linh’s maximalist mission

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Scrolling through nail artist Angel My Linh’s Instagram feed feels like a Y2K daydream that you don’t want to snap out of: waves of cherry chrome claws, airbrushed kawaii motifs, crocodile-print tips and fur foliage wrapped in a glittering hue of late 90s nostalgia.

Her obsession with the theatrics of nail art was born in the playground at primary school. At the age of seven, she would paint her teachers’ nails at lunchtimes by personal request. “I’d paint little cartoons onto their nails with actual nail polish and everything,” she says, with a laugh. “That was my real first job.” By the time she was ten, she was helping out at her cousin’s salon after school and on weekends during summer holidays, taking booking requests, doing baby manicures, and getting her first taste of a community that would go on to inspire her work today.

Born and raised in southeast London to Vietnamese parents, the synergy of Caribbean, African and Asian cultures in her hometown of Deptford “meshed together” to form her extravagant approach to nail art, an aesthetic that she says often gets branded as ‘ghetto’. “That narrative is so damaging to the communities and cultures that avant-garde nail art ultimately derived from,” she says. “What’s cool and artsy for one type of person is branded as cheap for another.”

A staunch ‘clean girl’ pariah (“I live and die in chrome”), Linh’s more-is-more philosophy stems from generations of creatives that pioneered nail art as a tool for fearless expression – one which she continues to pay homage to. The now 25-year-old has gone on to embellish tips for Tems, Saweetie, Ice Spice, Megan Thee Stallion, and more recently this year, she attended the Met Gala to fix Future up with a fresh mani. For Chet Lo’s AW25 show, she crafted beautifully grotesque talons of all shapes and sizes.

From the runway to the red carpet and beyond, below we caught up with Angel to discuss everything from being inspired by 90s icons, how her Vietnamese heritage has shaped her craft, and more.

How did you get into nails?

Angel My Linh: My mum owned a salon, so I’ve always been around it. From ten to 16, I worked in my cousin’s nail salon on weekends and summers. I was earning about 20 quid a set, until I was eventually taking professional clients towards the end.

What are you trying to communicate through your work?

Angel My Linh: Letting people do what they want to do. There was a time when the clean aesthetic was in because people didn’t want to be perceived in a certain way or seen as ‘ghetto’. Having extravagant nails doesn’t mean you look cheap or ghetto. The narrative in general is damaging, and you’re only hearing it about one type of person. Another person does it and it’s ‘avant garde’, new and artsy.

What’s your career highlight so far?

Angel My Linh: I’ve done so many amazing things. I’ve travelled around the world doing nails. But the main thing is that my mum is so proud of me, she literally thinks I’m famous. She did nails and now I do nails, and she’s so happy that I’ve been able to take it out of the salon and do my own thing. There are a lot of younger Vietnamese kids who want to be more experimental with their art, but salons don’t always cater to that. When I started out, I thought salons were the only way to get into nails, but now I know that isn’t true.

What does beauty mean to you?

Angel My Linh: Beauty to me is understanding what it is that you actually like and sticking to it, because in this day and age it’s easy to follow trends. There’s something so beautiful in finding your own style and being your own person. Everyone wants to look the same nowadays. But there’s so much beauty in being inspired by your own experiences. You don’t have to like what everyone else does!

Who is your ultimate beauty inspiration?

Angel My Linh: It’s not a specific person, but I do really love beauty from the 90s. Everyone was exactly how they were, and they were so hot without being overtly sexual. I used to love Missy Elliot, actually. She was so cool because she wasn’t conventionally pretty or skinny. Her style was incredible.

What is the future of beauty?

Angel My Linh: This might sound controversial, but I don’t think there’s ever anything new in beauty. Everything goes around in circles. Beauty standards are constantly in rotation. I don’t think I’ve seen anything groundbreakingly new. Even cat-eye, we were doing that in 2010 – nail trends are constantly in rotation. Just like airbrushing, that was the main form of nail art about ten years ago. My mum’s salon was literally called airbrush in Beckenham. 

What’s your goal for the future?

Angel My Linh: In the future, I’m trying to pivot away from just doing nails. I’m the queen of hobbies. I’ve made rugs, I make bags, I make clothes and paint – I’m the kind of impulsive person that will see something and think: I can make that myself. I’d love to be a cobbler actually, it’s a dying trade.