The name to know in the nail industry for the past five years, manicurist Harriet Westmoreland’s fascination with the ‘perfect’ manicure began at age four watching her granny — hair set in rollers — paint an immaculate French every Saturday.
“I grew up thinking that I could book into any salon and get the impeccable results that she achieved, and that turned out to be far from the case, so I started to teach myself, practising on friends and family.”
It was only a matter of months before the A-listers, beauty editors, and international clients came calling — bookings taking her to clients everywhere from Cannes to Kuwait, Milan and LA.
Westmoreland’s work, minimal, meticulous, and endlessly viral — has helped set the global nail agenda ever since. A perfect counterbalance to the maximalist nail art of recent years, it also embodies the globally desirable Clean Girl aesthetic with its fresh, understated, and thoroughly modern polish.
Her process includes a rigorous emphasis on nail health and perfecting protocol, to ensure optimal nail condition and craft that recognisable, short signature shape that we have all come to know and love.
The skin and nail care used is the most technically and sensorially sophisticated that she can find. Because after all, our hands are not only on constant ‘show’ to those around us, but also exposed to the elements, and therefore in need of all the support they can get.
“I’ve found my niche and stuck to it,” she explains. “If a client asks for something that I’m not good at I send them to someone who I know is.”
One of Westmoreland’s greatest challenges has been finding the perfect milky, soapy, soft-serve shades to bring her manicures to life - she is known to spend hours mixing custom shades for herself and her clients.
Until now, that is... On 28th September, the manicurist will launch Westmoreland Cosmetics, an elegant, high-performance nail care brand that will bring her signature aesthetic and industry-trusted techniques to the masses.
The debut collection, Vanilla Gloss, will feature Glass Gel Polishes (£25) for use with a UV curing lamp, alongside identical shades of the Glass Polishes (£15) that apply and wear like normal polish and are removed with traditional nail polish remover.
The first drop — a study in subtlety, and designed to flatter all skin tones, will deliver Harriet’s elusive your-nails-but-better finish, showcasing 5 milky, pinky-sheer nudes that can be layered or worn alone. Additional shades will follow quarterly.
“What you see in the bottle isn’t what you’ll see on the nail,” says Harriet “...And that’s the beauty of it. Just like foundation, you need to try it on. Because these aren’t just ‘five shades.’ They’re your base, your edit of nudes. Wear them alone, layer them, mix them – together, they create over 150 variations, always with my signature glass finish.”
The journey to bring the brand to life has been anything but simple. “It’s taken us around three years to create a formula that ticked all the boxes that we needed,” Harriet says. “Nothing like it exists, so we were starting from scratch — but it's been worth it. We've got there. The main challenge was creating something with the clicky, premium texture I wanted, but that also had a really easy, quick and safe removal process.”
And a tip for all of us negotiating the perfect at home manicure process straight from the lady herself? “Be prepared to take longer prepping and shaping your nails than painting them. Great tools and skincare are a must, and I always do my manicures dry, gently removing dead skin from the nail plate. Afterwards, exfoliate the skin for the ultimate softness.”
We’ll see you at the checkout. (westmorelandcosmetics.com)
