As pop culture takes over the globe and industries integrate across continents, representation has never been more important. In the beauty world, this has translated in several directions — the celebration of different skin tones, hairstyling techniques, and now, nails too.
Growing up in Rochdale, located on the outskirts of Manchester, 25-year-old Zahra Nadeem found herself surrounded by South Asian culture at home, but seldom saw herself reflected in mainstream beauty. “I grew up running around our family-owned fabric shop, Heena Fabrics, surrounded by rich textures, embroidery, and colour. We would play dress-up with scrap fabrics, bangles, and jewellery,” she tells Vogue Arabia. “[But] I never saw faces, tones, or traditions that looked like mine in magazines, campaigns and stores. Growing up in the West, you’re often made to feel like you have to fit in and in the process, you start to forget your lineage. That invisibility shaped me. It made me want to create something where our details weren’t an afterthought, but the focus.”
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Her creativity drew her towards nail art, a skill the young creative seems to have already mastered. “I started nails in my bedroom when I was around 18,” she recalls. “My passion for nail art grew alongside me, and as I got older, I began to experiment with different forms.” A quick scroll through her Instagram account showcases an endless stream of covetable nail sets, from summery floral renditions to bejewelled digits loaded with pearls and rhinestones and even tech-inspired digits. However, it’s Nadeem’s ‘desi’ creations that have caught the beauty world’s eye of late.
