Sydney Sweeney Just Cosigned Chocolate Croc Nails (Plus a Matching Corset) for Spring

Sydney Sweeney attends the 10th annual Hollywood Beauty Awards at Avalon Hollywood & Bardot on April 06, 2025 in Los Angeles, California

(Image credit: Getty Images/Emma McIntyre/WireImage)

Rich, indulgent, milk-chocolate nails will always be on-trend (hello, Mocha Mousse!), but they're a particularly chic choice for spring. Why? Well, for one, the earthy tone pairs incredibly with just about any pastel-forward outfit you can dream of. (Butter yellow! Baby blue! Petal pink!) It's also a timeless, expensive-looking alternative to classic black—you know, if you're itching to slightly switch things up.

I repeat: You can never go wrong with a coat of chocolate lacquer this season. But if you are craving more of a creative spin, I recommend taking a peek at Sydney Sweeney's latest nail situation. Keep scrolling for all the details from her nail artist, Zola Ganzorigt.

At the 10th annual Hollywood Beauty Awards on Sunday, Sweeney supported her longtime hairstylist Glen "Coco" Oropeza (who proceeded to win the Sanna Seppanen Hairstyling Award) wearing a full chocolate-brown ensemble: a sleek pantsuit, a waist-cinching croc corset, and a mani to match. Clearly, Ganzorigt was inspired by the croc-embossed piece for her red carpet nail creation. The mani matches the pattern almost perfectly, as you can see from her Instagram carousel above.

Ganzorigt hasn't revealed the exact tutorial for Sweeney's look, but all you likely need is a sheer base color (or blooming gel, which is a special base coat that causes any color put on top to disperse across the nail) and chocolate-brown nail polish. After painting your base, create horizontal stripes uniformly across the nail plate, making sure you leave space in between each column to create the crocodile-print effect. Let it dry once again, Then follow with your topcoat of choice.

Trust me, the pattern sounds way more difficult than it actually is. In fact, I'd consider it the most effortless of all the animal prints you can paint, as it requires only one polish color. (With tortoiseshell nails, for example, you need at least three.) You don't even need to trace each line perfectly to master the crocodile pattern. In fact, the effect looks even chicer when the nails are mismatched.

If you consider yourself well-versed in nail trends, you might think twice before donning a dark nail color for spring. But let me assure you richer tones like chocolate brown are utterly cool for the season. "It's an anti-trend," celebrity nail artist Julie Kandalec says regarding dark nail polish for spring. "Like, 'I know pastels are usually the trend, but I want to stand out.'" I'd argue there's nothing more attention-stealing than a Sweeney-coded chocolate croc mani.

Shop Chocolate Nail Polishes for Spring

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Jamie Schneider
Senior Beauty Editor

Jamie Schneider is Who What Wear’s senior beauty editor based in New York City. With over seven years in the industry, she specializes in trend forecasting, covering everything from innovative fragrance launches to need-to-know makeup tutorials to celebrity profiles. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in Organizational Studies and English before moving to NYC, and her work has appeared in MindBodyGreen, Coveteur, and more. When she’s not writing or testing the latest beauty finds, Jamie loves scouting vintage boutiques and reading thrillers, and she’s always down for a park picnic in Brooklyn.