Purple is a excessive vitality shade. It’s sensual and romantic; exerts dominance, ardour, and confidence. Christian Louboutin, Taylor Swift, and Jessica Rabbit all determine with the colour—and extra lately, single ladies of TikTok have, too.

Enter “The Purple Nail Idea,” or the concept that you’re extra more likely to get consideration from potential suitors for those who paint your nails pink. After seeing it take over my feed, I used to be conflicted. I’m a ‘96 child (learn: generational cusp), so the millennial in me wished to show it foolish clickbait—so antiquated!—whereas the single-girl Gen-Z in me couldn’t assist however suppose, nicely, “what if?”

Decided to scientifically check it, I requested an iconic pink at my subsequent salon session: OPI’s Huge Apple Purple. It’s a high-shine, slightly-warm shade of vivid sweet apple pink. Whereas ready for my nails to dry, I continued to scroll. In response to Sigmund Freud (and the TikTokers who apparently comply with his work), pink nail polish reminds males of their moms’ palms, particularly throughout a time once they had been younger and depending on them, which started to bizarre me out. However then my fingers had been dry, so it was time to maneuver onto part two: gathering proof.

All of the sudden, my fingers not so subtly slipped into each Instagram story and Zoom assembly. By some means my hair simply couldn’t keep tucked behind my ear, and I used to be all however begging for somebody to touch upon my newly manicured nails. Whereas out on a Friday evening, not a single man beelined throughout Crosby Avenue to ask for my quantity, and—no—the music at Zero Bond didn’t come to a screeching halt once I walked into the room. All these rom-com eventualities that performed out in my head had been simply that—fantasies.

As the times went on and my nail polish started to chip, so did the (little) confidence I had on this principle to start with. Wanting again, there was one main take away although: Whereas I didn’t discover a direct uptick in male consideration or compliments simply by waving my palms round, I did discover that pink nails gave me a lift of confidence. And coincidentally, as I exuded confidence, I discovered myself speaking to extra individuals.

So, pink nails do work–simply not in the way in which The Purple Nail Idea alleges. Fairly, pink nails felt like strolling out in a brand new outfit daily… It was not the colour that caught anybody’s eye, however moderately the boldness that coloured my charisma.