Maggie Rants [and Raves]

Grammar for the Grammys

by Maggie Franklin | February 17, 2012 | Bookmark +

My Facebook newsfeed has been overrun this week with posts pertaining to the Grammys. So, in light of this, I suppose this is as good a time as any to discuss this "celebrity manicurist" thing.

 

I don't remember exactly when this term became the norm, but it doesn't seem like it's been more than a few years now. And I do remember when I first started seeing people referred to as "celebrity manicurists" it really threw me for a loop.

 

I have been an avid reader of two trade magazines that serve the U.S. market for just over 20 years now. The very first thing I ever did with an Internet connection was join BeautyTech and I've pretty much been an Internet nail junky ever since; I'm usually pretty up on who's who in the biz — the nail biz, that is.

 

I can't tell you which Hollywood star is dating which other star, or singer, or who's gay, or who isn't, or who’s getting married, who's getting unmarried, who's cheating ...  seriously. When it comes to the Hollywood Who's Who, I am completely clueless!

 

But I know who the celebrity manicurists are!

 

Well, I thought I did. Like I said, when I started seeing this term, I mostly found myself scratching my head thinking, "Who?"

 

That's because, it turned out, the term "celebrity manicurist" doesn't actually apply to celebrity manicurists! It applies to manicurists who have celebrities for clients.

 

This is totally different from a celebrity manicurist. A celebrity manicurist is a manicurist who has gained celebrity within their industry — and possibly beyond. When you say "celebrity manicurist" I think of Lynn, Trang, Tom, Tom, or Viv. I think of the who's who of the nail industry, the high profile techs who make me think, "Oooooh! I would so love to meet that person!"

 

I don't think of the person who does Lady Gaga's nails.

 

By no means do I mean to diminish the work of the talented nail techs who have earned the loyalty of high profile clienteles. There are some awesome techs out there rocking the nails on the red carpet, and many of these techs are earning more and more celebrity of their own within the industry and some of them totally deserve it!

 

It's too late to come up with a more grammatically proper — and less misleading — term for the techs that rock the stars' nails ... so let's find a term for our own stars that does them justice!

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