There are no bad apples on this necklace

‘Intruder’ is the rage bait of necklaces if there ever was one. A string of near-perfect red apples with just one life-like green apple among them, it begs a double take and instantly sparks conversation. It’s evident that the maker, Barcelona-based designer Violetta Kurilenko, can serve pieces ripe for summer from Nail Restaurant, her kooky label and clay studio.

It’s also a peak internet name for a passion project that began with richly detailed nail art under the banner @YesWhatNails. Think 3D popcorn buckets with buttery popcorn kernels, a life-like Lays packet with chips bursting out of it, and plump sardines…all embedded on teeny-tiny nails. Her nail art was quick to garner viral fame before we had a term for these things.

Like the best of ideas, the food theme started as a throwaway joke between friends: wouldn’t it be funny to shoot sausage nails with an actual sausage? She cooked that idea into a full-fledged Nail Restaurant over the years, serving people the food they want, first on their nails and, since 2024, via their jewellery.

The just-bitten apples on the necklace are meticulously shaped and hand-painted with streaks of red and green, the seeds peeking out at just the right angles. ‘Intruder’, too, was born from listening intently, only this time to her followers on social media. She posted a story on Instagram with a bunch of clay apples she had readied to string together, and someone jokingly suggested she throw in a green with the red. As soon as she did, she knew she had a winner.

Last summer, Loewe proved that you could turn a meme into a tomato bag, and it works, if you’re tuned in. About the same time, Kurilenko threw in some juicy heirloom tomato chokers in the mix.

Her fruit basket has since grown to include figs, pears, tomatoes, pomegranates, oranges, bananas and much, much more. The dainty popcorn bucket has evolved from nail art to a choker full of buttery popcorn. These are the kind of pieces that transport you to the sunny Mediterranean in a heartbeat, even when worn with a stiff white shirt. There’s a reason Kurilenko’s pieces carry that warmth—a stark contrast to the harsh winters she remembers from growing up in Ufa, a city in west Russia.

“My parents sent me to Barcelona for a tennis camp when I was 12, and from the moment I stepped off the plane I was so pleasantly surprised with the warmth—it was so sunny, so colourful, so beautiful.” At the Sanchez-Casal Barcelona Tennis Academy, known to mint tennis stars and Olympic champions, she found a sense of belonging. “I knew from the first moment that I wanted to be here,” she says. She came back and made Barcelona home.

Now, she’s building a small boutique a stone’s throw away from the Sagrada Familia, in Poblenou. “This year [for us, at Nail Restaurant] is all about structure and small drops of creativity,” she adds. We might just have to line up for seconds.

Available at Nailrestaurant.bigcartel.com