Every nail salon chair in September is telling the same story right now: sandal season is over, and toes are getting a full seasonal wardrobe change. As the first cool mornings roll in, nail salon requests are shifting fast — away from the citrus brights and jelly corals of summer, and into the deeper, moodier pedicure colors that actually match autumn fashion. This September’s nail design requests aren’t subtle about it, either: bookings are running well ahead of last year’s pace, with several finishes selling out appointment slots before they even hit the color wall.From a pastel to an all-black glossy pedicure with real Halloween-season pull, these are the 10 fall 2026 pedicure trends dominating every salon chair this September — plus exactly how to recreate the two trickiest ones at home.

Researchers actually put crochet under a brain scanner, and the results back up what crocheters have been saying for years. A study published in Scientific Reports found that a single crochet session measurably improved attention and reaction times in skilled crocheters, with brain scans showing increased connectivity between motor and attention networks right after crocheting, evidence that the craft does something real to the brain, not just something relaxing to the hands. It turns out a hook and some yarn might be doing more for people’s mental health than most of them ever realized. These honest, personal confessions prove exactly that: crocheting might actually be one of the ways to happiness.

Every shelter dog and cat adopted this year represents someone choosing genuine compassion over convenience — vet bills, training, sleepless first nights, all taken on for an animal who has no way of saying thank you. That quiet, unrewarded decision happens in shelters every single day, and researchers are finally starting to measure what it actually does to the people who make it.Research published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE found that the strength of a person’s bond with their pet directly predicts their own happiness and long-term mental wellbeing. Choosing kindness toward a dog or cat, it turns out, rarely stays contained to the animal it was aimed at. Here are 10 real, trending shelter moments that prove it.

September is the one month on the beauty calendar where nail trends genuinely split down the middle. Right now, half the nail design manicure moodboard is still holding onto summer's brights and jelly finishes; the other half has already gone full chocolate brown and chrome. Expert manicurists filling out this season's forecasts keep landing on the same idea from different angles: the color wheel is deepening, but the nail art itself (French tips, aura designs, animal print accents) is getting more specific, not less.That's useful information before you sit down in the chair, because half the battle of a good manicure is knowing what to actually ask for. Below are 10 fall 2026 nail trends pulled straight from the manicurists and beauty editors naming them this month. To ground the national forecasts in what's actually happening on real hands, we also checked in with Nina, a manicurist and pedicurist with 20 years in the business — she confirmed every trend below is already showing up in requests at her own chair this fall.

My uncle’s kept bees for 19 years and still gets asked, at every single family dinner, why he bothers with something that just stings people. The truth is, a peer-reviewed study in PMC found that bees are behind roughly a third of the food humans eat worldwide and without them, most of those crops just don’t grow at the scale we’re used to. Another study, this one from Scientific Reports, found bee-pollinated crops come out heavier, better quality, and last longer on the shelf than crops pollinated any other way. And populations keep dropping every year anyway. So the people who take up beekeeping, who plant wildflowers instead of another patch of grass, or who protect the people they love from every single sting, they’re doing something that actually matters.

Research from Grand View Research puts UV gel overlays and extensions among the fastest-growing segments of the entire nail salon industry, with the category projected to expand at a 9.5% compound annual rate through 2030 — a pace that’s outrunning most other salon services on the menu. Separate market data from Fortune Business Insights shows pedicures alone already account for roughly 43% of nail salon revenue, driven in large part by clients asking specifically for gel over standard polish. Put those two numbers together and it’s not hard to see why appointment books are filling up the way they are this fall.Soak-off gel, builder gel, gel-over-jelly, gel finished with a magnetic sweep — the request nail techs are hearing has shifted from “what shade” to “what finish,” and a no-chip gel base means fewer touch-ups before the holidays. Nail artists and salon owners are combining builder gels, chrome pigments, magnetic polish and glossy top coats in ways that turn a single pedicure into two or three trends at once. Below are 10 of the gel pedicure trends professionals say are dominating bookings this season, straight from the people applying them.

Scroll through crochet or knitting pages for 5 minutes and you’ll notice something: nobody there is apologizing for their stitches. First sweaters with wonky sleeves, hand-drawn bobble stitch patterns, handmade cardigans finished on pure guesswork, and every maker wears or gifts the result with total self-confidence anyway. That’s not a coincidence this year. Vogue reports that crochet has taken over runways for 2026, moving well past its old “beach cover-up” reputation into more sophisticated, versatile silhouettes at houses like Etro, Isabel Marant, Burberry, and Balmain, proof that handmade texture has genuinely earned its high-fashion moment.A first cardigan, a mosaic blanket finished just in time, a hexagon sweater from leftover yarn, a sweater built from a self-drawn chart — this kind of handicraft doesn’t need a runway to earn its confidence. We rounded up some of the best crochet creations from the community lately, plus one reader story about a handmade blanket that didn’t get the reaction it deserved right away, but earned it eventually.

We came across a story on the Internet recently that stopped us mid-scroll. It’s about dogs’ life skills that researchers have only recently started to properly study: the bond between a person and their dog runs deeper, and reacts faster, than most people realize. According to a feature published by the American Psychological Association, psychologists are now using brain scanning and large-scale developmental studies to understand exactly how dogs read human cues and respond to danger, and the growing field of dog cognition research suggests the human-canine bond may matter more today than ever, especially as more people turn to dogs for companionship and support. This taught us exactly why animal shelters, rescue organizations and pet adoption programs matter so much. Here’s the story that reminded us why.

September is here, which means the annual “Do I really want another bright summer pedicure?” debate has officially begun. You might still be wearing sandals, but your fall wardrobe is already creeping in, and pedicure trends are changing with it.Beauty editors and nail experts are already pointing to sapphire blue, soft moss, plum, chrome, velvet finishes, sheer pink, and other fresh fall nail colors for the weeks ahead. Allure’s latest fall 2026 nail report, for example, highlights jewel tones, metallics, earthy greens, and deep blue, while Who What Wear’s September coverage is focusing on transitional pedicure colors that can work while summer is still hanging on. So if you’re heading to the nail salon this September and don’t want to default to the same burgundy pedicure you’ve had every fall, these are the 10 pedicure trends and fall nail colors worth saving right now.

Gardening has become one of the most studied forms of self-care in the world. The Royal Horticultural Society’s State of Gardening Report, the first in-depth national look at gardening’s impact on health, found that regular exposure to green space is consistently linked to lower psychological distress, with the benefits even stronger for people going through genuinely difficult periods in their lives. It turns out digging in the dirt does something a therapy app never manages, giving people something steady to return to when everything else feels uncertain. These 10 real stories prove that gardening and landscaping are still some of the most reliable forms of self-care and happiness this September, right now, one raised bed, one row, one seed, one small act of patience at a time.

September is that awkward little moment when summer is still hanging on, but your wardrobe and beauty routine are already starting to feel like fall. The bright pedicure you loved in August suddenly feels a little too summery, while richer colors, polished tailoring, and statement accessories start looking much more tempting.Fall arrives with two appointments: one at the salon and one at your closet. Both are getting a fall makeover. Nail techs are seeing deeper, moodier shades, while stylists are bringing back structured suits, animal prints, and jewelry with plenty of personality. Here are the 10 fashion and pedicure trends that are showing up everywhere this September.

Right now, hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats are sitting in shelters around the world waiting for someone to notice them. According to the ASPCA, 5.8 million dogs and cats entered shelters and rescues in the US alone, and similar patterns show up in shelter systems across the UK, Europe, and beyond. Millions of animals get adopted every year, and most of those new owners have no idea what they’re actually getting. Not just a pet. Not just a rescue success story for the shelter’s records. Sometimes an actual hero, with a nose that catches what doctors miss, instincts that kick in before humans even notice something’s wrong, and a loyalty most people spend a lifetime hoping to find. These 10 real stories, from shelter dogs and adopted cats alike, prove that rescue animals aren’t just lucky to be saved. Plenty of the time, they’re the ones doing the saving.