Top 5: Christmas Nail Art

Whether you get creative with nail art all year round, or are just feeling inspired by this year’s Christmas lights, a festive manicure is a great way to get into the holiday spirit. The problem is that they can all too often veer into very cheesy territory: cartoon reindeer don’t really cut it past the age of thirteen.

With this in mind I’ve trawled through a few of my favourite beauty blogs, to find the best ideas for Christmas nails that still look really cool. Expect lots of gem stones, texture and tiny details. For more pictures, tutorials and information about which products to use, follow the links!

Reindeer, Glitter and Snowflakes, by The Nailasaurus

Image from http://www.thenailasaurus.com/

The Nailasaurus is one of my absolute favourite sources for nail art inspiration, and she definitely did not disappoint with this Christmas-themed post. I love the mix of different patterns and designs; it looks intricate without becoming too try-hard. Using green glitter on her little finger really offsets the fair isle snowflakes (created on using Nails Craze Plate NC03), but my favourite is the teeny tiny reindeer galloping across a solid red base. Get the look yourself by following her tips over on thenailasaurus.com

Ciate’s Very Colourfoil Manicure, Beauty Blogging Brunette

Image from http://beautybloggingbrunette.blogspot.co.uk

For nails that are suitable festive looking for Christmas (and New Year’s Eve parties), it’s worth revisiting Ciate’s Very Colourfoil Manicure set, as reviewed by Beauty Blogging Brunette here. Although she says she’s not much of a nail art fanatic, she does a great job explaining how to get the look step by step, and I love the end result. It can be easy to go over the top with this kit, and that’s great if it’s the look that you want, but I prefer the understated combination of nude nail polish with flecks of silver, gold and pink foil. Definitely one to see you through the entire holiday season, and keep you happy in the New Year!

Green Zig Zags, Raq Star Nails

Image from raqstarnails/Instagram

I wish these came with a full tutorial! They’re seriously cool, and are obviously Christmassy without getting too cartoony or predictable. The green zig sags and red gemstone are like a cubist, deconstructed bough of holly, and show that you don’t need to have every detail the same on every finger to make a real impact with nail art. I like that all the attention is focused on the middle nail and, handily, this means less time messing around with tiny embellishments, since you only need to fix one gemstone and one row of studs per hand. Definitely follow raqstarnails on Instagram to see more of her designs! Hopefully she’ll have a blog soon to explain how she gets looks like these.

White Christmas Fairy Lights, by FingerFood

Image from http://fingerfoodnails.blogspot.co.uk/

I love the 3D effect of these fairy light nails: not easy for typing on your laptop or cooking up a Christmas Day feast, but pretty nonetheless. The ‘lights’ are rhinestones, applied quickly and carefully while the top coat was still drying, with a glimmering silver base behind them. Check out the full instructions on fingerfoodnails.blogspot.co.uk.

Grace Humphries for Farfetch

If you’d prefer a video tutorial to help you along, check out Farfetch’s google+ hangout with nail artist Grace Humphries. She gives some great times on using gemstones to create these blinged-out nails, which look like crazy, tripped-out Christmas trees. They might seem a little tricky at first, but with a pattern like this the exact placement of the gemstones isn’t so important, it’s more about experimenting and figuring out how much embellishment you can handle on one fingertip! Once you’ve watched the video make sure you follow Grace on Twitter here, to keep up with more of her designs.

Hopefully these have inspired you to get creative with your nails this Christmas – I’d definitely recommend following any of these amazing bloggers and nail artists to keep up with new ideas all the way through 2014.