Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
placeholder article
placeholder article

Nailed: Festive Winter Manicures

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Brandeis chapter.

Get into the holiday spirit with awesome nail decorations!

First, the classic candy cane design: Start with a translucent white for the first coat. Next, you’ll need a pearly white to get that shiny candy cane look. After you’ve put that on every nail, use a thin brushed red polish to make three evenly spread red lines. After, use the same red to make a very thin line under the middle line. Lastly, to glam it up, take a thin brushed silver glitter and put a stroke under the top red line and in between the middle two lines. Don’t forget your top and base coats!

Want even more?! For the other crazy nails, you’ll need to paint one nail copper, one nail silver, one nail white, and the last red. For the second coat, paint a brown glitter on the copper nail, silver glitter on the silver nail, white shimmery glitter on the white nail, and another coat of red to the red nail. Now to the designs. For the copper (gingerbread) nail you’ll need a white thin-brushed polish to make a squiggley line at the end of your nail and a circular line at the top. Then, add three pink (or purple) dots in between the two white designs for the gumdrop buttons. For the silver nail, use bigger silver sparkles to make a thick French tip to make it appear like a glitter fade. For the white (snowman) nail, pick two thin-brushed colors to make your scarf with. Use the first one to make the outline and then add in stripes. Fill-in the empty parts of the scarf with your other color. Lastly, use a thin-brushed black to make three black dots below. Now, the trickiest nail is the red nail. You will need that thin-brushed white again. Start with a small circle right in the center if your nail. Next, make a diamond right above it. Then, make another diamond on each side and then another on each side of those and you have your flower, which is simply five diamonds around the circle. Lastly, make two small wide V’s on the top and bottom of your nail with the point inwards. Then they are complete!

Andrea is a sociology major with minors in journalism and women's and gender studies. She is currently finishing her senior year at Brandeis University. She was born and reared in Los Angeles, CA, which does mean that she is a die-hard Laker fan… Sorry Bostonians. When Andrea is not routing on her favorite basketball team, she dedicates her time to her many passions. They include reading and writing about fashion, traveling, exploring new restaurants, spending time with friends, watching reality television (she has a weak spot for Bravo), shopping, and working out.