With the holiday season in full swing and finals looming ominously on the other side of this weekend, the most pressing issue on every Collegiette’s mind is obviously the state of her nails. Those pretty tips will add pizzazz to your sweatpants-and-messy-bun combo on exam days and are sure to complete any holiday party look. At the very least, spending time drawing a tiny reindeer on your thumbnail will take your mind off that killer Orgo exam you’ve been studying for all week. Here are five adorable nail designs found on Pinterest that will put you in the holiday spirit and, just maybe, aid in your expert procrastination.
The first and simplest of the designs is a solid coat of deep forest green with a gold accent nail. I like the accent nail trend because it spices up any plain manicure and confuses those unfamiliar with nail polish fashions (for example, my brother calls it the “baller nail”). This green polish is the color of a beautiful evergreen tree, and the pop of gold is like the star on top!
The next design reminds me of those beloved Starbucks holiday cups. Start with plain red nails and, once they’re dry, use a dotting tool/toothpick/mechanical pencil dipped in white polish to draw the winter wonderland. I found it easiest to outline the hills on the tips with my mechanical pencil first, and then to use the nail polish brush to fill them in with snow. This design also features an accent nail: just use your pencil to outline and fill in a Christmas tree on your nail.
Originally, this design calls for actual string to be artfully placed on wet nails and adorned with colorful lights, but since I didn’t have a spool of black thread (or any other color thread, for that matter) lying around, I used dark polish instead. Simply use the pencil to draw a loopy line across your blank white nails, then add dots of color for the lights.
Maybe it’s my inner Ke$ha talking, but what would the holidays be without an abundance of glitter? This design is very similar to the second one, but with a sparkly silver background and a snowman on the accent nail. Tip: to avoid drying out your nail polish, make little puddles of polish on an old gift card into which you can dip your pencil.
The final design is like a cozy Fair Isle sweater for your nails. Because each nail is different and somewhat detailed, this one is more time-consuming than the others. However, each individual nail is made of simple shapes so it shouldn’t be any more difficult. The index finger was the most troubling for me; I ended up drawing a solid white snowflake and going back with the red polish to separate it into sections. Don’t stress about getting it absolutely perfect: people will already be impressed with your immense creativity and style, and anyways the designs are too small to notice the camel-like hump in your reindeer’s back.
Happy holidays!