The perfect accessory to any LBD you’re wearing this holiday: festive nail art. Nail art genius Madeline Poole, Sally Hansen’s global color ambassador, shows you how to execute seven looks that will 100 percent get you in the holiday mood.
1. Green and Gold French Tips
1. Paint on two coats of a deep blue-green polish. Madeline used Sally Hansen Color Therapy in “Bamboost.”
2. Using a thin striper brush dipped in gold metallic polish, start from one side of your nail and paint a small line along the free edge, stopping halfway across your nail. Try Yves Saint Laurent La Laque Couture Luxury Variant in “Dore Orfevre.”
3. Using the same brush and polish, finish the line by starting from the other side of your nail. Connect the two lines in the middle.
4. Finish with a clear, glossy topcoat to seal the edges of the two polishes together.
2. Twinkling Stars
1. Paint on two coats of a dark red polish. Madeline used Sally Hansen Color Therapy in “Unwine’d.”
2. Use a thin striper brush dipped in white polish and draw a thin, vertical line down your nail. Try Nails Inc. Floral Street Nail Polish.
3. Using the same striper brush, draw a horizontal line perpendicular to the vertical line. This line should be about a third of the length of the first line.
4. Draw a short diagonal line over the intersection of the first two lines. Continue using the same brush and white polish.
5. Draw one more diagonal line the opposite direction to finish your star.
6. Use a pointy orange stick dipped in the same white polish to paint white dots around your big star. These will be the other, smaller “stars.”
3. Sweet Snowflakes
1. Paint an iridescent polish as your base color. Try Deborah Lippmann Nail Lacquer in “La Vie En Rose.”
2. Use a thin striper brush dipped in white polish to draw three lines on your nail. This will create the foundation of your snowflake. Try Nails Inc. Floral Street Nail Polish.
3. Make tiny Vs at the end of each line to make the ends of the snowflake.
4. On a few fingers, create a larger snowflake to mix up your look. Draw a horizontal line on your nail and then an X over the center for a perfect six-prong snowflake. Then create the tiny Vs on the ends just like you did in step three.
5. Draw a hexagon connecting the intersecting lines of the snowflake.
6. Add tiny dots in between the six prongs of the snowflake. Wait until the white paint is dry and finish it off with a topcoat to make it super shiny.
4. Metallic and Matte Tips
1. Paint your nails a silver shade. Model Joanne used Nars Nail Polish in “Amarapura.”
2. Create a horizontal line across your nail a quarter of an inch up from your cuticle. Use a striper brush dipped in navy polish to draw the line. Try Sally Hansen in “Dark Hue-moor.”
3. Fill in the top part of your nail with the navy hue.
4. Apply a matte topcoat over the navy part only. This will give you that matte-meets-shiny-silver combo.
5. String Lights Mani
1. Paint on two coats of a hunter green polish. Model Morgan used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in “On Pines and Needles.”
2. Using a striper brush, paint a thin line of silver polish to create your string for your lights. You can be creative with how you want the string to look, whether it’s looped or just has a slight bend to it. Morgan used RGB Cosmetics Nail Color in “Factory.”
3. Dab nail glue where you want the crystals to stick.
4. Push a tiny nail into the eraser of a pencil to create a tool that will help you pick up the crystals more easily
5. Place multicolored flat-back crystals (Morgan used multicolored 5ss-size ones, which you can get at Michael’s or on Amazon) that will serve as the lights. To place them on your nail with ease, put a dot of nail glue where you want to adhere the crystal to along the polish string, and then quickly dip the nail head into a little glue to pick up the crystal and immediately press it onto your nail.
6. Pretty in Plaid
1. Paint your nails a rich red shade. Madeline used this red polish.
2. Using a striper brush and black polish, draw four boxes on each nail. Try Butter London in “Union Black Jack.”
3. Fill in each of the boxes with the black paint.
4. Create diagonal lines with the striper brush dipped in black polish to connect the black boxes, creating the plaid pattern.
7. Festive Two-Tone Glitter
1. Paint on two coats of a dark burgundy polish. I used Dolce & Gabbana The Nail Lacquer in “Dahlia.”
2. Paint on a layer of topcoat, so the glitter has something to stick to, and immediately sprinkle on some red glitter. I used Martha Stewart Fine Glitter in “Red.”
3. Promptly sprinkle on some pale pink glitter before the topcoat dries. Switch up where the glitter falls to create a unique design.
4. Use a tiny fan brush to dust off the glitter. Don’t worry, the majority will be settled in the topcoat. Add another layer of clear polish to give your look a super-shiny finish.
