NOTD: Beginner and Intermediate Christmas Nail Art Tutorial For Everyone

Jingle bell jingle bell…

Hello everyone! 😀

TGIF! I am proud to show you my first Christmas nail art for this year. Compared to my Snowman 2 years back, I have certainly had some improvements 😀

This tutorial will be covering 2 levels of expertise: The beginner and the intermediate, with the same set of colors.

Since it’s the holiday season – I will be using the Shu Uemura WKW Holiday Collection nail duo.

Tools that you need:

Top & base coat, a red polish (preferably) to create the festive mood, glitter polish, polishes of your choices or acrylic colors, a dotting tool and a fine art brush.

For Beginner

First, apply base coat and let dry. Always remember to use a base coat otherwise the colors will stain your nails yellow and it will be hard to whiten the nails again.
Now, with a red of your choice, try to do an even coating of polish. As much as I would like to love this color, unfortunately this color was not easy to work with. It can look streaky if it’s applied too thinly. So, I used a thicker coating and make just one layer. It dries up pretty fast so it’s not a problem using a thicker coat.

Don’t worry about the color going out of line as you can always clean it up using Q-tip dipped in polish remover later when you are done.

Wait till the base color is thoroughly dried, using a glitter of your choice, just color the top part of your nails the à la the French Tip. It’s pretty simple and absolutely fool-proof. Glitters will make a great French Tip for holiday as it can represent snow or party mood.

If you are short of time, or just prefer a simple art, you can stop at this step, and apply a top coat when the glitters are completely dry.

For the more adventurous, get ready with a white polish, a nail art brush 🙂

For Intermediate

Before creating any designs, it is important that you have an idea of the theme you are going to do, and plan the designs on each nail. If I were to draw a completely new design that I never did before, I will usually sketch on a paper first to make sure I can at least draw it out with a pen. Once you have the designs on your mind, you are ready to start! 😀

For Christmas nail art designs, it’s usually fun and cute with iconic images such as snowman, snowflakes, Christmas trees..etc.

Usually, I will prefer to have the largest drawing on my thumb because it is the easiest nail to work with.

Using white polish and a fine art brush (I prefer acrylic color for fast drying and non-smudging), pick up the white paint and roughly sketch 2 circles for the snowman. The circle should be smaller on the top because it will be the head. When you think your circles are alright, proceed to fill in the colors. Let dry.

If you prefer speed, with your remaining white polish, or brush stained with white, continue to work on other fingers. On my index finger, I had the mistletoe in mind. Create 3 dots first, then using green, roughly paint out the shape of mistletoe leaves. Outline the shape using black polish when the colors dry.

On the middle nail, you can draw a pine tree covered in snow (which will be using white). It’s essentially just small strokes of straight lines. With the extra space, you can add it details like snowflakes, and also a shining star.

On the ring finger, you can just create some diagonal straight lines and it will be the candy cane! It’s easy and takes no more than a minute 😀

For the pinky, I keep it simple by just coloring the glitter polish over the entire nail, and create some random white dots to set the mood.

When you are all done with the white polish, now it is the most challenging time – adding the details to the snowman.

Using the smallest art brush you have, create eyes for the snowman, and carefully draw a colorful scarf for him. Add on the hat with a color of your choice, and finally, outline the scarf and the hat! You can add buttons on the body too.

And I have created some white dots for snow effect to accompany him 🙂

Finally, wait for all 10 nails to dry and apply top coat, and you are done!

I will be rolling out a few Christmas nail art tutorials to suit the season 😉