More Creative Nail Art Ideas

One of the trends for Winter & Spring is the diagonal French Manicure. This looks like the classic manicure but it is on a slant. The nail bed is naked but there is a swipe of creamy yellow-white  across the nail.  A jewel and gold sparkles delineating the line between the natural nail and the painted tip makes this look very glamorous; your nails will look like they belong to a platinum snow princess.

 

The regular white reverse French manicure is also very impressive looking. The bed of the nail is pink and the tips of pink.  Rhinestones and nail jewels can be used to delineate the line between the tips and the naturally colored part of the nail.  If this is a look that is too heavy you can also delineate the line with a simple sparkly nail polish.

 

Another twist on winter is the Winter Mint look. This is a very pearlescent pale white nail that is tipped with a swipe of mint green pearlescent polish and maybe also a shimmer of mint green metallics.  The lighter the green the more attractive this nail look is going to be.

 

Another lovely look is a bed of very light lime green that is painted over with light pale gold sparkles.  Make sure there is a bit of grey in the green color and this will make your nails look like it is storming on a cloudy day.

 

The snowflake theme does not always have to be done on a white nail. It looks very sexy on deep purple or bright red nail. However if you are going to put appliques on a bright red nail, the longer the nail is the better.

 

Another lovely “winter storm” type look is a bare lower nail that is nude or pink that is tipped with a dark smoky gray color.  There should be a wash of shimmer half way up to the tip. The look can be further accented with white snowflake or swirly appliques.

 

Baby pink nails can also look very elegant for the winter. Choose a very natural but slightly pink base color with a high gleam. Then cover the tips of the nails only with a white nail polish that is pure white frost.  The effect of this is very girlish and also frosty.

 

Another elegant look is to use gel to press nail art appliques of white snowflakes in layers across the nail bed until it looks like it is layered with snowflakes.  A top coat of green and blue glitter helps perfect this look.

 

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Cheery Nail Art

In the winter women like to cheer themselves up with brightly colored nail patterns. One of the harbingers of Spring in the world of nail fashions is the brightly colored bouquets that start appearing as flowers on nail beds.  To cheer up a dull day considered painting your nails a bright fuchsia and then make bright yellow flowers with orange centers and leaves of green. Keep the flowers as a simple daisy shape to create a seventies psychedelic look.

 

Fiery orange nails can also give you a psychological lift, especially if they are studded with small gems in bright hues of blue, green and yellow. For an interesting look try decorating each nail with three studs at the b base of the nail bed. Choose a nail color with a natural yellow sparkle to it for added interest.

 

For a very vampy look paint your nails a solid gleaming silver color and then paint the tips only with shimmering rainbow glitter.  The longer the nails are the more glamorous the effect is going to be. You will look like an evil but very sexually attractive Ice Queen.

 

If you like all things retro then consider making each of your nail beds into a little winter abstract.  Simply apply one coat of a pearlescent nail polish but leave some streaks. The streaks are part of the effect. Then add a coat of nail polish with white, gold and blue sparkles.  Over this take a cream colored opaque polish and scrawl gestural strokes on each nail.  This is very reminiscent of the works of Picasso and other pieces of abstract mid-century modernism.

 

Another great look that suits colder months and that is easy and cheap to do is the “shatter polish.”  This is the technique where you choose a color and then paint over a special “Shatter” nail polish that splits it into fragments.  This looks wonderful in icy blues and whites because it looks just like ice cracking.

 

Another wonderful look is to paint your nails silver from bottom to tip and then coat it with a powdery shimmer in clear.   You can then glue white or blue crystals to the tips of the nails and then apply a gel over the whole thing to harden it.

 

Also lovely is the China Glaze Blue look where nails are painted a deep porcelain blue and then hand painted with big stylistic snowflakes with bright white nail polish.

 

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The Reverse French Manicure

 

If you are thinking of boasting fingernails that are extremely glamorous and very fashionable then consider getting a reverse French manicure. To refresh your memory the classic French manicure consists of a flesh or pink colored nail bed that is tipped with a cream white crescent moon of color.

 

 

In the case of the classic reverse French manicure the nail bed is white and the tips are painted a color. Usually the color is more outrageous than the pinks and flesh tones associated with the classic French manicure. Blues and bright reds are quite popular when it comes to getting this type of flashy nail treatment.  Basically you can think of the traditional reverse French manicure as being a solarized version of the traditional ordinary French manicure.

 

 

There is also a second type of reverse French manicure, which takes the whole idea even further. With this type, which was seen one lot of runways for Fall 2008, the moons of the nails are painted bright white and the rest of the nail is painted a vivid color like black, bright blue or dark red.

 

 

Pastels can also enter the picture here. You can see a bright white or cream nail tipped with a glossy pale flesh tinted tip.  Tinsel or metallic colors are also very much in vogue especially for the winter.  An example would be the silver nail that is tipped with gold or the blue metallic nail that is tipped with bright white.

 

 

Also in style is the complimentary or clashing color French manicure.  For instance a complimentary example would be a blue nail bed with a red tip or a red nail with a yellow tip.  Clashing color French manicures would be combinations such as a red nail bed with a bright pink tip or a brown nail with an orange tip.

 

 

There is even yet another variation of the French manicure, which is seen on the street as part of popular culture and also on runways. In this version the moons of the nails are painted bright white and so are the tips. The body of the nail is then painted whatever color the person desires.

 

 

The colors for Reverse French manicure treatments are also more vivid then you would expect.  Solid primary colors look best.  The most fashionable color is black but many women have been wearing both versions of the reverse French manicure in chocolate brown.  This follows along with the general trend in fashion that brown is the “new black.”

 

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