Festive French Manicure: Two Ideas For The Perfect Holiday Look

In our last article, we covered a few ideas for the best nail art you could get into this Christmas. Today, we’re going to take a deep dive into something more specific, namely two festive French manicure designs. The great thing about these Holiday-inspired mani is they can totally work way after the holidays! In fact, something tells us this could potentially be two of your go-to mani designs for things like when you and your girlfriends are hitting the clubs, or a dinner date in some place fancy. So let’s get started!

First Things First

As we’ve mentioned in the past, the first thing to do is to get organized. Drape a terry cloth towel over your work space. This makes clean-up much less of a chore. You may even want to go the route of using spread-out newspaper instead of a towel. This way, you have one less item to think of when doing the laundry. As for equipment, you’ll need:

    1. Snow White Dip Powder
    2. Honeymoon Dip Powder
    3. Winter Wonderland Dip Powder
    4. Frosty Dip Powder
    5. Essentials Kit (ideally the Pro kit)
    6. Cuticle Oil
    7. A nail art brush, preferably a fan-style brush
    8. A thick makeup brush like our Kabuki brush
    9. A nail buffer or file
    10. Cotton balls or wipes

After getting your equipment together, wash and dry your hands, particularly your fingertips. Next, take a couple pieces of cotton, moisten with some alcohol, and rub down your nails. This is to ensure your nails are totally clean and oil-free. If you have the Essentials Pro Kit on hand, use the primer on your nails, instead of the alcohol. You’re now ready to proceed!

Sparkly French Tips

The first festive nail mani design we’re going to look at are some sparky French tips using the Snow White and Honeymoon Dip Powder. This design creates an ombre, “snow falling to the ground” effect – very appropriate for the season. First off, apply a thin layer of the base coat as close to your cuticles as you can. Make sure not to get any of the base coat on the skin around the nails. This is because when you go apply the dip powder, any skin that has the base coat will also end up with a layer of the powder. That excess powder will get hard, and become a problem to remove. Trust us, you don’t want that!

Next, get your nail art brush and dip into the Dip Powder, scooping out as much as you can. With your finger over the Dip Powder container, you then tap the nail art brush to sprinkle the powder over your nail’s free edge. Something to think about for a second: this is why it’s more ideal to use a nail art brush with a fan shape since this design is able to hold and distribute the Dip Powder more efficiently.

After you’ve sprinkled enough of the powder to get the effect you like, you then dip your nail into the Honeymoon Dip Powder. Remember to dip your nail at a 45° angle. You then get your thick makeup brush, like a Kabuki brush, and brush away the excess powder. Next, get your activator and apply a layer onto the nail. Let the activator set for 2 minutes, after which you buff and file the nail to smooth-out the design. Don’t go too crazy with the buffing; you don’t want to take out the design! In line with that, it’s a good idea to use a finer grit buffing board or nail file.

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Once you’re done with the buffing, wipe away any dust and apply two layers of the top coat. Allow the first layer to dry for about 2 minutes max before applying the next layer. Finally, apply a liberal amount of cuticle oil and you’re done! Be sure to continue applying the cuticle oil over the days to come to keep your cutes moisturized. Alternatively, you could also use your favorite hand moisturizer for this process.

Double The Glitter Nail Powder, Double The Glam

The next festive nail art design idea is something we’d like to call twin festive sparkle nails (okay, the name’s a work in progress.) But no matter the name, this design takes sparkly nail art to the next level. This is achieved by using two Dip Powders with different levels of glitter, namely the Winter Wonderland Dip Powder (which features “chunkier” glitters), and the Frosty Dip Powder (which has more of a finer sparkle texture.)

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Like the previous mani, apply a layer of the base coat, getting as close as you can to your cuticles but without getting any on them. You then get the Winter Wonderland Dip Powder and sprinkle the powder using the nail art brush on your nail’s free edge. Alternatively, you can dip the free edge rather than sprinkle the powder. The possible disadvantage of this is the powder can be layered on a bit on the thick side, which can diminish the ombre effect you’re going for.

Next, get the Frosty Dip Powder, and pour this on the rest of your nail. Again, you could also dip rather than pour. As always, be sure to brush-off the excess powder. You then apply a layer of applicator, and let dry for 2 minutes before buffing and shaping with a file. Once done, wipe away the dust and proceed with the top coat. Just like the previous mani, apply two layers for best results, allowing the first layer to fully dry for about two minutes. Now all you have to do is moisturize with cuticle oil and admire your work!

More Festive Nail Art Possibilities

Another awesome thing about these two nail mani designs is they really work well with other Dip Powders. You may not get the same festive effect, but the results are no less glamorous! For example, the sparkly French tip look can work really well with other Nude Dip Powder Colors. The second design idea can also work by substituting the Frosty Dip Powder with a different Glitter Dip Powder color. In fact, these two designs can serve as a springboard to some really interesting nail art!