The Holidays are steadily approaching! Along with your favorite Christmas sweater and Santa hat, make sure to add an extra dash of holiday cheer to your seasonal attire with a fab and festive manicure! Katie Saxton, Nail Expert and President of Custom Nail Solutions, has the exclusive inside on merry manicures that will help you turn heads at all of the season's holiday parades and Secret Santa parties!
Katie dished to BeautyPress on the top nail trends of the 2013 Holiday season:
Festive Water Marble: An eye-catching red and green water marble mani will look great. Start off with a cup of room temperature water, red polish, green polish, tape, and several toothpicks. "Place tape around the edge of the first nail, covering the cuticles. Add two drops of red to the water and let spread, then a drop of green polish in the middle of the red polish," Katie said. "Then, take a toothpick and drag the edges of the polish to the center of the circle. Press your nail into the design, use a toothpick to scrape excess polish away from the edges of the nail, and take the nail out of the water. Then remove the tape and let dry. Use a toothpick to clear the polish from the top of the water, and repeat the process with your other nails. Add a clear topcoat to finish the look."
Winter Snowflakes: Snowflake nail stamps are a fab and festive way to add pizzazz to your holiday mani. But before you do this design, make sure you have blue polish, silver polish, clear topcoat, and a nail stamp kit with a snowflake stamping plate on hand. Katie likes the Nail Art Stamping Set by Shany Cosmetics ($3). "Paint your nails blue and let dry, then place silver polish over the snowflake design on the stamping plate, and use the nail kit's scraper to rid the plate of excess polish. While the silver polish is still wet, place the stamp over the plate so the snowflake design transfers, then press down on the nail. Do this until each nail is adorned with cute little silver snowflakes. Finish the look by adding a clear topcoat."
Pretty Presents: Turn your nails into cheerful little holiday gifts this season. "To do this mani, have on-hand red, green, purple, gold, and silver polish. Paint each nail a shade, alternating the colors. Then, using a toothpick, paint a single gold "ribbon" from the top of each nail to the bottom, and add a silver line next to the gold," Katie said. "Let dry, then use the toothpick to draw horizontal gold and silver ribbons through the middle of each nail. Once dry, use a toothpick to add little silver and gold bows where the ribbons intersect." Add a clear topcoat to complete the look.
Champagne: Nothing says Happy Holidays like a glass of bubbly with all of nearest and dearest, and Katie agrees. "For this festive holiday manicure, paint your nails with a coat of shimmery gold polish and let dry, then add gold glitter polish to the tips. This fun holiday mani is sure to get you noticed this season!"
Glitter: "Everything seems to sparkle during the holidays, and this should also hold true for your nails," the expert said. "Paint your nails red and green, alternating the colors on each nail, and let dry. Then, paint each red nail with a coat of red glitter polish and add a coat of green glitter polish to all of the green nails. Let dry and voilà! Your nails are ready to steal the spotlight at all your merry festivities!"
New Year Mani: This flashy nail design will help you count down to 2014 in style. "Paint all of your nails royal blue and let dry, then add a coat of multi-colored glitter polish on each nail. This is a fun and festive way to dress nails up for the New Year," Katie explained.
Which holiday mani is your fave? Let us know with a note below!