Winter is here, which also means dry, flaky skin and cracked hands. It’s time to give your hands a little TLC and a makeover with these cute and festive nail designs. If you are the type of person that struggles doing your nails, have no fear. Below are step-by-step nail designs categorized in levels from easy to hard.

EASY

Christmas Sparkles

Add a little bit of sparkle to your look this season with a design that is sweet, and most importantly, simple. For someone who likes to go with “less is more” when it comes to nails, or if you happen to be lacking in the artistic ability department, this design is for you.

What you need:

• Dark red nail polish

• Transparent gold glitter nail polish

• Transparent green glitter nail polish

Steps:

1. First, apply two coats of the red, allowing five minutes of time to dry between each coat.

2. Starting at halfway down your nail paint across the width of your nail to the tip with the gold glitter nail polish.

3. Wait for this coat to dry before painting the green glitter over the gold.

4. Continue to add alternating coats of the green and gold, each time starting closer to the tip of the nail so that the glitter becomes gradually thicker until the bottom is completely glitter and there is a gradient between the red and the glitter.

Candy Canes

What you need:

• Red nail polish

• White nail polish

• Regular tape

• Scissors

Steps:

1. First, apply two coats of the white, allowing five minutes of time to dry between each coat.

2. Cut out thin strips of tape width-wise and stick them on your nails approximately two millimetres apart. Make sure the strips stick firmly to the surface of your nail so you don’t run the risk of having polish seep underneath.

3. Paint over your nails and the tape with two coats of red nail polish.

4. When the polish is fully dry, carefully peel off the tape.

5. Add a clear top to make your nails smooth.

MEDIUM

Festive French Tips

This festive take on a classic French manicure is bound to be a great part of your holiday.

What you need:

• Manicure stickers

• White nail polish

• A clear or transparent white nail polish

• Red nail polish

• Green nail polish

• A toothpick

Steps:

1. Decide how long you want the white tip to be and place the sticker on your nail accordingly so that the tip of your nail is showing.

2. Paint the tip of your nail white, making sure to not go over the sticker to the other side of your nail.

3. Repeat so that you have two coats of white at the tip of your nail. Wait for it to dry completely (approximately 10 minutes) before peeling off the sticker.

4. If you’d like, you can add transparent glitter nail polish to the tips as well.

5. Paint two coats of the clear or transparent white coat overtop the entire nail.

6. If you don’t feel that you are able to make the French manicure on your own or if you don’t have long enough nails for it, stick on nails can be purchased from drug stores for around.

7. Dip the toothpick in the red nail polish and make three dots in the shape of a small triangle on the edge of one side of the French tips.

8. Dip a clean toothpick in the green nail polish and make short and gentle strokes away from the red dots to make it look like a holly leaf.

Christmas ornaments

Decorate your nails just as pretty as your Christmas tree with this nail design.

What you need:

• Deep green nail polish

• Glitter nail polish

• Gold nail art pen

Steps:

1. Apply two coats of the deep green nail polish with five minutes of drying time in between.

2. Make a circle with a glittery nail polish and fill it in just a couple of millimeters from the tip of your nail.

3. Once the circle has dried, take a gold nail art pen and draw a line from the top of your nail in the middle until it reaches the circle.

4. Draw two loops at the top of the circle so that it looks like a bow.

HARD

Christmas puddings

This nail design looks good enough to eat.

What you need:

• White nail polish

• Brown nail polish

• Toothpicks

• Red nail polish

• Dark green nail polish

Steps:

1. Start by painting your nails in two coats of white polish.

2. Next, paint the tips of your nails brown, about halfway up your nail.

3. The previous step does not have to be neat because you will next take a toothpick to drag some of the polish onto the white in a squiggly shape. This will give the appearance of the icing of the pudding oozing down.

4. Once this layer has dried completely, add three red dots in the middle top part of your nail with a toothpick.

5. Then, draw some holly leaves with dark green nail polish.

Christmas lights

This design is going to light up your life so much so that your fingernails are going to be glowing brighter than a Christmas tree.

What you need:

• A creamy beige coloured nail polish

• A black thin tip nail art pen

• Multicoloured nail art gems

Steps:

1. Start by painting two coats of the beige nail polish, waiting for five minutes before applying the second coat.

2. Once the nail polish has dried, draw one wave or swirl in the middle of the width of each nail.

3. When the black nail pen has dried completely, apply the nail art gems along the black line, spacing them two millimetres apart with nail glue if they do not already having an adhesive back.

4. Finish with a clear top coat to set the gems in place.

Some other things that come in handy when painting your nails would be shaping your nails into a square shape and applying cuticle oil before painting. This will ensure that your designs look relatively the same and also makes your nails smooth before polish application. It is also recommended to add a clear coat as a base and top coat to make the design last longer. Lastly, if you don’t have any nails or have trouble designing your own, buy a package of fake nails and design on.