Santa Nails

So Christmas is quickly approaching, and you have NO idea how you're going to paint your nails for the big day! You need something quick, easy, and sure to spread holiday joy - Santa Claus!

You will need:
- Base coat
- Green polish (or base color of your choice)
- Tan/skin tone polish
- Red polish
- White polish
- Dotting tool
- Top coat

Start off with a base coat, as usual! Then paint down a layer or two of your base color. I chose green because I thought it would look very Christmas-y with Santa's red hat, but you could really do anything. Since most of the base color will be covered up by the end, it doesn't need to be perfect, but make sure that it's solid. (Don't skimp on the extra coats!)

Sinful Colors - Envy

Now for Santa's head. Using a skin-toned polish, paint a nice little circle/semi-circle around the tips of the nails. The circle should go about halfway up each nail.

Essie - Sand Tropez

Next, it's time for the hat. Using a red polish, paint a hat-shaped triangle on the top of each Santa head. The point and the base don't have to be perfect; they'll be covered up with white polish later.

Kiss Colors - True Red

Using your dotting tool, add a dot of white to the top of the hat and across the base of the hat.

Sally Hansen - Hard to Get

 Now add the beard, using the white polish and dotting tool again. I had to try a couple different things before I was truly satisfied with how the beards looked, so I'd suggest testing them on a note card before painting them onto your nails.

Using the dotting tool and black polish, dot on two eyes. Make sure they're not too big, like they were on my pinkie nail- I got a bit carried away with the dotting tool! Try to aim more for what the eyes look like on my ring finger.

Sally Hansen - Black Heart

Using the red polish again, dot on little noses for each Santa. Add a top coat and you're good to go!

Although Christmas is two weeks away, spread some holiday cheer early with these festive Santa nails. If you don't celebrate Christmas, you could easily turn these into cute gnomes by switching up the colors (although, I'll admit, gnomes don't really go with the season, but if you really wanted to...). 

If you'd like to see my upcoming Holiday-themed tutorials, make sure to  follow here, 'like' on Facebook, and follow on Twitter.

Thanks for reading! Happy holidays!

- Muffin