Nail Art Tutorial: Snowman Nails
(Taken out of context, that might make some people scratch their heads.)
Although my schedule after work has somehow gotten busier than ever before, I want to make time to do more freehand designs, especially festive ones leading up to Christmas.
Today, I’m showing you easy Snowman Nail Art that only requires a base coat, a top coat, five colours, a dotting tool, and a striping brush.
The nail polishes I used to create the snowman nail art are The Body Shop Colour Crush in Minty Amour, OPI Queen of the Road, OPI Angel with a Leadfoot, OPI Juice Bar Hopping, and OPI This Gown Needs a Crown!
I love sharing these kind of simple designs because it might encourage someone to try their hand at nail art, even if they’ve never done so before. There are a lot of overly complicated designs out there that, while nice to look at, can be intimidating to beginners.
It’s my goal to make nail art that’s easy to replicate because I believe that everyone should enjoy the fun and creativity that it has to offer. I don’t want anyone to feel excluded!
To do this design, you don’t need masterclass skills, but you will need patience. Also, remember that happiness is your goal, not perfection, and you’ll always be a winner.
P.S. Read the bottom of this post for a short story from my childhood about how I once got in trouble for building a snowwoman.
Snowman Nail Art Swatches
All swatches have:
- OPI Nail Envy Nail Strengthener (Used as a base coat)
- Base Colour:
- 2 coats of The Body Shop Colour Crush in Minty Amour (turquoise)
- Other Colours:
- OPI Queen of the Road (black)
- OPI Angel with a Leadfoot (white)
- OPI This Gown Needs a Crown (silver)
- OPI Juice Bar Hopping (orange)
- Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
Note: All the polishes (except for the base and top coats) were provided to me by PR.
Natural Light Photos
Flash Photos
*~* Snowman Nail Art Tutorial *~*
What I Used:
- Daniel Stone Art Tool 1 (Double-ended dotting tool)
- Striping Brush
- OPI Juice Bar Hoping
- The Body Shop Colour Crush in Minty Amour
- OPI Nail Envy Nail Strengthener (Used as a base coat)
- OPI Angel with a Leadfoot
- Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
- OPI This Crown Needs a Crown
- OPI Queen of the Road
Step 1: Apply Your Favourite Base Coat
Step 2: Paint All Your Nails with the Base Colour
Here, I used two coats of The Body Shop Colour Crush in Minty Amour. I love these kind of colours because they pop and seem to flatter all skin tones from fair to rich!
Step 3: Create the Snowman’s Head
I used the brush from the nail-polish bottle to paint a circle on each nail. However, if you want the snowman’s hat to sit flat on the head, consider not painting the top with a curve, and instead paint straight across, horizontally. (I did this on my thumb, and you can see the difference it makes in the photos above.)
Depending on how opaque your white nail polish is, you may need to use two or more coats to get better coverage.
I used OPI Angel with a Leadfoot from the OPI Ford Mustang Collection and used two coats to get the coverage you see below. (Click here to see my OPI Angel with a Leadfoot Swatches & Review post.)
Step 4: Give Your Snowman Eyes and a Mouth
If you’re like me and find using a dotting tool relaxing and fun, you’ll love this part!
You can make the eyes as big as you’d like or even the same size as the dots for the mouth. I preferred larger eyes and ones that are a little googly because I think it gives each snowman a funny personality.
As for the grin, you can use a smaller dotting tool, bobby pin, or end of an old makeup brush to form the curved line.
It’s absolutely fine if each dot isn’t perfect. Just think back to the snowmen you made as a kid. How many were totally symmetrical? There’s more character when the dots are slightly different. To me, it’s like putting your artistic signature on something. The variations show your uniqueness and sets it apart from perfect, mass-produced creations that you can buy from a store.
The black nail polish I used was OPI Queen of the Road from the OPI Ford Mustang Collection, which has some shimmer in it. I normally reach for China Glaze Liquid Leather, but oddly enough, I couldn’t find my bottle! However, I ended up liking the shimmer in the black for this look more. (As you’ll see when we add the top hats, it adds some extra dimension instead of just looking flat.)
Step 5: Add a Carrot Nose
Even though the noses looked like blobs, this was my favourite part to paint because it made the snowmen’s faces come alive with a pop of colour.
I used OPI Juice Bar Hopping from the OPI Neon Collection because I wanted a bright orange. (Click here to see my in-depth review with swatches of OPI Juice Bar Hopping.)
Step 6: Dress Up Your Snowmen with Top Hats
With your nail striper dipped in black polish, first paint a horizontal line on top of the snowman’s head. Then, add a box on top. Fill that area in.
Step 7: Give Your Snowman’s Hat a Fancy Silver Band
I had a lot of fun with this part. Adding sparkly silver to the hat keeps it from looking flat, and it makes it more festive.
If you want to make this design more intricate, consider painting green holly with red berries to accent the sash. But, if you do that, I suggest you first paint the base of the holly and berries with white and go over them with the colourful nail polishes. This will ensure that the green and red will show up against the black hat.
I used OPI This Gown Needs a Crown from the OPI Miss Universe Collection because it was bright and sparkly! (Click here to see my OPI This Gown Needs a Crown Swatches & Review post.)
Step 8: Apply a Top Coat
Make sure that you wait a while before applying your top coat because if you put it on too soon, you could risk smudging all your hard work.
How long you wait depends on the thickness of nail polish you used. Since I tend to apply medium coats for my base colour and then everything else on top adds even more thickness, I tend to wait a good 30 minutes or longer before I put a top coat on. (If you paint while watching TV like I do, you’ll know how fast the time flies!)
The Time I Got in Trouble for Building a Snowwoman at School
I loved building snowmen often in the winter when I was a kid. (Every kid does, right?) But one day, when I was 7 or 8, it occurred to me how strange it was that snowpeople always ‘had to be’ snowMEN. So I built a snowWOMAN at recess, and my friends loved it because it was different.
The teacher on duty promptly sent me to the principal’s office, and I was forced to stand facing the wall for the remainder of recess. I got in trouble for making a snowwoman!
(When I told my parents about it after school, they thought it was ridiculous, but also funny that I got in trouble for something so silly. Yes, they were actually trying to hold back laughter when I told them, despite me being serious and upset when I rehashed the story.)
All my friends thought it was unfair that I was punished, and during the next recess, they all made snowwomen to protest! It touched my heart that I had their support, but they also ended up having to face the same wall as punishment. (My friends told me that we should all keep making snowwomen until they’re accepted on the same level as snowmen. Wow, and this is well before we had any formal education of gender inequality or politics!)
When I was painting my nails for this look, I thought how I could transform the look into snowwomen nail art instead without resorting to adding gender-stereotypical things like a hair bow or eyelashes. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind, so I created snowmen.
Even though I’m an adult now, whenever I see a snowman, I always think “SnowWOMAN!”.
Is anyone else with me on that?
How would you personalize your snowman or snowwoman nail art? Is there a festive nail-art design you’d like to see me attempt? When was the last time you made a snowman or snowwoman?
