With the winter holidays approaching, of course you want your nails to be as festive as your mood. A viral trend that is easily duplicated at home are sweater nails. They bring all the cozy warmth of wrapping yourself in cashmere in front of a fireplace to your fingernails, and there are countless ways to customize them and make them your own. Learning how to do sweater nails takes perhaps an hour of practice, and pays off in tons of compliments and attention to your manicure.
What are Sweater Nails?
Sweater nails, in short, have nail art on them that is reminiscent of the weave or designs on a sweater. Think Fair Isle patterns with snowflakes, herringbone, or other motifs that look knitted. The design is sometimes raised or embossed for a cool textural effect. Oftentimes, the pattern and base nail color are the same, for a very badass monochrome moment. Everything about sweater nails screams “winter wonderland” and is ideal for chilly months when you want to look your best sipping a spiked hot cocoa.
Supplies You Need for Sweater Nails at Home
We love using the Slick Pour powder on a top coat for embossed designs that can be layered for texture. You’ll need clean, prepped nails that are painted with the gel polish of your choice. Then, you need the powder(s) you require for the sweater nail design you’re opting for, along with a nice, thick gel top coat. A UV light is required to set the design. You’ll want striper brushes for your nail art, along with a bristled nail brush for dusting off excess powder.
Techniques for Sweater Nails
Start with the base nail color that you want. Winter classics are snowy blues and whites or festive candy apple reds/pine greens, but imagination can take you in almost any direction here. Make sure that your base color is dry or set. We like a matte top coat on the base color to give that fuzzy “sweater” effect.
Then, you are going to use your detail brush to carefully paint on your design with top coat. Google “sweater nail designs” to get inspiration. Luckily, most of these are very simple and easy even for beginners.
Every few strokes of top coat, go ahead and sprinkle on your Slick Pour powder and set the nail(s) under the UV light to set them, so that there’s no chance of smudging your work. After curing the gel and powder in the light, dust the excess powder off and continue the design until it is complete. When you are done, set all ten nails for 60 seconds to finish the mani, and apply a full top coat or simply leave the textured surface for the full effect. Voilà—you have trendy sweater nails just as nice as anything on TikTok!
Variations on Sweater Nails
Although a lot of sweater nail designs involve a full nail pattern, we also love doing a pattern on a colored French tip. Try playing with length and nail shape between manicures, as even the same color and design will look completely different on a short, square nail versus a long stiletto. Although monochrome is very popular, you can also consider mixing and matching colors and finishes… think about a pastel blue base with sparkly, deeper blue glitter, or a slick, shimmering white snowflake on a matte base. Again, Google and Pinterest offer tons of inspo in this area. If you desire a “raised” look, you can always go back over your design with a second layer of top coat and powder after curing the first level.
Perhaps the coolest thing about sweater nails is that they not only look great, but are super attainable to budding nail artists working at home. Imagination, a steady hand, and a willingness to dive in and try new things will take you far in perfecting this trend. This winter, make sweater nails your signature seasonal look.