Short nails - which colour to choose?

Neat and beautiful hands are the hallmark of every woman. But what if we cannot have long nails? Short nails can also look beautiful, as long as we know a few tricks on how to best lengthen them. You’re lucky, because we’re going to share them with you! 

Short nails have their advantages – first of all, they make typing on the keyboard a lot easier and reduce the risk of scratches; additionally, with short nails, jewellery is more exposed. Therefore, if the nature of our work or looking after our children makes it impossible to have nails of the desired length – nothing is lost yet. Marilyn Monroe always had short nails and nobody says she looked unfeminine.

Shape of short nails – where to start? 

When designing short nails we must remember that the shape of the plate helps to optically slim the hand and lengthen the fingers. An oval shape is best for short nails, but a round shape is also a good idea if the nail barely covers the finger pad. It’s more resistant to damage, so its perfect for people who do a lot of manual work. With very short nails and a wide hand, to get a slender look can be difficult to achieve, but we can still manage without applying nail polish on the side edges of the plate.

Hybrid nail polish for short nails – what to avoid? 

There’s a common belief that it’s best to choose bright colours for short nails. That’s true. Neutral hybrid nude nail polishes always look elegant and feminine, but the recently fashionable white brings about a few problems. It can resemble a school nightmare – a spilled concealer – on very short nails. Dark colours, on the other hand, will perfectly shorten the plate, which is why the fashionable black, graphite and saturated shades of jeans are risky. Fortunately, the recently popular black&white contrast is something different. If we use a funny pattern (for example, trendy vertical stripes, letters or delicate dots), we’ll emphasize the girly style of short nails.

Short nails – classic return

Marilyn knew about one thing – red nails attract attention and expose femininity. This season we should listen to her, because a timeless and elegant manicure using red hybrid nail polishes is one of the strongest trends. Tidy short nails in this version always look great. Whether we choose juicy Red Delicious, phenomenal Red Carpet, tasty Cranberry or any other saturated classic shade, we’ll feel like a movie star. Even wearing trainers instead of high heels.

Short nails – girly charm 

Fashionable nails in rose shades, often decorated with a geometric motif, are also a trend worth recommending to owners of short nails. Powder, slightly dirty shades of pink hybrid nail polishes, as well as neutral grey, look good on a short nail plate, especially when they match the colour of the skin. A thin stripe along the nail, fashionable spilled patterns, watercolour spots or camouflage elements will also look beautiful if we remember about the advantages of vertical lines. This way we’ll obtain a slimming and optical elongation of short nails.

It’s definitely worth experimenting when considering the colour of short nails. If we want to achieve optical elongation of the nail plate, we can mix colours of hybrid nail polishes and patterns, hence creating  unique designs – just like in the case of long nails.