As we’re right in the middle of party season and New Year’s eve is not too far away, I thought I would share a quick tutorial on an extremely easy technique – glitter placement nail art. If you’re looking for something dramatic and flashy to impress those around you, glitter placement could be the solution for you. I know many of you think this would take ages, but honestly, once you get the hang of it, it doesn’t take too long, especially if you’re only doing an accent nail (which is my preferred look).

I’ve created a step by step glitter placement YouTube tutorial below.

Essentially, all you need is a black polish, a top coat (I love matte black paired with a glitter accent nail), a toothpic or orange stick to pick up the glitter and some glitter. I purchased this over sized glitter in the craft section at Walmart.

The key to precise glitter placement (as originally taught to me by polishallthenails who is also from Toronto), is to create a topcoat strip down the middle of your nail and apply the glitter one piece at a time in a straight line. Once you have the straight line of glitter running up the middle of your nail you can create a second stripe of top coat on either side of the glitter and and place another line of glitter, placing one piece of glitter at a time, just like you would fit a jigsaw piece, next to the centre line. Once you reach the sides, if you’re a perfectionist like me, you can cut the glitter to fit perfectly along the sides of your cuticle (I used nail scissors). In the pictures here I then applied a piece of accent glitter to each nail.

The results? I think they speak for themselves. Pretty glamourous!