By Loren Savini, Sara Miranda, Marci Robin, and Tori Crowther
Once you've nailed down the side dishes and seating arrangements for Thanksgiving, it's time to move on to bigger and better pursuits: Thanksgiving nail ideas. Thanksgiving is a big night for catching up and breaking bread, so you'll want the hands that handle the fork to be looking fresh and ready for the official start of the holiday season. Small Manicure Table
Whether you prefer short and simple or long and shaped, seasonal shades or intricate nail art, there's a little something for everyone at the Thanksgiving nail design table. The warm, earthy hues associated with autumn are a great jumping-off point for many Thanksgiving manicure ideas, including intricately hand-painted illustrations, subtle ombré, and color-blocked designs. Even if you don't partake in Thanksgiving celebrations, these palettes and techniques are great for fall — a last hurrah before we shift into the shades and trends of winter.
(Editor's note: Before we get into specific trends and techniques, it’s important to note that Thanksgiving has seen many changes and iterations in the last four centuries and, simply put, its history is far from the "first Thanksgiving meal" narrative often taught in schools across the US. This complex issue deserves far more nuance and expertise — and, frankly, a nail art gallery isn't the venue — so we urge you to explore the topic on your own. A good starting point is this 2012 Q&A from Indian Country Today with artist and historical preservationist Ramona Peters of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and journalist Gale Courey Toensing.)
For inspiration on autumnal designs that evoke this particular weekend in November and beyond, we spoke with nail experts as well as our own beauty editors about all the creative designs they anticipate seeing on fingertips this time of year.
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It wouldn’t be a 2023 nail inspiration story without a chrome manicure. Thanks to Hailey Bieber, the glazed donut effect has been top-of-mind for many heading to the nail salon — even ahead of Thanksgiving. To create this look, Scotland-based nail artist Isobel Wassall drew the designs using gel polish with a “fine liner brush for precision,” and topped them with The Gel Bottle’s Caramel and Copper Chrome Pigment.
The tortoiseshell effect makes for a stunning nail design year-round, but we particularly love it in November for its use of autumnal polish colors. To create this version, nail artist Hannah Flanagan laid down a base of the rich burgundy Manhattan by The Gel Bottle. For the tortoiseshell effect, she applied a glassy yellow base before adding the black and brown details to create the tortoiseshell spots.
A collaboration between nail artist Lizzy Ridley and content creator client Charissa Rae resulted in this modern design. To try it at home, use a makeup sponge to dab your favorite fall nail polish color onto the center of each bare nail. (Remember: Precision isn’t necessary.) Using a fine liner brush, draw imperfect ovals of a metallic silver polish (like Essie in Après-chic) above the sponged-on color. Don’t forget to finish with a high-shine topcoat.
It wouldn’t be fall without a leaf motif and we love this minimalist design by Lindsey Cunningham. If you’re feeling up for the challenge, try this one at home. Using a different color on each nail, paint tiny petals with a fine-liner brush. Once dry, meticulously outline each petal with gold polish. Yes, this will take a lot of patience and Cunningham has some key advice: Always find a good resting place to steady the hand that is doing the painting. The final step is using a glossy topcoat to seal the art.
A French manicure is perfect for every occasion, including Thanksgiving dinner. For this design, manicurist Iram Shelton flipped the design on its head, using chocolate tones to paint a lighter tip on top of a dark base. Shelton explains that the contrasting chocolate and caramel colors complement each other, looking even more elevated when paired with gold jewelry.
Shelton used Espresso Your Inner Self and Samoan Sand from OPI for these French tips. Other than your polishes of choice, she says, “all you need is a liner brush and some patience.” She started with the base color on each nail, allowing enough time for each layer to fully dry. “Using a liner brush, add the tip along the free edge,” Shelton says. “Once that’s dried, apply a topcoat.”
Decorate your digits with each shade of the fall nude spectrum like Dayanna Sapiens did with this gradient manicure. Sapiens says she wanted to stick with the classic gradient design but decided to add her own touch to the look with the half-moon shape at the bottom of each nail. "This is one of the easiest manis to re-create. The most important step to create this look is having a good, thin brush to create the half-moon shape," she tells Allure. Investing in "a good cleanup brush and nail polish remover to clean up any mistakes is a must," she adds.
If you don't already own neutrals or are having trouble creating your own color scheme, look to a curated set like Nails Inc.'s Keep It Tonal Quad, which comes with four coordinating neutrals designed for manicures just like this.
A Turkey Day manicure idea for all you minimalists out there: Draw some squiggles on the sides of your nails against a nude background. It achieves the minimalist aesthetic with just a dash of humor. The key to achieving these thin, curvy lines is to use "a super-fine detail brush and [to have] a lot of patience," says nail art connoisseur Jessica Bilson. "Keeping your hand steady is most important."
We hope your Thanksgiving doesn't involve pouring over geometry homework, but if it does, we think painting this geometric design on your nails is the best way to go. As Carolina Herrera demonstrates above, it can be as simple as drawing some dots and painting the nails burnt orange. "I love how this nail art is simple yet elegant," Herrera tells Allure. "It's the perfect manicure for Thanksgiving."
This gorgeous abstract design by editorial manicurist and nail artist Mimi D can be re-created at home. Start with one or two coats of a "full-coverage nude shade," wait for it to dry, then paint "two large sections of the nail" with some metallic polish. Make sure to vary the angles of the metallic sections on each nail. Once those sections are all dry, use a striper brush to draw three to four black lines at different angles.
Bring in the heat this Thanksgiving with warm, chic swirls. For this design, Emily Zheng tells Allure she drew inspiration from French manicures and "added a twist to the classic design." According to Zheng, you can easily create this look at home with the brush of your nail polish, but how you use it is key to getting the design down. "I would recommend using the side of the brush so you have more control over where you are painting," she says. "Then you can use a smaller, more detailed nail art brush to clean up the edges to make them look more precise."
A few peekaboo, angled corners are perfect for nail art novices. “It's a simple but powerful design,” says manicurist and founder of JINsoon, Jin Soon Choi. The sharp, black corners can be done atop any color, but Choi likes this moody blue (the shade Sea Clay from her eponymous nail line), which could be a nice change from all the browns and oranges of the season. An opaque nude or an earthy camel hue would also make great base colors for this design. Finish with a glossy topcoat for extra polish.
"There are a lot of rich, warm greens in the fall," says celebrity nail artist Holly Falcone. Falcone took inspiration from shimmery beetle wings for this autumnal, perfect-for-Thanksgiving-dinner manicure that can be done with an olive green or even an orange-red. Just make sure it has that metallic, shimmery beetle-wing finish to up the glamour.
The rich color is a great statement on its own, but Falcone also likes it jazzed up with some bling: “Using nail glue, apply iridescent crystals that cast red tones,” she says.
Take some direction from Brionne, the nail artist behind the look above, by adding some accents in warm and bright colors to a nude-heavy manicure. If you look closely, the abstract dots of color at the tips also look like bunches of leaves piled next to each other, making them the perfect accents for a Thanksgiving-themed manicure.
If nail art isn't your thing (or maybe you're a first-time dinner guest who wants to keep things classic), a well-applied single shade of mauve is perfect to kick off the holiday season. The muted JINSoon Fire Clay is almost a neutral because of its dusty tone. "A well-done application is very important here," says Choi. "Especially the cuticle area, which needs to be well-finished."
A perfect balance of moody, modern, and a little cheeky, this style is the French manicure's cool, witchy, younger sister. "It's a spin on the classic moon manicure using a cool color combo for an understated fall nail look," says Choi. "Mark dots on both sides where the line starts and finishes, and one more dot in the middle, a bit below the two dots, then connect them in a rounded fashion and fill in the rest with a nail art brush."
Even fans of nudes and neutrals can spice things up around the holidays. "Tiny sparkles are fun and add just a touch of personality to your nails," says manicurist and LeChat Nails educator Hemi Park. We love this blink-and-you'll-miss-it sparkly decal placed at the base of each nail. "If you’re not into the bumpy texture of crystals, try them out with glitter speckles or chunks of shaped glitters over your favorite nude manicure," says Park.
'Tis the season for earth tones (enjoy the moment because red-and-green holiday nails will be here before you know it). "A modern abstract painting on your nails using this trio creates a balanced, calming, contemporary look," says Choi. Start with a sage green base and create these organic shapes by drawing swirls of complementary colors. Because the swirls are imperfect, you don't need a fine-tip nail art brush — just use the regular brush that comes with your polish.
While not actually looking a ton like its namesake, tortoiseshell is a great neutral for nails (and cats and sunglasses). We love this glossy look with a simple, subtle, cinnamon stripe. "In order to get the look of tortoiseshell, you need a sheer amber color, a deep chocolate, and a black," says celebrity nail artist Elle. “Start with a layer of the sheer amber and then use your chocolate shade and black shade to create the dimension of the tortoiseshell. Continue layering the amber color to darken it." Then finish with a delicate crescent-shaped red line. (But if you finish the tortoiseshell pattern and don't want to fly too close to the sun with more nail art, we hear you.)
Picture yourself in a cornfield. Picture yourself made of straw and scaring crows away. Feeling the autumnal fantasy? Try these stitched scarecrow-style patches on your tips. Using a small detail brush and multiple polish colors, Claire Lapointe traded the "classic" fine line of the French manicure for patches. Even if dressing up on Turkey Day isn't really your thing, at least your nails will be dressed in their best.
“My inspiration [for this nail art] is the silhouette of women's dresses that include cutout curves,” nail artist Tea Chau tells Allure about this design. “ I went with brown to create a bold and sexy look.” To try your hand at this one, Chau likes to start by painting "the larger color block[s] first" and then outlining the big color blocks. She makes the outlines with detail brushes from the Makartt Three Piece Nail Art Set.
Nail artist Britney TOKYO is looking to punky biker jackets for inspiration this Thanksgiving. We love that these claws have three layers of toughness — the glossy black, the spiky decals, and the knife-sharp angled tips. (You can do all three or mix and match.) If spike decals feel like a safety hazard, look for flatter silver studs or rounded silver beads for the same effect. And if family members at the table start to ask probing questions about your personal life, you can just flash them your edgy Thanksgiving manicure.
Nail artist and Essie's global lead educator Rita Remark suggests adding a high-shine crystal or stud to your Thanksgiving manicure for a simple but eye-catching look. Apply the jewel over a clean neutral for maximum effect. If you're short on bling (aren't we all?) you can fake it with a dot of sparkling polish.
If we had Thanksgiving on the moon, these would be our tips of choice. (They just so happen to look great here on Earth, too.) "French manicures are back in a big way," says Remark. "And this is a French manicure with a twist." She suggests trying the look with a dark or metallic tip. Either would make for a stylish Thanksgiving manicure, but we love the way this shiny chrome brings the '90s classic into the future.
Think of the brightest red you can imagine and then go one shade brighter. Scratch that — two shades brighter. A red manicure looks classic on short nails and Remark says it would be a great cheeky color for Thanksgiving. "Bright red is bold and never out of fashion," she says.
Move mountains this Thanksgiving (well, sort of) with these sepia-color mountains on the tips. Tessa Lyn says she used the edges of her nail polish brushes "to layer the shades from lightest to darkest" in order to create these cascading mountains. Grab all your warm-toned nail colors and get to painting.
Instagrammer Amy Murillo stayed in the same color family but gave each nail a different Thanksgiving design for an easy DIY idea that looks awesome on shorter nails. Solid mustard yellow and chocolatey brown flank an orange-and-white plaid nail and a glittering gold one, creating a manicure that looks professional but can be done the night before your in-laws arrive.
Floral-themed nail art is definitely in this season, even though flowers aren't in full bloom this time of the year. "Fall color palettes are always incredibly inspirational to me, so I took these warm and cozy colors and applied them to my overall obsession with florals," says Amy Tan, the nail artist behind this look. The flowers are quite small and painted only at the tips, so Tan advises, “Place both hands on a stable surface and use your pinky to stabilize your hand, which minimizes shakiness."
Like many detailed nail designs, she also had detail brushes handy, specifically Orly's Short and Long Detailer.
Miss Pop created this gorgeous French manicure for an Oscar de la Renta show, but the high-fashion look is made with perfect Thanksgiving colors. Each model was given a skin-tone-flattering base shade, ranging from beige to dark brown, that was topped off with Zoya Nail Polish in Sawyer, a soft coral, at the tips and dots at the cuticles. Simple and seasonally chic.
The Grooming Table With this checkered set, perhaps you can match your mother's Thanksgiving tablecloth (or not). Aisté, the nail artist behind this design, was inspired by the pattern on a Staud dress. She originally created this look with a pastel color story for summer but decided to give it another go-round for fall. "Since color-block nail designs are still trending, I just wanted to create something on-trend that would look simple, classy, and this time have a fall vibe," she explains.