Shape Your Nails to Flatter Your Hands

March 18, 2021

For the past few months, I have been totally obsessed with having fun with my nails. I have tried several new colors, created nail art and purchased more nail polish than I’m willing to admit. But there’s one thing I realized matters more than the color of your nails: the shape.

Trendy shapes go in and out of style fairly quickly. I remember a few years ago, I wouldn’t be caught dead with nails that weren’t perfectly square (acrylic french manicure, of course–ew!) and now celebrities are donning the total opposite: sharp, claw-like fingernails painted in metallics or neons. But regardless of the current fad, shaping your nails to flatter your hands is an important step.

If you have short, stubby fingers, try to grow your nails out past the tips of your fingers and make sure to round out the edges of your nails. This will make your nails appear longer and slimmer than they are.

If you feel like you have long, skinny fingers, short, squared off nails are a safe bet. Instead of lengthening your fingers, you cut off the length with a blunt edge. This also creates a widening effect since the overall shape is now rectangular.

The longer your fingers and nailbeds, the shorter and squarer your can cut your nail and the shorter your fingers and nailbeds, the longer and narrower you should cut your nails to flatter your hands.

How do you shape your fingernails? Do you do it to flatter your hands or just follow the trend?