A girl’s best accessories are freshly manicured nails and shaping is key! There are 6 main nail shapes you can have: round, oval, almond, stiletto, squoval and square.

If you prefer having short nails, then round nails are best for you – it’s easy to maintain and looks particularly elegant and classy. The easiest way to attain this shape would be to start off with your nails square, and then round off the edges following the natural curve of your finger.

If you have a wide nail bed or short fingers, then oval nails will allow your fingers to look slimmer and more feminine by making your fingers look longer. To achieve this shape, file around the sides at an angle in the shape of an egg.

Similar to the oval nail shape, almond shaped nails are best suited for those with short fingers. The nail should remain wide at the base, becoming slowly more slender along the sides, making the top of the nail slightly more pointed. The best way to achieve this would be to file the nails at an angle at either side of the centre point. This would mean that as you file down from the centre point, it would form a peak, which you would then have to smoothen out to avoid having sharp edges.

Stiletto shaped nails is less common as you would have to have very long nails to correctly achieve this look! The filing and shaping process is similar to that of almond nails as you have to find the centre point and start filing at a downward angle from each side, except the peak is very pointy unlike the peak attained from almond shaped nails. This nail shape is suited for all types of fingers but as it gives the appearance of your nails being long and slender, it works particularly well for those with shorter fingers. The only downside is that it may break more easily so it is better achieved with gel nails.

Squoval nails are an in-between nail shape: they’re neither oval nor square shaped. It is often known as the ‘soft square’ look. It is particularly easy to manage as the edges are slightly rounded. To achieve tis look, you would shape your nails in an oval shape and then file the top of the nail across in one direction to make it flatter thus squarer.

Square nails are the most popular nail shape! It is fashionably famous but also recommended as it is the strongest nail shape as it spans the entire width of the nail bed. It works particularly well with long and slim fingers. To get this shape, trim the nails and shape them by filing them straight across. You can then use the file to clean up the edges to get rid of any roughness.

Even if you don’t have nail polish on, shaping your nails makes all the difference! It makes your nails look far more elegant once the shape is clear so definitely try it out! Hopefully you now know what shape to ask for when you go in store to get your manicure done!