The ‘Dirty Martini’ Manicure Is The Cutest Festive Nail Art Trend

We love a manicure that sounds like a snack. Light blue nail polish is cuter positioned as “blueberry milk nails” and a “vanilla manicure” is more fun than a plain white one — it just is.

If you're “dry” on inspiration for your next manicure, let us introduce the biggest nail trend of the festive season: The dirty martini manicure.

What are dirty martini nails exactly? It's not just green polish, but a specific nail art design with a subtle Spanish olive accent that has slowly taken over mood boards, been worn by celebrities like Hailey Bieber, and seen in trendy nail salons from London to New York. To dig deeper into the trend — and learn exactly how ask for it — we went directly to the source, the artist who created the martini olive art months before it became trendy: Betina Goldstein.

Rather ironically, Goldstein birthed the ‘dirty martini manicure’ trend back in the fall while she was pregnant. “I created this manicure while I was still pregnant in October and I was looking forward to having a dirty martini,” she explains. “I also think dirty martinis are the perfect holiday cocktail.”

How did she craft a dirty martini manicure? Goldstein used gel polish, mixing an olive color, CND Shellac in Olive Grove, into the CND Shellac Base Coat to create the cloudy olive base. She topped the first layer with a CND Shellac Matte Top Coat to achieve a “frosted glass” effect and rimmed the tips in a micro French style using CND Shellac in Black Pool, going over it with silver chrome powder to create a glass-like edge.

You could stop there. But the olives are the pièce de résistance. Goldstein created 3D olives on her middle and index fingers using a thin brush tool and CND Brisa Glass Hard Sculpting Gel. She painted her olive shapes with a coat of CND Olive Grove (on its own, not diluted with a top coat) and used CND Shellac in Maple Leaves for the pimento accent. Finally, she sealed the olive in place using the CND No Wipe Top Coat.

Of course, if sculptural 3D olives are not in your wheelhouse (or your go-to nail artist's), 2D olives are an easy pivot. You can also get creative with your base colour. For example, Bieber's nail artist riffed on this concept using a baby-blue base instead of a translucent olive one.

Another option is using green glitter alongside a glossy olive design, which makes the look a little more festive. Goldstein recommends placing olive accents on the index or middle finger, or your thumb.

Or, consider a green chrome manicure with a pimento-like accent right in the centre of each nail.

However you slice it, the olive-martini manicure is hot right now. It's trendy without being too overtly festive. Plus, it's a good conversation starter at your holiday party. You already know what drink you're ordering.