Award-winning nail tech Kirsty Meakin gives us the lowdown on the nail trends set to take 2020 by storm, including ruffles, frills and bold colour clashes

Exaggerated frills, wild ruffles, bold colour clashes and super-sheer pastels are just some of the trends set to take the nail world by storm next year. Award-winning nail tech and YouTuber Kirsty Meakin tells us why these designs are going to be big in 2020 and how you can translate them into wearable looks for clients.

What will be the top nail art trends for 2020?

“Next year, the trends will be ruffles, frills and fringing, so for techs it’s about working these shapes and movements into wearable nail designs. In terms of hues, super-sheer pastels are set to be big and a colour combination that will be huge is hot pink and khaki. I never would have thought that mix would work but it was on the London Fashion Week SS20 catwalks and it looked phenomenal.”

How can techs translate these trends into wearable looks for clients?

“If you look at the frills that were on the catwalks, they were very exaggerated and large. When working these trends into a wearable nail design for salon clients you have to pay attention to the shades, movements and highlights on the garments, and then start from there. “For example, when I look at ruffles I think the way they hang emulates a marble effect, because of the wavy-style movement, so I would take that idea and work it into a full set. However, I do find it easier to look at a flat image of a catwalk look rather than a video when searching for inspiration.”

Kirsty Meakin

Which trends do you think will fall out of favour?

“I feel like the holographic chrome nails are dying a death and glass nails will filter out towards the end of 2020. When scrolling through Instagram, I see these nail looks all the time and I’m like, ‘same, same, same, same’ – these designs have been overdone.

“To stand out in this industry, you have to create designs that are a little different. You need to pay attention to how fashion is moving forward and go from there. However, I do think French ombré will stick around because it’s still really popular.”

Where do you get your inspiration from?

“The things that inspire me are fabrics, cultures and objects that people wouldn’t automatically think of getting inspiration from, like an item at an art exhibition or a piece of furniture in my house.

For example, I’ve been inspired by a pattern on my door and the crystalware in my lights before.

“I always think about how I can take the texture or design from something and work it on a mini scale because the nails we do these days are like tiny masterpieces. My best nail art looks come to me in bed just before I’m about to fall asleep.”

Kirsty Meakin is an award-winning nail tech, YouTuber and 2019 Professional Beauty North speaker. She has 15.3K YouTube subscribers and 131K Instagram followers.