Nail Art Tutorial: Reindeer

After creating a Santa's Elves Nail Art, I thought of paying tribute to other "magical creatures" that help Santa Claus deliver all those wonderful presents during Christmas. I decided to come up with a reindeer nail art design!

This is a freehand Christmas nail art design that features reindeer!


Reindeer Nail Art Design by Simply Rins

I wanted to just create an accent nail at first. I thought of just painting Rudolph (the red-nosed reindeer) and paint some abstract design on the other nails. Not a bad idea, actually. But as I was polishing my nails, I think I went crazy because I decided to paint reindeer on all my nails!

Lesson learned: As I was typing the word "reindeer" with an s, the crooked red line keeps appearing underneath the word. So I looked up the plural of reindeer and learned that it is its singular and plural form!

All reindeer were painted using acrylic paint and a detailing nail art brush.



I used Orly Pure Porcelain in 2 coats as base color. White would have been my usual choice but I figured the slight pinkish shade of Pure Porcelain would give this reindeer nail art a more dainty feel. I think it did a good job.



We know that Santa Claus has 8 flying reindeer that pulls his sleigh on Christmas eve. They are named Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder and Blitzen. These reindeer were popularized by a poem entitled "A Visit from St. Nicholas" or more popularly known as "Twas the Night Before Christmas". It was written by Clement Clarke Moore in 1822.

Take a look at the 8 reindeer I painted:


I just have to take a group shot!

By 1939, another reindeer was introduced to us by Robert L. May -- Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer! He was a copywriter working for Montgomery Ward department stores. The company asked him to create a new Christmas story that they could present to their shoppers as giveaways. Two years after, Robert's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, came up with the "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" song. Since then, Rudolph has become the most famous reindeer of Santa Claus that guides the other 8 reindeer with his shiny red nose.

I decided to paint Rudolph on my left thumbnail.


Rudolph and his date!

After painting Santa's 9 magical reindeer, I had a little problem of what to paint on my right thumbnail. I was seriously thinking of Santa Claus. But I still didn't want to paint him til December comes. So after tweaking a few more ideas, I decided to give Rudolph a date by drawing a female reindeer!

For the girl reindeer, I added a little red ribbon on her head.

This Christmas nail design has become one of my personal favorites. It brings a smile to my face whenever I look at them. Do you experience that sometimes on your nail designs? And so when I visited Don this week, I asked him to take some photos of my reindeer nail art. He is a brilliant photographer!


Photo in natural light, courtesy of Don


Photo in natural light, courtesy of Don

This is fairly an easy design to recreate. You may want to consider trying this design even if you are a nail art beginner. The shapes and lines that makes the reindeer are simple, even with your non-dominant hand.

Here's a nail art tutorial I prepared:



Thank you for watching! If you enjoyed the tutorial, please subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Did you find this Christmas nail design magical?


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