Sure, it’s annoying when someone tells you to smile — but, regardless of your mood, it’s totally possible to have your nails smile for you (and that’s never annoying). Slapping a smiley face or two onto your fingertips is the latest manicure trend taking over the internet, guaranteed to instill at least a little happiness into your life. The best part? They’re super easy to customize.
From subtle to sparkly, smiley face nail art can be whatever you want it to be. Brittney Boyce, celebrity nail artist and founder of NAILS OF LA, says you can wear the design in a more minimalist fashion with a single face in the middle of a neutral nail, or you can pair the smiley with different trends like checkerboard print or chrome polish. “You can even use a happy face to create a ‘wallpaper’ pattern where you repeat it once or twice on the nail using a metallic color,” she tells Bustle. “What’s great is that it looks great on long and short nails and can be incorporated into a lot of different designs.”
The smiley face design, according to Boyce, is one of multiple ’90s-inspired prints (think aliens and peace signs) trending in the manicure world. If you want to try the nostalgic look for yourself, here are 12 swoon-worthy examples of the smiley face nail art trend that are equal parts joyful and chic.