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If you have chubby fingers you might have tried numerous ways to make them look thinner. From wearing large pieces of jewelry to hiding your hands you’re probably exhausted from not finding a tip that truly works, but what if I told you the shape of your nails can make a world of difference in the appearance of your fingers? Well then read on to find out about the best nail shapes for chubby fingers.
The best nail shapes for chubby fingers are more circular shapes such as the oval, round, almond, and wide-based shapes like coffin shape. Circular shapes are better for chubby fingers because they help to elongate the nails with the wide base and slender tips. It’s best to use these shapes along with nude and natural nail colors for slender-looking fingers.
Continue reading to find out the different possible reasons that your hands are chubby as well as receive tips and tricks to help make them slender. I’ll also talk about the different nail shapes that you can use to make your fingers appear thinner and guide you on how to achieve these shapes using the best types of nail files. Lastly, I will provide you with the best nail techniques for thinner fingers and give you tips on how to take care of your nails and fingers.
Table of Contents
Reasons Your Fingers Are Chubby
You Are What You Eat
Many don’t realize how much the kinds of food we eat impact our bodies. In fact, some doctors even recommend only eating according to our blood type because some foods can react with our bodies negatively. There may be a chance that something you include in your diet affects you in sometimes subtle ways.
Do you know how for some people eating before bed leaves their face puffy in the morning? It can be like that for your limbs as well.
Topical Issues
It may be less about what you put into your body and more about what you put on it. Yes, there are times when our bodies have unfavorable reactions to things and often puff up in response to it. But you wouldn’t realize these items are interfering with your body if it’s something you use every day.
There was a time when I couldn’t figure out why my hands would always swell and itch at the beginning of the week. It was quite confusing as I didn’t think I did anything out of the ordinary to have my hands react this way. But after paying keen attention I finally realized that there was something I did every weekend that might be affecting me: I did laundry.
That’s right, something in my detergent didn’t react well with my skin and so whenever they came in contact it left my hands swollen.
This tip is especially for you if you realize that your hands don’t always look chubby. If this is the case, make sure to monitor for a few days the things that you come into contact with. If all else fails, your best bet is to pay a visit to your doctor.
It’s In The Genes
The major reason you may have chubby fingers is that it runs in the family. If you notice that a lot of people in your family have chubby fingers, then it may be your genetics. Our genetics determine a great deal of how our bodies are shaped and formed which is why most times we end up looking like our parents.
There isn’t much you can do if your genes dictate that these are the way your hands are, except for loving your hands the way they are. If you are set on doing something about your fingers though, I have listed a few tips to help you get rid of chubby fingers.
How To Get Rid Of Chubby Fingers
While you probably won’t wake up the next day with ultra-thin fingers, there are some things you can do to help with reducing chubbiness. Take a look at these tips below.
Switching Up Your Diet
Remember how we spoke about the types of food we eat that have an impact on our bodies? It will then follow that in order to help reduce the chubbiness, you can take greater care in monitoring the foods that you eat. If your diet is high in sodium it may be water retention that is causing your finger to appear chubby.
Water retention happens when there is a lot of sodium in our bodies, so our bodies hold on to water in order to handle this influx, causing the places where water is retained to appear a little bit swollen.
So, try reducing your salt intake for a few weeks and increase the amount of water you’re drinking daily to see whether this is the reason you have chubby fingers. If not, you can experiment by not eating certain foods for some days and seeing how your body reacts to them.
Increased Exercise
Honestly, exercise is great for whether or not you’re trying to lose weight so if you didn’t have it in your weekly routine before, now is a great time. While the jury is still out on whether spot reduction is a thing, you can help to slim your fingers by doing a lot of finger-focused exercises.
You can try doing grip exercises and using resistance bands to increase muscles in your fingers. Increased muscles help to burn fat which may give you slimmer fingers.
Changing Up Your Nail Shape
That’s right, something as simple as changing your nail shape can help you to have thinner-looking fingers. If you know anything about perception, you understand that there are shapes that change the way that we view items depending on where we place them.
This is no less true for the shape of our nails. Ironically, it’s the rounder shapes that help your fingers to have a thinner look. I’ll take you through a step-by-step guide on how to achieve these nail shapes to give yourself thinner-looking fingers.
Best Nail Files For Your Fingers
Whether you’re shaping your natural nails or have added synthetic nails, you will need to have a nail file on hand to achieve any of these looks. You need to ensure your nail file has the perfect grit before you attempt your desired shape. Before you start shaping your nails, take a look at the best nail files you can use for your fingers.
Diamancel Flexible Nail File
This nail file is perfect for you if you have damaged fingernails. This file is made with real diamonds and comes with a fiberglass edge so that you can easily maneuver around those nails to achieve your interesting shapes. It’s gentle on your nails so if they’re damaged or brittle you can invest in one of these.
ASP Zebra Angle Board Nail File
If you want comfort without the price tag, this nail file is best for you. In addition to being affordable, these nail files are durable, so you won’t have to think about buying another for a while.
Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Coarse Nail Board
This is best if you’ve decided to go for an acrylic look. It’s tough on nails so I wouldn’t recommend using these on your natural fingernails. When you or your nail tech uses acrylic however it will give you the sharpest and cleanest nail shapes for your fingers.
Revlon Compact Emermanyl Nail File
If you’re like me and don’t think you need to get nail files specific for acrylic and then get another that’s specific for your own nails, then this nail file is best for you. It handles both well and is designed with an easy-grip pattern to help you gauge your strength and technique on each nail.
Best Nail Shapes for Chubby Fingers
The best nail shapes for chubby fingers are oval, round, almond, and coffin-shaped nails. Let’s take a look at how to get these done so that you can be on your way to having thinner nails. If you’re a novice at shaping nails, you can use nail shaping stickers to guide you when attempting these shapes.
Another pro tip here is to make sure your nails are longer than the length you want them to be when they are done being filed. Filing reduces the length of your nails so ensure to keep this in mind when thinking about the nail shape you want.
How To Do Oval Shape Nails
Okay with a forward motion from base to tip file the sides of your nails. You don’t want to file back and forth because you place yourself at risk of either damaging your cuticles with your nail file or splitting your nails with the varied movements. Ensure to angle your nail file slightly in the direction of your nails so that your nails will come inward to form the base of the oval.
Once you have achieved your nail shape for the base, you will move on to the tips. This is where it gets a bit tricky because you may end up with round nails if you’re not careful. At the edges of the tips of your nails on either side, you are going to angle your nail file a bit more towards your nail when filling in the same base-to-tip motion.
You don’t want sharp angles so you will have to buffer where the base of your oval nails meets the tip while shaping the top of the ovals.
Once you’ve completed this on either side, go over your nails again with a buffer to smoothen the transitions. Always have the shape you want in mind so you can know what to alter to achieve the look.
How To Do Round Nails
Your round-shaped nails will have very similar steps to your oval-shaped ones. However, you won’t be doing the initial step which was the slight angle you had to hold your file to achieve the base of the oval.
Instead, you’ll go straight to the second step which is to place your file at about a 45-degree angle to your nails and file in a forward motion from base to tip as you approach the tip, steadily decreasing the angle, so that you can shape the curve your nails need for the round nails. Do this on both sides of each nail. Buffer the tip of the nails in order to get rid of any sharp lines.
A round shape gives a slender look to your fingers because the wide base of the nail shape blends with the width of your fingers. When the nail narrows at the top of your round nails it gives the perception that your fingers are longer and thinner as the nails look like an extension of your fingers.
How To Do Almond Nails
As almond shapes may be a bit trickier, it is best to make a small curved mark in the middle of your nails before filing. More accurately that mark should be where you would like the tip of your almond shape to be. You are going to file toward that mark.
As mentioned before, ensure to file from base to tip. Do this on both sides of each nail. Put more pressure on the file as you approach the tip of the nail as you want the base of your nails to be wider so that the shape elongates your nails into the narrow tip of the almond shape. Smooth out harsh edges with your buffer to get a smooth continuous look.
If you find that your almond shape is too narrow, you can file the tip of your nails down so that you can correct the width of the tip. Bear in mind though, that your almond-shaped nails will be shorter if you choose to correct them this way.
How To Do Coffin-Shaped Nails
This may be your biggest challenge yet. I recommend marking out the coffin edges on your nails with small dots of nail polish if you’re a beginner.
Thankfully the first step of the