Best Press-Ons for Short Nails

Written by me, Katie Masters, never AI

I have gotten plenty of these types of questions around my press-on line:

“What press-ons are good for my short nails?”

 “Will these nails fit my tiny nail beds?”

"How do I know if these press-ons will fit me?"

 

Back in 2020 I was hand painting all of my press ons, but I was only able to paint them on top of longer nail extension tips, so I definitely got a lot of requests for shorter nail lengths. And after all of that press-on nail experience, I wanted to give you a definitive guide on best press on nails for short nails and what types of press-on nails to buy based on your nail type.

Pictured: My hand painted press ons on top of extension tips in 2020.

 And if you are new here, my name is Katie Masters. I am a professional nail tech of over 10 years and I have a professional gel line as well as a press-on nail line. I also am responsible for Michelle Pfeiffer and Nicole Kidman's press-on nails in the AppleTV show, Margo's Got Money Troubles. So basically you can trust that I have seen plenty of nails in my day and I want to guide you in the right direction to make your press on nail journey perfect.

Pictured: Me! Doing nails on a client!

Short Nails VS. Small Nail Beds

First I want to go over the difference between short nails, and small nail beds because I think a lot of people get those two confused and that's more important than you think.

Short NAILS:  Short nails basically means your free edge is cut short.  The nail’s “free edge” is where the nail is growing out past your nail bed. It’s the part that you are able to trim! So when you have minimal free edge, your nails are short. And of course vice versa, if your free edge is long, your nails are long!

Pictured: My nails when they have a long free edge. Aka when I have long nails.

Pictured: My nails when they have a short free edge. Aka when I have short nails.

Small/short nail BEDS: This is not about your free edge at all. This is solely about your nail plate. This is the area spanning from your cuticle to where your free edge starts. If you cut your free edge off and your skin underneath shows from the top view, you have small nail beds! I personally have small nail beds so when I cut my nails too short I always feel like my nails look like little kid nails.

Pictured: My short natural nails.

Long nail beds: Now LONG nail beds is basically if you cut your free edge totally short and you paint your nails, your nails STILL look long! You personally might not think they look long, but you might get compliments like “wow your nails are so long I’m jealous”. You also know you have long nail beds when you cut them as short as they possibly go and you still can’t play guitar because your fingers aren’t able to fully press the strings without your nail bed getting in the way. Sorry, I know that’s niche but that’s just the only way I could describe it (and have witnessed). And if you have long nail beds, just know, that everyone with short nail beds are jealous of you.

Pictured: My client's long nail beds, but short nails.

Pictured: A comparison between both long nail beds and short nail beds,  both with the same length of free edge.

Okay now do you sort of understand what type of nails you have? 

So here are my professional recommendations for short press-ons based on your nail type:

 Most press ons are going to have a “short” nail option. But for a lot of people the “short” nails might be longer than the length that they actually want. The reason behind this is, since press-ons are mass produced, we want to make sure and have good enough length and coverage for people with all types of nail beds. And the best part about press ons is they are customizable! You can file them and adjust them however you want. So if they are too long for you, just cut them!

For small nail beds/short nails: Good news is, there are a LOT of options for you! Most press on nails will give you a little bit of length and full coverage, and if you want to customize that length to be even shorter I recommend solid color designs or designs that cover the full nail (as opposed to a french tip for example). Good examples of these are the Nail Thoughts Poppy Red Short Oval Press-Ons, and my best selling Tortoiseshell Short Oval Press-Ons. Both of those shorter designs can be customized to your shape liking.  The reason why these types of designs work best is because the design/ color won’t get ruined by shortening them and customizing them 

Pictured: Nail Thoughts Short Oval Tortoiseshell Press-On Nails

Pictured: Nail Thoughts Short Oval Poppy Red Press-On Nails

But hey, if you want that little bit of extra length, then any of my press-on nails are a good fit for you!

Pictured: Nail Thoughts Short Oval Floral French Press-On Nails

 Most shapes will work for you as well. Square press-ons will give you the shortest length, but you can also customize oval or almond nails as well. If you do feel like you have very tiny nail beds, each Nail Thoughts Press-On nail kit comes with 30 nails in many different sizes (including very small ones) to hopefully give you great options.

Also if you see a color you like but they are in a very long nail that you might not be able to live with, like I said, you can cut and customize! I’m sure you’ve noticed a lot of brands seem to have very long press on options that you might think are too long, but my theory is that  it's  secretly just a safety measure to make sure that no matter how you customize the nail, none of your nail bed or free edge will be peaking out of the side no matter which way you customize and cut.

Pictured: Nail Thoughts Satin Cherry Almond Medium Press-On Nails being customized and reshaped to square nails.

 Take it from Byrdie writer Isabelle Buneo in her article “The Definitive Guide to Short Press-Ons, From a Lesbian Beauty Editor”

“I, a self-proclaimed femme lesbian beauty editor, am sitting in my room surrounded by boxes and boxes of press-on nails, all of which I’ve hand-tested (pun intended) against my very gay day-to-day.”

She tested both my Poppy Red Short Oval Press-On Nails  and my best selling Tortoiseshell Short Oval Press-On Nails and said:

“ I love Nail Thoughts’ solid colors because they’re ultra glossy and look like real gel, which can be hard to find, but they also have lots of fun patterns and textures. The Tortoiseshell style is another favorite of mine.”

Pictured: Byrdie blog/ review on the Nail Thoughts Poppy Red Press-on nails for short nails

For long nail beds/long nails: The types of press ons you are going to go for are the “long” or “medium” lengths. Those lengths are your safest bets because of the full coverage aspect of them. If you got a “short” press-on nail length, you might risk your long nail bed peaking out underneath the press on.

But, if you still wanted to try a short press on nail, the shapes I recommend for you are square, and round/oval. Any shape that’s not tapered at the free edge. If you get an almond nail or something more tapered, the tapered part of the tip will be where your nail bed will be exposed. Which will basically ruin the illusion of those being your real nails.

 The square and round press on tips' sides are very straight (because they are not tapered) so those are safe bets for you and your nail coverage!

Now that you have become a press-on for short nails master, it's time to move on to understanding how to make your press-on nails LAST. Here is my blog post on just that!

And here is a FREE 8 page Press-On Survival Guide that I wrote to help you master everything about press on application and common mistakes you might be making!