Here’s How You Can Re-Create Taylor Swift’s Dreamy Midnight Mani at Home

Now that I’ve had time to fully digest Taylor Swift’s latest album, Midnights,I’m taking the time to obsess over everything pertaining to the theme of the album, including Swift’s epic midnight manicure. Swift posted a shot of her dreamy, star-filled nails on her Instagram story and, of course, fans (including myself) immediately started looking for ways to do it themselves at home. It’s moody and mysterious yet still festive—the perfect winter mani if you ask me. I always like to go to the experts for any kind of hair, skin, or nail advice, so this time I enlisted the help of celebrity nail artist Brittney Boyce.

According to Boyce, it’s incredibly easy to DIY at home. You really only need two products, but if you’re like me and want to spice it up a little, keep reading for a few of Boyce’s tips and product suggestions to give it a go.

For any starry, midnight-themed mani, Boyce suggests starting with a dark base. You can pick a sapphire blue, deep silver, or even just straight black. “You can also play around with the base color—instead you could even do a deep plum,” she says.

Here’s a pro tip: Always let your polish completely dry before moving on to the next step. It seems like a no-brainer, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to do my own mani only to realize I did not let it dry long enough. If you’re used to getting gel manicures, I’m sure you can relate. A few of Boyce’s favorite polishes for a midnight mani base are below.

After you fully let your nail color dry, you can top with star decals. Boyce says, “With toppers, if you want to apply the stars in a particular pattern, you can use a dotting nail tool to move them around before it dries.” Boyce also says if you’re not feeling a fully polished nail, a midnight-themed mani works just as well without it. “It can look pretty cool with the toppers just as a French tip rather than all over the entire nail too.”

Or if you’re too lazy to stick on individual decals, you can opt for a star-filled topcoat, and it will look equally as good.

The final key element to any good midnight manicure is, of course, glitter. You don’t have to include glitter and can just stick with the star decals, but I think glitter really elevates just about anything, so it’s perfect to add here. It’s the final touch that gives it a starry-night type of feel, and you can go for a variety of sizes. Swift opted for a slightly chunkier glitter so it would stand out, but you can easily use a super-fine glitter to almost give it a holographic sheen. With any base coat, you could also do a coat of glitter over it and then top it with your decals.