Before you book your festive manicure, we've got a new nail trend to get you up to speed with: enter tip-and-mix nails (basically French tips with a mixed-and-matched twist).

If you often find yourself feeling too spoiled for choice at the nail salon, the tip-and-mix trend enables you to blend different trends to create an ultra-elegant look that's totally unique to you.

The basic idea is that you choose one nail colour and apply it differently to each nail: on some nails you only apply the tips, and the rest you apply a full coat.

Imran Shelton, a Nail Expert at Max Factor, is basically a pioneer of nail trends (trust us: it's too easy to get carried away scrolling her feed), so it's no surprise that she's all over the tip-and-mix nails trend.

Here she's chosen a cool sage colour to work with, painting a full coat on the nails on her little finger and index finger, while opting for just the tips on her thumb, ring finger and middle finger. Want to test it out before heading to the salon? Try it with Essie's Maximillian Strasse-Her Nail Polish in ‘Sage’.

As you can see, the design works perfectly with a white shirt and gold ring – perfect for back-to-office chic. If you want to try something a little more vivid, Imran also demonstrates the look in reverse, this time using a bold shade of royal blue. If you want to replicate a similarly striking shade at home, try Essie's Nail Polish in ‘Aruba Blue’.

Imran then mixes up the nail trend by incorporating nail art into the overall look. In this example, she uses a creamy coffee colour to create a base, with a heart design in the centre of the nail on her ring finger. Just delightful, really. Try Barry M's Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Polish in ‘Iced Latte’ to really get a feel for the shade.

If you prefer not to mix-and-match on the same hand, Instagram user @nailalamode_sunny compromises by having tipped nails on one hand, and block colours on the other. She does, however, stick to the core of the trend, which is to use the same colour throughout to maintain a consistent look. We recommend trying Nails Inc's Caught In The Nude nail polish in the shade ‘Mykonos Beach’.

Ready to get creative? Swap your tips for vertical crescents – as you can tell from @unhas_cuidadas_fibrou, this looks particularly good on a square nail shape. If you like this almost-black shade of indigo, try Boots Polished Nail Polish in ‘015’.

I guess you could say this trend is tipped for success?