Nail Art Made Easy: How to Do Nail Art, Even If You’re Not an Artist

You don’t have to be the next Van Gogh to create nail art your clients will love. Six techs give you step-by-step instructions for creating ultra-simple nail art - using just polish, a simple brush, and paint.

SEEING SPOTS

Apply base color. Cure for two minutes.

Choose a color and place dots around the nail.

Use two different colors and place more dots around the nail.

Let cure three minutes and apply top coat.

FLAMING HOT

Polish the whole nail yellow. With a small liner brush, paint orange sections on the nail at an angle.

Use a rust-colored paint to add more sections.

Use gold paint to add more sections.

Using a stripping brush, outline each segment. Paint black lines in yellow areas to create more segments. Apply top coat. You can use any color combination your client likes.

FLORAL FANTASY

Polish the nail with bright fuchsia. Use light lavender polish to make three flower petals-start with the center petal then add others.

Use dark fuchsia polish to make the center of flower.

Add rhinestones to line the center of the flower Seal.

BRUSH STROKES

Paint all 10 nails with one coat of a color of your choice.

Now, you will work one nail at a time so the polish stays wet. Apply second coat of first color three-fourths of the way down. Then apply the second color on the free edge overlapping the wet first color. Using a striper brush, lightly stroke toward the cuticle, blending the second color into the first. If the polish dries too quickly, dip your brush into polish remover and continue stroking.

You can dip the brush into the first color and drag toward the free edge if you feel you over-blended. Finish with your favorite top coat when all 10 nails are complete.

PINK CAMOUFLAGE

Polish nails with two coats of a pale pink. Let dry.

Using the brush from the polish, drag a light gray randomly on entire nail.

Drag a bubble-gum pink over the nail and overlap the gray in places.

Drag a hot pink over the nail and overlap the other colors. Apply top coat.

BREAST CANCER AWARENESS

Polish the entire nail with Cloud White nail lacquer.

Using Baby Fresh Pink nail striper, make a bold “X” to start the ribbon.

To make the top of the ribbon, make a horizontal line across the top of the X from edge to edge. Round out the top and fill in, leaving a small triangle in the center.

Outline the ribbon in a basic white with a nail striper. Then add pink glitter.

Let dry and apply top coat.

WEBBED FRENCH TIP

Polish the entire nail with black lacquer. Let dry. With Cloud White nail lacquer, paint the bottom corner of the nail.

Using a pumpkin orange nail striper, place stripe in the center of the white. Using a black striper, outline the orange stripe on each side.

Using a basic black striper, brush lines from the top corner and fan outward across the white and orange to the edge of the black nail.

Using a black striper, swoop from one line to the next to form the web. Let dry and apply top coat.

ABSTRACT ART

Polish nail with a raspberry-colored polish.

Use a deep red polish to overlap a third of the raspberry polish. Notice the curved edge.

While the deep red polish is still wet, add two long strokes of turquoise-colored polish.

While the turquoise polish is still wet, add two small strokes of raspberry polish. Seal

FLOWER POWER

Use a small round brush. Dip one side of the brush in yellow paint, then, carefully dip the other side of the brush in yellow paint (double load). Paint petals of a flower. The petals don’t have to be perfect. The flower looks more realistic if the petals are not all uniform. Try to paint five to seven petals in a circle.

Double load your brush again and paint and four petals in a half circle to create a side view of a flower.

With a small liner brush, paint a green stem.

Double load the round brush with two colors of green paint and several leaves. Again, the leaves don’t have to be perfect. Just dab them on and leave them alone. Apply a top coat.

EXTRA OLIVES, PLEASE

Polish nails using two coats of a bright blue. Let dry. Using a fine paint brush, paint a thin black diagonal line on the big toe.

Paint two ovals in green on the black line. Let dry.

Place one red dot on opposite sides of the olives.

(Optional) Cover red dots with red gems. Apply top coat.

MARBLEIZING

Paint all 10 nails with one coat of the desired color.

Now, you will work one nail at a time so the polish stays wet. With all colors of polish open and ready to use, paint on a second coat, lightly drop small dots of a second color and then a third color. Work fast, so the polish doesn’t set.

Drag a marbleizing tool or, if you don’t have one, use a small pointed object like a fine-point pen. Drag through all colors in an even circle. Finish with your favorite top coat.