Categories: Beauty

Cute Nail Art You Can Do At Home

Nails are a way to express your personality, compliment your look, or add some flair to your everyday life. Solid colors are great ways to keep it classic and professional, or if you need something quick. Adding nail art to your look can be cute and enhance your nails. But getting nail art done professionally can take a toll on the bank, especially if you’re going in for appointments to maintain them.

I’ve come up with a list of cute nail art you can do at home to save money and spice up your nails. For most of these styles, you are going to need striping tape which you can order off Amazon or at beauty stores near you. So grab some before sitting down to try these cute nail art designs!

Chevron

This classic nail art design is one of my favorites, because it’s fun and cute, but is also chic and classy. I love that you can mix and match the colors, or do as many colors as stripes that you decide to paint.

You can do this style in a few different ways. You can do it like how the image below has done it, which is laying down the striping tape before you paint your nails (after your base coat of course) where you desire the pattern to be, then painting your choice of color over that. Let it dry and peel off the striping tape. Seal with a topcoat.

Or you could put your base coat, then one of the colors you want over your whole nail, let that dry, lay down the striping tape in your desired pattern, and then paint the exposed nail a different color. Peel off the striping tape and put a top coat over it and you’re good to go.

If you don’t have striping tape, you can put a base coat, then your first color, then get a toothpick or a thin brush and do the chevron stripes freehand. With lots of practice, this could look like it was done with striping tape, but at first, it’ll probably have its own charm which you should own.

Argyle

If you are a fan of the argyle print, this nail art style is perfect for you. I personally think this one is hard, but only because of the amount of time it takes to get it done. There are many layers and steps to do this style nicely, and if you let each layer dry, it takes up a lot of time which I don’t have a lot of. You can also zoom through it if you let each color and layer dry only a little bit, but then it all might get messy and ruin the look overall.

One way to do this is to put a base coat on. Then paint your nail the color you want the background to be. After that, you can lay down striping tape to make diamonds throughout your nail, and only paint the diamonds your desired color, like the image shows below. Let that dry then peel off the striping tape. Lay down more striping tape to create the final layer which is the lines that go through the whole nail. Paint your desired color, let dry, and peel off the striping tape. Put a top coat on your nails and you’re finished.

Another way to do that is to do everything the same exact way, but do it freehand. It’s much more difficult, but it can be done with a thin brush or toothpicks.

I haven’t found an easier or more efficient way to do this style, so that’s all I’ve got for now! But, this is definitely some nail art you can do at home if you have the patience and desire to try something new and cute.

Fishnet

This hot and flashy nail art is super easy to do and you can look spicy real quick after getting it done. I love how simple this is to do, and all the color combos you can do with it (just like all the other styles though, but this one is one of my personal favorites.

One way to do this is to lay a base coat on your nail, put your base color over that, put striping tape in the fishnet pattern, put your second color over the striping tape on your nail, let dry, peel off the striping tape, put a topcoat over it, and you’re good to go!

Another way to do it is the same exact way but freehand. If you don’t have striping tape, you can definitely do this nail art freehand. Practice painting lines with whatever brush or toothpick you decide to use, and then move onto your nails.

This is a fun look for a night out, or if you just want something cute and fun on your nails. I love how easy this nail art is, but that it looks complicated and intricate. It’s definitely one of my favorites and I think it’s one you can do at home for sure.

See Also

Scales/Mermaid

This is a gorgeous pattern that is a bit more difficult than all the previous nail art styles because the lines are curved as opposed to straight. This one has to be done freehand unless you have specific tape or stencils that will give you this desired look.

This nail art is all about the base color you decide to use. You can go solid, which looks great with the scale pattern, or you can go with a gradient like the image below. It all depends on what look you’re going for. Just remember a gradient or mixed color scheme will take longer.

Start out with your base coat, then put your base color, then get a toothpick or thin paintbrush to do your scales pattern, I suggest starting near your cuticle and moving towards the tip of your nail as you go, then put a top coat and you’re done!

Social Media

This nail art has to be done freehand (unless anyone knows any prints or stickers that can go on their nails and is social media) and you can choose what part of each app you want to highlight. Choose what you want each nail to be, and pick your colors accordingly. Like the image below, you can do what each app has on your home screen, or just do the colors from each app, or put the logo on your nails. It’s all up to you.

Diamond Pattern

This classic pattern is fun and cute and is easy to do at home if you’ve got the right tools.

Start out with your base coat, then put your first color over that, lay down striping tape to make as many diamonds as you wish to be on your nails and paint your second color over that, let it dry then peel off the tape, put a top coat over it and you’re good to go.

You can also do all of that without striping tape by doing it freehand, which can be very difficult if you want consistency with the shapes. You can definitely do it and with practice, it’ll become easy for you.

Nail art is fun and a cute way to spice up your overall look. I hope you feel inspired to start doing your own nail art after reading this! The more practice you put in, the better they will look. Keep trying and doing these designs if the first time doesn’t turn out. Let us know in the comments below if you tried any and also let us know what cute nail art designs you suggest people try out!

Featured Image Credit: https://www.allure.com/story/nail-trends-2020-nail-art-ideas
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Julia Phillips

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