DIY Nail Art For The Artistically Challenged

written by Rachel Segal-Sklar

It’s 2013, and you want to polish your nails. You pick out a color you like, and you start to paint. You’re extra careful, making sure to minimize the amount of polish that escapes the confines of your nails. As you examine your work, you think, “Hey! That’s pretty good! It could probably pass for professional.” You’re so proud, you decide to show your friends, who always have cool manicures themselves. “Look! Look what I did!” you exclaim proudly, showing off your flawlessly-painted nails. Instead of the praise you expect, however, they roll their eyes and tell you to delete their numbers. Where did you go wrong?

Simple manicures just don’t cut it anymore; the nail art game has changed completely. What used to be acceptable, even laudable, as nail art is now yesterday’s nail trash. The nail art of today is actually artistic, and that can be a problem for poor everyday citizens like myself, who can barely master the application of a single coat to both hands. Today’s nail art is about geometric designs, ombre colors, marbling, flowers, logos, TARDISes(!), and any other pattern you can paint onto your tiny keratin canvases. Seriously, people really go all out: a different design on each finger, five different colors, varying textures, jewels, nails shaped like claws--you think of it, somebody has probably already done it. There are tons of blogs dedicated to nail art, all equally impressive as well as depressing for those of us who know we’ll never amount to nail art greatness.  Though many people include tutorials on how to do these designs yourself, for somebody like me who is not artistically inclined, attempting this level of work would just be a waste of nail polish. 

But don’t give up hope! One trend that’s really popular right now is the accent nail, aka my saving grace in the nail art community. The accent nail is one nail that has a different design and/or color than the others.  Some people use the accent nail as an inverse of the designs that are featured on the other nails, others will choose a completely different design and color scheme for this nail.  However, for me, this means I can try my hand at real nail art without the commitment to all ten fingers and the stress of trying to make them all look the same.  Generally, people choose the ring finger on both hands as the accent nail, but you can choose whichever tickles your fancy. 

I’ve decided to experiment, using my own body, to demonstrate the kinds of things you can do with an accent nail, inspired by the incredible nail artists of the world (and Internet). Enjoy

Tools:

Nail polish, 2 different complementary colors (and an optional top coat)

Tape or a small brush

Scissors, to cut said tape

Q-tips, which are fantastic for cleaning up mistakes 

A whole lotta confidence

First, paint your nails a solid color of your choosing. I chose gray. To represent my love of elephants. Or something. Note: this color came out kind of chunky today, so please use your imagination and pretend it’s flat and beautiful-looking.

If you want to go with the very basic accent nail, one nail of a different color, don’t paint that nail with your base color (duh).  I’m not really into that look, but I have demonstrated what it can look like out of generosity. If you choose to do this and also want designs on it, use the base color for those.

Make sure your nails dry completely. Onto the accents designs! 

Let’s start out small with a single stripe of your second color. This stripe can go any which way your heart desires, but since I’m feeling edgy, mine will be diagonal. I will use my handy little brush to make a freeform line, and then I’ll show you how much better it looks when I use tape!

When I freehanded, I had to make the line thick, since that was the size of my brush. I also don’t have a great brush, so the line came out with a bit of a weird, chunky texture. Womp.

If you decide to go the tape option, make sure that your base color is 100% dry before you apply the tape, as it will definitely strip the color off your nail if it isn’t and your accent nail will be a disaster. Cut two little pieces of tape and position them on your nail, the space in between them being the line you will paint.

Then, apply a very thin layer of polish over the tape so your line doesn’t come out clumpy and raised.

Remove the tape very carefully, and there’s your line! I did not follow my own advice and remove the tape slowly, so my base color got a little messed up. Oh well. Can’t win ‘em all.

Another type of line you can make is a french tip with a twist. The way to do this is cover your nail with tape, leaving room for your tip. Paint on your accent color. Voila!

Now let’s move onto a more advanced design: chevrons and triangles! This is also truthfully the limit of my nail art abilities, but these two designs are super popular.  We’ll start with a triangle, because those are easier than the chevrons.  You’re definitely going to want tape for this one, so you have nice, clean defined edges to your triangle.  You can choose to either do this on the top, or on the bottom of the nail.  I have kindly demonstrated both for you! Similarly to the line, you’re going to need two pieces of tape to create the shape of the triangle.  Try to have the two meet at a point in the center of your nail, otherwise it will look more like a blob than a triangle. When you’re satisfied with the shape you’ve made (you can play around with the depth and width), paint a thin layer of accent color in the designated area. That’s it!

Lastly, we have the chevron. I’m going to go with one simple “v” shape in the middle of my finger, because that’s probably the best I can do, but play around and do the whole nail if you want! Just as with our other designs, you’re going to want to create the shape with pieces of tape--you’ll need four this time.  We’re really stepping our game up. Once you’re happy with your chevron shape, go over it with the accent color and you’ve got yourself one trendy nail. 

That’s just the tip of the nailberg, friends. All these designs can be used on all of your fingers, if you’re so inclined, and you can play around with how many of each design you use.  Go crazy!  However, if you’re a simple soul and none of these designs appeal to you, you can always just go with sparkles and glitter. Always. 

For those lazy unartistic people who’d still like some street cred with their nail art, you can find pre-made nail decals with cool designs on them in any pharmacy you go to.  But that’s cheating.  

I trust I’ve proven that even the most uncoordinated, unartistic manicurist can, too, keep up with these crazy nail art times.  And I hope I’ve saved some of you from losing your judgmental friends. No one should be shunned for their inability to turn their nails into visually interesting conversation pieces.