Easy Nail Designs For Beginners Without Tools For Short Nails

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From glittered cuticles to tiny gold wires, minimalist nail art is guaranteed to take your nail game from zero to one hundred in less time than you can say 'negative space manicure'. Why? Because it's actually pretty easy to achieve.

'In my nail art, I have always leaned toward minimalist techniques and designs,' says Essie Global Lead Educator, Rita Remark. 'I feel like you don't need big design to make a big statement. Detailed, ornate nail design is beautiful, but it isn't always versatile. For those polishing their nails at home, minimalist techniques and designs are totally accessible and easy to recreate.' Which is good news for the nail art beginners out there.

Get The Minimalist Look

Not sure where to start? Go for easy to achieve polka dots. 'The easiest minimal nail art technique to try at home is dotting. Not only are dotting tools easily found and made at-home, the technique is fool-proof and can be used to create a myriad of designs,' advises Remark.

How To Nail It

For small dots, use a bobby pin or toothpick. For larger dots, use the back of a make-up brush or a the ball end of a sewing pin.
Use a square of tinfoil as a palette and drop a puddle of your desired dot nail colours on top.
Then, with your dotting tool of choice, dip it in the colour and lightly press into the desired area of the nail.

'It doesn't get easier!', says Remark. 'For a fun monochromatic polka dot look for spring, try the design I created for Rixo at London Fashion Week - it can be achieved using a bobby pin and the back of a make-up brush!'

Your next minimalist nail art design? Done and done.

1 Swerves And Curves

Give square end nails a curvy update with mismatched arcs of jet black polish.

2 Arts & Crafts Tips

Crack out the striping brush for this delicate technicolour take on the classic French manicure.

3 Peach Lava Lamp

Get your groove on with 1970s style peach hued swirls.

4 L.O.V.E

Show your love for minimalist nail art with nails that spell it out.

5 Zig Zag French

Give your signature French tips a wiggle in their step with multi-coloured zig zags.

6 Singe Line Loops

Draw your way to the perfect understated manicure with a single looped line of navy blue.

7 Monochrome Spots

Classic negative space nails with a polka dot twist limits the opportunity for mistakes.

8 Rainbow Styling

Not feeling confident about achieving identical nail art on every finger? Paint each one with a different abstract design instead.

9 Double Cuticle Moon

Bare nails with navy arcs looks seriously chic.

10 A Sprinkling Of Pearls

Forget the nail varnish altogether with a sprinkling of pearl studs on unpainted nails.

11 Retro French Tips

70s inspired hues of brown, orange and pastel blue feel retro without going OTT groovy.

12 Foil Stickers For All

Gold foil stickers and striping tape make minimal nail art designs super easy.

13 Metallic Tips

The ultimate going-out-out manicure without going garish.

14 Starry Eyed

Channel your steadiest hand ever with these dinky stars.

15 Negative Space Stripes

Cheat your way to instant nail art with some striping tape and a navy varnish.

16 Queen Of Hearts

Moody black nails are given a sweet twist with a duo of love hearts.

17 Ice Cream Dots

Pastel shades bring some joy to simple nail art.

18 Line Work Roses

One for the illustrators out there.

19 Gold Studs

Add a delicate gold stud to neutral nail polish for a luxe update.

20 Gold Outlines

Simply a matter of sticking, anyone can nail this metallic nail art.

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