Sometimes you just want some quick and easy nail art – it needs to impress, but you don’t have time to spend ages on it.  Or perhaps you’re new to nail art and you don’t have any tools or skills, but still want to rock some art on your tips. I am here to give you 5 easy nail art designs that will leave people impressed, with hardly any effort needed.

Neon Pastel Rainbow

5 easy nail art designs Neon Pastel Rainbow in sunlight

Neon Pastel Rainbow in sunlight

First of my 5 easy nail art designs are these rainbow nails.  If you are a unicorn at heart, these are the nails for you!  Featuring a rainbow and some glitter, these are perfect for a festival or summer day.

All you need is a white base polish, five sheer colours (this would work perfectly with two or three as well), and a glitter, flakie or holographic top coat. No tools, zero precision needed, easy and quick.

If this sounds like the nail art for you, head over to my Neon Pastel Rainbow design and have a go!

Smoosh Nail Art

5 easy nail art designs Smoosh Nail Art left hand

Smoosh Nail Art left hand

If you are a quirky sort of person, looking for something totally unique, look no further than a smoosh nail art design.  It will turn out different every time, and you can use your favourite colours. I think mine here would be perfect for spring/summer.

I always think that starting with a white or light base helps the colours pop, but go easy with the black or dark colours or they will take over. Using a mixture of cremes and shimmer or glitter polish looks great, and if you don’t have a nail art stamper, a large soft pencil eraser or rubber would be the perfect substitute.

Matte Navy Blue with dots

5 easy nail art designs OPI Russian Navy easy nail art matte navy blue

OPI Russian Navy easy nail art matte navy blue

This is a new post, but there are two ideas here.  Make simple dots using a contrasting polish, and a bobby pin (or a dressmaker’s pin head). My matte navy blue design has all the tips you need to get perfect dots.

This post also shows off what’s known as a feature nail.  To make your nail art even easier, just create the design on one or two nails on each hand, and just paint the rest in a matching or contrasting colour. This will work for all the designs here in this post, even though I did most of them on all my nails.

Make it your own by being in control of where the art goes.  Ring finger, thumb, little finger, the choice is yours.

Peacock Water Decals

5 easy nail art designs Peacock Feather Nail Art left hand

Peacock Feather Nail Art left hand

Next in my list of 5 easy nail art designs are water decals.  These look super impressive, but are so easy. As long as you’ve got a white polish as your base, water decals are the easiest way to create intricate, colourful art, like these peacock feathers.

Water decals are just like temporary tattoos.  They slide off the backing after being soaked in warm water for a minute.  Position them on your nails, trim off the excess, top coat and done!

You can buy water decals very cheaply on the internet, and it’s worth trying metallic temporary tattoos too.

Drag Marble nail art

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Did you know that drag marble nail art is the friendly cousin of my nemesis, water marble?  Much easier and far less mess involved! The benefit is it’s quick to create, as you don’t want your base colour to be dry at all.  Work quickly for good results.  It can take a little longer to dry, since the coats need to be a bit thicker for the best effect.

In terms of tools, a toothpick is all you need, although in my Drag Marble post I use a nail art brush. Pound Shops often have nail art kits or sets of brushes that include a really thin brush.  Alternatively, just use nail clippers to trim hairs from an ordinary paint brush to make your own.

To make the dots of polish, just use the ordinary brush that comes with the polish.  Make sure to wipe off the excess in the neck of the bottle first, because otherwise your dots will run.  A straight swipe through them with my tool creates the little hearts.  I can see this in pink and red for Valentine’s Day!

5 easy nail art designs

You’ve now got five different types of nail art that you can do on your own nails. You can choose to feature one or two nails, all ten, or change the colours to your favourites.  It’s up to you!

Which one would you like to try first? Let me know in the comments below, and if you give any of them a go, tag me on Twitter or Instagram and show me!

5 easy nail art designs ¦ Keely's Nails

5 easy nail art designs ¦ Keely’s Nails