I’ve always been jealous of the intricate nail designs that I come across on Instagram. With their clean, straight lines, it seems downright impossible to achieve that level of perfection. After endless hours wasted watching nail tutorials, I’ve since given up and decided that less is more. I have gone my own way, honing my skills and getting by with three easy tools: a dotting pen, thin brush, and the nail polish brush itself.
Lifehack: you can also use the ends of a bobby pin if you don’t have a dotting pen. I usually like to accent my nails with gold or silver flakes or glitter. I’ll admit that sometimes the thin brush requires patience, but it does wonders when you’re not trying to create overcomplicated designs. Here are some of my very own simple nail designs that you can try:
If I come across a design that I really like but looks way too difficult, I just take inspiration from it and figure out a way to simplify it by removing or adjusting certain aspects. That’s how I did most of these looks. Given my lack of professional tools and skills, the cuticles are a little wonky, and these nail designs are nowhere near insta-perfect, but they’re cute enough.