Summer 2018 nail art inspiration

Sometimes the best accessory you can have is one you’re always carrying – your nails, and more specifically what’s painted on them. Nail art has been trending in a big way over the last few years, but there’s always new looks and styles to keep up with. Here’s some of our favourites around at the moment and some top tips on how to achieve them. So unearth your inner artist and get creative with your nail varnish…

This is fairly straightforward, so a good one to start with if you’re a beginner. Taking a medium brush, do three coats of the bottom block colour first, tidying up any edges as you go. When dry, repeat for the smaller section from where the colours meet outwards. You can mix things up by changing the direction or the colours for each nail.

These take some patience, but with the right shades and a little practice it’s worth it! Using three tones of one colour and a white, build up in thin layers swirling into the wet paint as you go. With this look it’s best to do a couple of nails at a time in full.

Playing with shapes is fun, and if you’re painting freehand take inspiration from these geometric squiggles – they’re not supposed to be perfect so they’re ideal for DIY-ing.

You can get crescent stickers to help with the shape, but if you’re feeling brave, slowly and steadily paint along the tip of your freshly shaped nail with a very fine brush. Thankfully correcting is easy with another brush and some nail polish remover.

There are tons of fun stickers, crystals and add-ons you can adorn your nails with now, but the best thing about this look is that you can easily repeat it with just polish. It won’t be as prominent, but it will capture the trend just as well. After painting your first block colour coat as a base and leaving to dry, simply add one dot of a contrasting colour in the middle of the nail towards the base. Super simple and super summery!

These polka dot nails are on trend in so many ways! You can use the same colour polish or try multiple colours for your spots. Another easy to execute look, using just a tiny brush and a light dotting motion.

This style looks harder to DIY than it is, so don’t let that put you off. Starting halfway up the nail paint your first coat of colour – the thinner the better. Then continue to layer edging your starting point closer to the tip with each coat. Finish off with glitter all over.