Nail Art Tools For Beginners

Nails are something that I'm pretty obsessed with and you will very rarely see me without my nails painted. Occasionally I feel brave and delve into the scary, stunning world of nail art. Throughout the years I have collected a selection of tools to make nail art easier and I thought I would share these with you. Some are obvious and some maybe not but all are really useful when trying to create flawless nails.

Striping Tape

I would go as far to say that if you want to create stripes or lines don't even bother unless you have some of this. Striping tape makes creating stripes or lines a doddle, you can either use the tape as a nail adhesive and embrace the metallic lines or you can use it like you would masking tape when your painting walls - to block out lines of colour so you can paint over with a different colour; thus when the tape is peeled off you have a striped pattern on your nails. You can buy this super cheaply on Amazon or eBay and I would thoroughly recommend buying some of this if your interested in nail art. 

Nail Stickers/Foils

These are nail shaped adhesives that cover your entire nail. You can get these in a variety of designs and all you do is apply to the nail, file off the excess sticker and then protect with a top coat. These are the easiest way to create an impressive nail look and can really look stunning if done right. Although beware that these can be fiddly and you have to be careful about air bumps and the stickers peeling off. 

Nail Art Pens

You can purchase these in all sorts of colours now and they make drawing intricate designs much easier than trying to do it with your nail polish brush! I particularly like these for dot designs just because it's so easy, quick and un-messy!

A Small Stiff Brush

Now is something that you may not expect, but having a small brush on hand is a life saver when cleaning up your nails after painting them. I can never paint my nails perfectly without getting any polish on my cuticles as my hands are always shaky. This little brush is the best idea I ever had, just dip it in nail polish remover, dab off the excess and away you go! 

I would recommend only getting a cheap brush for this purpose though as the frequent exposure to nail varnish and remover does make the bristles brittle and the brush will need to be replaced fairly often depending on how much you use it/look after it. A good place to get cheap brushes from is ELF you can spend about £1-2 on a brush for this purpose and your not wasting tonnes of money each time you need to buy a new one. 

A Glass Nail File

Some people are squeamish about Glass Nail Files but honestly they are so worth the money! You pay a little more for the file initially but they last SO much longer than emory boards and not only that but they are much gentler on your nails thus stopping them from breaking or chipping. Ideal if you have weak nails but strong enough to file down tough ones! If you don't have a Glass Nail File yet run out and get one, you won't regret it. 

Dotting Tools

These come in all sizes and make dotting a breeze. Not only that but they also make more complex nail art much easier as they give you more control that your nail polish brush would. 

Cuticle tool

This is the only thing I would say isn't essential, but it is nice to have. I use this to push back my cuticles and to clean underneath my nails to make sure that no grime is lurking (especially when my nails get longer)

Nail Scissors and Tweezers

Last but not least the most basic of tools. The Nail Scissors are a basic essential for anyone and I'm sure you all have them and know what they're for so I won't bore you with that. Tweezers I use to remove Striping tape when creating a striped pattern with two polishes like I explained above and when applying nail adhesives. You could use your usual eyebrow tweezers for this but I like to keep a cheap pair separate purely for my nails. 

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my basic Nail Art tools, and hopefully you've found something you hadn't thought of doing yet. Be sure to comment below with your thoughts!

Thanks for reading