Illustrated Nail Art Ideas

Here at ELLE we're a little (okay, a lot) obsessed with nail art. One manicurist's blog - The Illustrated Nail - really caught our attention.

So we called on Sophie Harris-Greenslade, the nail expert behind the website, to create six step-by-step nail art looks that you can try at home.

ELLE's Top Tip: spend time creating the looks on false nails like these pictured, that way you can reuse them a couple of times. You can pick up nail glue at Boots. 

Don't think you can master these designs? Book in with Sophie for a nail appointment at Stunt Dolly, 582 Kingsland Road, London E8. Enq: 0207 018 2191

Check out Sophie's Tumblr, follow her on Twitter  @IllustrateNail and 'Like' her on Facebook here...

Paint your with two coats of a dark red like Nails Inc in Victoria, £11.

Take a white nail art pen and draw the line of a semi circle coming from the corner of the nail. Leave a small gap and outline the semi circle and draw on smaller half circles on top of this line.

Outline the half circles with one continuous line making sure you leave a small gap in between. Then add triangular shapes coming from this outline to create a lace effect.

You can add small circles on top of the triangles and dashes either side to make the design look more lace like. Wait until the design is completely dry before adding a topcoat.

This design is a little trickier so here are a few tips to get it right:

Don't squeeze the nail art pen too hard, you want to get an even thin line. 

Always squeeze a little of the polish out on to tissue before starting to get rid of any blockages or air 
bubbles in the pen.

Look at lace patterns for inspiration and break the design down in to easy shapes.

It helps to draw out your design on a piece of paper first so you have a guide to follow.

Steady your arm on a flat surface and hold your wrist lightly with your other hand helps if you’re a little shakey.

This design was inspired by Manish Arora’s glitter gradient dress from the spring summer 2012 show. I used holographic foil flakes and silver sequin flat stones for this design which you can by from eBay or craft shops such as HobbyCraft.

Paint your nails with a nude colour polish like Dior Vernis in Beige, £18

Paint on a half moon using a striping brush dipped in to turquoise polish, once dry apply topcoat.

While the topcoat is still wet, use a toothpick to carefully place the holographic foil flakes around the line of the half moon. Apply the flakes about half way up the nail

Add some of the round sequin flat stones on top of the foil flakes and then dot randomly on the tip of the nail where the nude colour is still visible to create a gradient effect.

Finish with Seche Vite top coat.

Paint all your nails with two coats of white polish.

Choose your colours for the spots (here I used 10 different nail colours!)

Take a dotting tool and dip in to your first colour and lightly place on the nail to create a dot. Place the dots randomly on the nail.

Put down the first colour on all 10 nails and then by the time you come back to the first nail to put down another colour it will be dry enough to apply.

Continue placing the dots randomly (leave fewer dots at the tip to create a gradient bubble effect) on the nail building the colours up on top of each other. Make sure each colour of your spot is completely dry before moving on to the next otherwise the colours could run into each other.

Finish with a top coat.

Paint your nails with a white polish (try OPI Alpine Snow, £11).

Using a black polish, paint a little at the cuticle end of the nail. For this design it’s best to concentrate on one nail at a time as 
the layers need to be wet in order to create the fade.

While the black polish is still wet take a clear silver glitter polish (try Essie Silver Bullions, £9.95) and brush the black up towards the tip so that the black fades into grey. You don’t want to completely cover the nail so make sure you leave some white at the tip.

Repeat on every nail, but remember to clean your brush in between each nail.

Take the clear silver glitter and brush over the gradient you have made especially at the top where the white and grey meet as the glitter 
partcles will help give it that gradient effect.

Outline the nails with a striping brush dipped in to black polish. Finish with a good quality topcoat.

This design was inspired by the beautiful sequin design seen at the Ashish autumn winter 2012 catwalk.

Paint your nails with a dark glitter polish like OPI Metallic 4 Life, from £2.50.

Using a striping brush dipped into red polish create a curvy line running down the nail. Create a different shaped red lines on every nail.

Once dry take your brush (make sure to clean after every colour) and paint yellow around the red line. Repeat the process with green around the yellow line, then blue around the green and purple around the blue to create a rainbow.

Finish with Seche Vite topcoat.