DIY Nail Art

Spring is here so it's time to rock those vibrant colours and fun patterns. While we pay a lot of attention to our apparel, our nails should not miss out! Nails can tell a lot about a person so let your creative juices flow and show off your true colours!

DIY nail art is much simpler and doesn't require as many specialised tools as people think. Sure it may make things a little easier if you have the fancy equipment but one of the most useful tools to unleash your inner nail artist is toothpicks. Yes, toothpicks! And patience... that's kind of important too.

Blob some nail polish onto a piece of paper and by dipping a toothpick into the paint, many shapes, patterns and designs can be created using these food pickers. The simplest pattern to start is dots. Dotting can be used to create simple patterns, draw flowers and draw features like eyes, nose and ears on a cute critter. Build up the paint on the end of the toothpick to create different sized dots or alternatively you can use different items, for example bobby pins, as a dotting tool.

When it comes to drawing lines, a striper brush would be more ideal for long slender lines but you can still draw lines with a toothpick by placing then dragging the paint. Just be careful not to press down too hard and scratch the bottom layers of paint you already have on your nails. You may need to dip the toothpick a number of times to draw a longer line.

Toothpicks are also great to fill, colour or create a shape. Once shape is drawn 'coloured in' by dipping and blobbing the paint continuously.

Finally, you know what else is great about toothpicks? You don't have to wash them! Toothpicks are cheap and once you're done creating your masterpiece you can just dispose of them. No need to wash brushes or clean up pallets which means more time can be spent on the fun things.