Get a File, Because You're Gonna Want to Try Round Nails ASAP (2024)

Show this to anyone who says short, round nails aren't fun. Instead of choosing one or two colors, use every single nail polish you own to create whatever color combos your little heart desires. Working with one nail at a time so the polish stays wet, drop a few small dots of two different shades and use a nail-art brush to swirl the colors together.

Let's be real—butterflies, be it butterfly tattoos, makeup, or nails, can go one of two ways. To keep your nail art looking cool and not childish, try this off-centered look with intricate detailing (you're gonna need one of these super-fine brushes).

Highlight the shape of your round nails (I mean that both ways) with a chunky, super-reflective glitter polish along the free edge of the nail and a thick line of black polish along the base.

The combination of bright summer nail polish shades and attention-grabbing wavy lines with negative space will distract anyone from noticing the length of your nails, no matter how stubby they might be. Use a small, flat nail brush dipped in nail polish remover to keep the edges of your lines sharp and not wavy in a bad way.

The cool thing about iridescent nail polish is you really don't need to add a whole bunch to it to make it nail art. The thin white lines and tiny dots look like shine marks on this cotton candy-colored polish.

This nail art design just wouldn't look the same on longer nails with more of a free edge. The thin white lines along the corners of the cuticles and the opposite corners of the nail tips perfectly enhance the short, round nail shape.

Can't grow your nails out? Create the ~illusion~ of longer nails with a subtle neutral nail polish and a simple sliver of iridescent nail tape down the middle of your nail beds.

Don't have nail tape? Just use nail polish instead. Start with a coat or two of matte nail polish, and once it's dry, use a different polish in a complementary color to paint a line down the center. To add a little more interest, stop the line just before the tips and round it off, just like your nail shape.

How ~dreamy~ are these little clouds? Start with a light blue nail polish to create your sky, then use white nail polish to create your clouds and stars or make it even easier on yourself and buy these nail stickers instead.

Instead of coating your nails in polish and adding a few pieces of gold transfer foil on top, here's an idea: do the opposite of that. For this look, cover your nails completely in foil, then use polish and a super-thin striping brush to paint little flowers or whatever you feel like on top.

Now's the time to pull out all those tinted sheer polishes that catfished you into thinking they were opaque because for this look, the more translucent, the better. The key is to work with the polishes while they're still wet to get a perfectly blended look like this. Start with a line of one or two colored nail polishes, then use a clear top coat to smear the shades together.

You can still do a French manicure even if you don't have a ton of free edge to work with. Since round nails perfectly mimic the shape of a half moon, lean into that and make it a half-moon mani, too, while you're at it.

Tie-dyeing a T-shirt? Not as easy as it looks. Tie-dyeing your nails with nail polish? Wayyy easier than you'd think. Start with a solid coat of your base color, and while the polish is still wet, add stripes, dots, or curved lines with two or three more shades. Before any of the polishes dry, use a fine-tip nail art brush to drag the different shades of polish into each other and create whatever design you want. See? Easy.

I bet you've never seen a negative-space mani like this one before! Geodes (round rocks with crystal-lined cavities inside) naturally make the best nail art inspiration for round nails. All you need to recreate this look is a few shades of blue or purple nail polish and silver transfer foil.

While we're on the topic of crystals, try this rose quartz look the next time you need a simple, neutral mani, like this light pink polish mixed with a little bit of white, but also want to have a little fun with it.