Nail Art Starter Pack Designs

So I decided to put together some designs that you can create for your nails with the bare minimum of kit. For my starter kit I have put together my most used products which should cost less than £10.
My kit suggestion consists of:

• Dotting Tool
• Black Polish
• White Polish
• Another Polish of your Choice (I chose a sparkly pink)
• Top Coat
• Nail Varnish Remover
• Cotton Wool Pads
• Cotton Wool Buds

I think the hardest thing to get hold of from this package is the dotting tool. Your best bet is to order one online, in the UK sparkly nails sell them so would have a quicker delivery than buying from another country [a link for their site is in the right bar], or creating your own by sticking a round ended pin into a rubber on the end of a pencil. The only problem with this is it would only create one size of dot unlike many other dotting tools that have two different sizes on each end. 

Now onto the nail art, I will try my best to describe most of the designs I created. 

Half and Half

Pretty much as it says paint your nails one of the colours you want, preferably the lightest shade. Then once left to dry for a little bit, paint one half of the nail another colour. 

I think this design would look good as a simple accent nail and doesn't require the dotting tool. 

But if you do have a dotting tool you can create a scalloped edge by placing dots close together, with your dotting tool, along the middle line in the same colour has one of the halves. You can also create these dots a little further apart with another colour for a different design. 

Top with a top coat to make it last longer and for the scalloped edge to blend a little bit more. 

Bordered Design

For this design you begin by painting the nail in one colour and letting this dry before adding a second colour in the middle of the nail. Be careful to spread the polish slowly avoiding the edges of the nail, so you don't cover up the border you are trying to create. 

Geometric Shapes

Begin by painting the whole nail in the white colour and a let this dry. Over the top of this either paint a diagonal line along your nail and fill in the space above, or lightly paint a single line up the middle of your nail. 

I then went in with the dotting tool and added a single dot in the opposing colour on the line and then the line colour on top, to create the double dot on top of the line. For the diagonal line I added big dots just below the line and also added smaller dots using the other end of the dotting tool. 

Drips and Dots
Here I painted the whole nail with the coloured polish and then used by dotting tool to create two designs, one with the bigger dot and then the smaller dotter. The first I used the big dotting tool to create four dots near the top of the nail and then lines upwards to join them all up. Once this was done I then painted in the rest of the shape to create the dripping effect. The second design is more precise, I used the smaller tool to create a line in the middle of the nail trying to get even spacing between the dots. Between this I then added dots in a second line and continued until the whole nail had a polka dot pattern over it.

Flowers
Here is simple dotting design where you place five dots in a circle and then add another in the middle to create the inside of the flower.

Misc.
Many of the designs I haven't described where created using the dotting tool or just clever painting of the second colour. The Ying and Yang pattern for example was created by painting the nail white to begin and then starting to paint the black at the bit where it rounds off from here I then dragged the brush to the closest edge of the nail before turning back to go to the other side. I then finished it off by adding the opposite colour in the rounded off part.