I love nail art.  But – and this is a really big but – I am generally not patient, coordinated, and artistic enough to pull off a nail art manicure on my own.  I recently saw a really cute video tutorial for watermelon nails and, while fairly basic compared to many other nail art tutorials I’ve seen, it still felt like it was a little beyond my skill level.  Taking that idea as inspiration, I decided to simplify the design down to more of a nail-art-for-dummies level.  I even managed to use my extremely clumsy left hand to paint this design on my own right hand – if it’s easy enough for me to have left-handed success, anyone can do it, I promise!

Project estimate:

• Nail polish, on hand or $1 and up
• Toothpick, on hand
• Top coat, on hand or $1 and up

Total:  $1 and up

Colors I used:

• Pink – Essie, Off the Shoulder
• Green – LA Girl Color Pop, Peacock
• Black – Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, Pat on the Black

Start by painting a base coat of color on your nails.  Paint your thumb and pinkie nails green, and paint the middle three nails pink.  Let your nails dry.

To add the seeds, make a drop of black nail polish on one of your pink nails.  Use the tip of a toothpick to “pull” one edge of the polish outward to a point, creating a seed-like shape.  Repeat on your other pink nails.  (I chose to leave an accent nail on one hand without a seed on it.)

After the seeds dry, apply a topcoat to seal them and make the design last longer.  I decided to give this matte topcoat a try and I love the effect it gives – try different topcoats for different finished looks!

I love how my nails turned out!