3 Nail Art Designs for Kids

Meet Blaiklee! 
She is five years old, and believe it or not, I’ve had younger clients

For this age group, getting their nails done is more about the experience and fun of it, rather than the longevity and wearability of the design. Kids’ attention spans are a lot shorter than adults’. So, when thinking up a design for the little ones, keeping it quick can prove to be key. Using as few steps as possible will make the experience enjoyable and avoid it from becoming boring for them and tedious for the tech- or whoever gets to glam them up!

Here are three quick and easy nail art designs for kids!

First, let's do some preparation

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Watch Suzie use the PolyGel Glitter Inlay Amazon DIY Kit!

If you’ve ever polished nails without doing a manicure first, you’ve probably realized how important cleaning up them up before you begin truly is. The cuticles can get in the way of your “nail estate.” Even if the cuticle is just uneven, it can still interfere with your design. And when working with kids, you don’t want to have to spend extra time fussing and fixing, so it is best to set it up right from the get go to avoid this. Having said that, do consider how the child takes to having their cuticles pushed back. Some kids really don’t like it, and it’s not worth making the experience unpleasant for them in order to have the design done properly. Like I said, for kids, it’s for the fun of it- not to have pristine nails. Alternatively, try applying a good amount of cuticle softener and gently pushing the cuticles back.

Keep the prep for children at a simple manicure to clean up the hands and nails as long as they are comfortable. I DO NOT recommend filing the nails or using nail dehydrators or primers. While we normally prep the nail bed this way for adults, for kids, these steps can be invasive and time consuming. For a child who is likely to become bored with their design and want them off in a few days anyway, it’s just not worth the fuss.

We will be using gel products for these nail art designs. Gel is fantastic for kids’ nails because it dries (cures) in seconds! Regular polish requires more patience with longer drying time, which most kids don’t have. Plus, curing the gel under the lamp allows them to have their own part in the process, which they love!

Before beginning your design, apply a layer of no wipe gel top coat and cure under the lamp for 30 seconds.

You don’t want the child to look directly into the LED bulb of the gel lamp. Instead of telling them not to, opt to distract them from it instead. Often telling them to not look at it will only interest them more. So, simply keep up the conversation and keep them involved in what you are doing. Having them look at colour swatches or stamping plates is a good idea.

Design 1: Chrome

So easy and simple! Kids love chrome because it’s such an intense colour.

Use a sponge applicator and massage the chrome onto the nail. Don’t worry about going over the edges of the nail. We’ll clean this up after.

The result is immediate and so shiny!

Once finished applying the chrome, add a clear top coat and nuke (cure) for 30!

Now, use a cotton pad folded in half with a bit of polish remover to clean up the edges of the nail where the chrome went over. If it’s difficult to get off, having them wash their hands will also remove the chrome dust.

Kids love the part of unveiling the transformation!

If the child is interested in helping, have them rub the chrome onto their own nail or even use a duster to dust away the excess chrome.

Design 2: Daisies

Use a dotting tool and two colours of regular polish or gel polish to create these little flowers. Again, gel polish just dries quicker, but either is fine!

We chose classic daisy colours, yellow for the centre and white for the petals, but feel free to mix it up!

Start by dotting one colour in a circle for your petals- not touching each other.

Then fill in the centres with your second colour. It’s as easy as that!

Cure when you’ve finished all your daisies, add a top coat, cure once more and you’re done!

So simple and versatile when you switch up the colours!

If your base colour has a cured gel top coat, then you can wipe your daisies off at any point and redo them if you need, without having to start all over again. This is very handy as kids can get fidgety.

Design 3: Stamping

I love stamping, especially for kids. It’s quick and easy and it’s so fun having them pick out which designs they like from the plate.

You always want to be mindful of kids’ attention spans when doing their nails, because you don’t want to get to the point where you’re trying to convince them to stay still. It can really take the fun out of it.

Remember that kids fingers are tiny! So choose the small designs.

We are stamping on Blaiklee’s pink chrome as the background, but you can also stamp directly onto natural nails.

Play around with using different colours for details of the stamping design.

Once again, top coat when you’ve finished designing and nuke ‘em!

Here you see some of Blaiklee’s nails stamped and some with daisies, all on the pink chrome, which is her favourite colour. She was so patient for me to do three designs on her, so I decided to leave some nails with daisies and finish the rest off with the stamping.

That’s another fun thing about kids’ designs though, you can mix and match. They love it! There really are no wrong ways to do it... As long as they’re having fun, you’re doing it right!

For Blaiklee, she was happy to have just one of her hands done because she had two new pets- two mini hamsters named Daisy and Lolli. She told me that they like polish on one hand, but not on the other hand and that they were waiting for her at home.

Kids, huh? Gotta love ‘em!