How to make a gentle manicure with bows on short and long nails step by step

A beautiful, stylish manicure is one of the main components of the modern image of a real woman. That is why a lot of attention is paid to the selection process. Today we propose to consider a manicure with bows in more detail. After all, it is not only teenagers who choose it. Much depends on how exactly to design such a pattern and what to combine it with. You will learn about the most popular and stylish options right now.

Features of manicure with bows

Youth version of manicure with bows

Manicure with bows is a universal design because it suits the fair sex of different ages.

For girls, it will emphasize their carefreeness and their young, not yet serious age; it will add lightness and playfulness to the image of older girls.

And discreet bows on already established women will allow you to dilute boring and boring images, acting as an attractive highlight.

Of course, such a manicure would be ideal for every day:

Casual manicure with bows

For the office dress code, you can also choose this design, but then it’s better to pay attention to laconic shapes and classic colors.
If you create an exquisite design, a manicure can fit even into a sophisticated evening look - you just need to play with noble shades and ornate lines.

Interesting ideas

If you cannot come up with your own and unusual idea for nail design, then we recommend paying attention to the following selection with fashionable and interesting design options:

Delicate marigolds in white and pink tones. There are a lot of design options here. You can make a classic jacket and add a pink or cream bow to it, or vice versa, make a pink jacket and add a bow with a small detail to it; To complement the evening look, you can use shiny polish colors as the main ones and apply black and white bows on them. They can be made in a fine design or be lush and voluminous; To make the design more attractive and memorable, brighten up your nails with unusual curls and lace; Also, no one has canceled the use of bright, acidic, neon and rich shades of varnishes. These colors add great variety to charcoal black bows with rhinestones. Or modeling, but it is best done in a beauty salon; You don’t have to draw bows on every nail; you can decorate your middle and ring fingers with them. Moreover, you can draw either one bow or many miniature ones; A black bow on a white background will look very beautiful and unusual; this manicure is suitable for any season and occasion; Also, very often, a variety of designs with bows are chosen for wedding ceremonies, because they always look gentle and relaxed. Of course, they are painted in soft and pastel colors; Velvet bows, which are most often made using acrylic powder, look very luxurious

It is very important not to cover it with finish, otherwise the “velvet” effect will disappear.

Pros and cons of manicure with bows

Of course, like any design, in the case of creating bows on nails, there are pros and cons.

Benefits of bows on nails

Bows look very cute and allow you to “lighten” the image, make it more fresh and fun;
despite all the playfulness, a manicure with bows can look like a fairly classic design, since the design itself belongs to the basic and familiar decorative elements;
A bow can be easily and quickly made using a variety of techniques and does not require the use of a limited number of materials or colors.

Disadvantages of manicure with bows

In some cases, bows on nails may look too frivolous, which can harm the image;
For a manicure to look really attractive, if you want to do it yourself, you will have to practice a lot to get a perfectly even figure.

Princess on the Pea

Quite often, cute bows on nails are complemented with a “pea” pattern. This design looks great in both soft colors and bright ones. A classic example of such a design would be, for example, a white manicure with red bows and black polka dots.

First, the nail is coated with a white plain varnish, which will serve as a background. Then, after the background has dried, large red bows (up to 30% of the nail area) are painted on the nails of the middle finger and little finger. To make the design look bright and noticeable, you should make a thin black outline around the bows, highlight the middle, and draw folds at the center. Then all that remains is to apply black peas to the background of all the nails and secure the design with colorless varnish.

Suitable nail shape

Bows on short oval nails

A bow is one of those elements that looks appropriate on short, simple-shaped nails .

This design is delicate , simple and light , so threatening long triangular nails will look ridiculous as a base for it, and simply long nail plates will still destroy the feeling of lightness and childish simplicity inherent in the decor.

The ideal option for a design would be nails of natural length, square or oval, appropriately combined with the design.

Perhaps the only case when long extended nails are the best option is when creating voluminous bows, which require a large base.

Fashionable tailcoat

You can not just draw a bow, but make it part of the original design. For example, draw a tailcoat on your nails. This design looks original and extravagant.

Choose black as a background color - this is your tailcoat.
Use thin strips and glue them to form a triangle. Paint it white.
Use a thin brush to draw a small black bow, and use a dot to make small dots. Apply top coat on top.

This design looks extravagant, but at the same time elegant. If you want to make your manicure more festive, then make buttons from rhinestones.

The best coating for painting bows

In principle, there is no significant difference in what nail coating to use: on any varnish you can draw or create a bow that complements the design.

But it is important to consider that in most cases regular varnish is more liquid and spreads faster, so it is better to use other options.

Ideal would be gel polish or shellac , which are a strong base for manicure, in addition, such a coating is more convenient to apply: it is thicker.

A separate advantage is the durability of such a manicure: both the bows and the base varnish will remain in their original form for many days or even weeks, especially if a special fixing base was used when creating the manicure.

How to make easy patterns on nails for beginners using stamping

Nail design using stamps
Stamping - also a way of transferring a design onto a nail using a stamp - is another simple technique for adding variety to a boring monochromatic manicure. To master it, you will need a little patience and a set of tools:

Flat metal plate with engraved patterns
A stamp with a silicone or rubber base for transferring the design from the plate to the nail
Scraper to remove remaining varnish from the disc

Stamping saves time

You will need a set of stencils and stamps

Scheme of stamping step by step:

Degrease the nail surface and apply a base
Paint your nails with your base color and let dry thoroughly.
Apply the second varnish to the stencil
Leave the varnish only in the recesses, remove excess with a scraper
Transfer the image to the rubber surface of the stamp
Select places on the nail for the stamp and press firmly onto the nail.
If the design is imprinted on the skin, carefully remove the excess with acetone
When the design is dry, cover your nails with top coat.

Stamps can be completely different

Combination of tape and stamping

Timeless classic

Multi-colored stamping

Fun black and white decor using stamps

Stamping and gradient

How to choose the right color combinations

Color scheme of manicure with bows

Bright or dark bows look best on basic, fairly restrained colors.

The combination of two bright shades in a design with bows is not the best choice.

Such a manicure will look colorful and clumsy, which is unlikely to emphasize the sophistication of its owner’s style and will introduce disharmony into the overall image.

Noble blue matte manicure with bows

Beige, cream, white, pink and other light colors can be used as base colors .

But the bow itself can be made either in bright contrasting colors (red, for example), or simply dark (like black).

A design with light bows can be especially relevant if you need to hide the complexity of a manicure as part of a work dress code or create a design for an elegant celebration, such as a prom or wedding.

Interesting ideas

If you cannot come up with your own and unusual idea for nail design, then we recommend paying attention to the following selection with fashionable and interesting design options:

It is very important not to cover it with finish, otherwise the “velvet” effect will disappear.

Ways to create bows

You can decorate your nails in a variety of ways.

The simplest of them, capable of providing an individual drawing, is painting with the same varnish using a brush . You just need to choose the desired shade and draw graceful lines on all or several nails.

Bows using nail polish

It’s even easier to draw bows using special markers . The main thing is that the substance in such markers combines well with the base varnish.

Bows on nails using a felt-tip pen

You can also use dots , which draws dots of different diameters. From these dots you can fold a bow, creating its outline, or you can simply complement the finished drawing with cheerful polka dots.

Blue jacket with bows drawn with dots

Two of the simplest, but not too unique, options are to use stickers or stamps and stencils .
The first method only requires an even positioning of the finished picture and its subsequent fixation using transparent varnish or a special coating. And in the second method, the finished design just needs to be printed on the nail (stamping) or redrawn through a stencil, and then secured.

Bows on nails using stamping

You can also combine rhinestones and bouillons . The former, like the dots of varnish, can become the basis of a bow, forming into a single figure, and bouillons (curly rhinestones and decorations) can already be created in the shape of a bow. The main thing is to fasten them correctly, according to the instructions.

Red manicure with rhinestone bows

The most complex options for nail design are 3D decorations and acrylic sculpting , where three-dimensional figures are created manually and attached to the nails. Such a design, of course, is best handled by experienced professionals in beauty salons.

Delicate manicure with 3D bows

Stylish geometry

A variety of geometric shapes are effectively combined with many techniques, designs and decorations. Therefore, our fashionable bows fit perfectly on nails with lines, zigzags, diamonds, triangles and other shapes. You can beautifully decorate your fingers with bows that turn into French stripes, combine designs into one composition, or place individual details on each nail. Stylists recommend using contrasting varnish colors in this case, for example, making the designs dark on a light coating, and vice versa.

Manicure with bows at home step by step

Manicure with bows is performed in a few simple steps, which practically do not change even when using different materials for decoration.

a base is created on the nails , which can be either just a layer of the selected varnish, or a base and a layer of gel polish and shellac, or almost a full-fledged manicure, for example, a French manicure, which will become the basis for creating a design.
It is better to choose in advance those nails that will have bows on them, as well as those that will remain “clean” or will be complemented with another design or pattern.
The second step is application himself bow.
You can either paint it in any of the chosen ways, or fix the selected decoration on varnish.
If the manicure is performed with regular varnish, the decorations must be attached to the nail that has not yet dried; with gel polish, the nail, ready for design, must be properly dried.
In both cases, you can draw only on completely dry nails.
After creating the bows, the remaining nails are complemented with the chosen design, be it polka dots, dots , other designs or other creative elements .
The last step is to fix the manicure.
The design is simply covered with a transparent varnish, and when using durable coatings, with a special fixative, after which the manicure is dried and degreased.

The video tutorial will show you how to easily and originally make a manicure with bows with your own hands.

Animal print

The bold tandem of a bow and animalistic patterns, which, despite their opposites, uniquely complement each other, looks original and unusual on the nails. Delicate bows soften the predatory notes and can turn a wild cat into an affectionate pet. Such compositions very beautifully decorate accent fingers and allow you to combine several techniques in one design. Combine a plain cover, animal print and bow on one hand. It's just incredibly beautiful! The addition of shiny details will only enhance this effect.

Manicure ideas

Bows go perfectly with a French or moonlit manicure - both with classic and colored nails.
It is enough just to add a couple of elements in a color similar to the one with which the tips of the nails stand out, for example on the nails of the ring fingers, and the classic French manicure will sparkle with new colors.

Original moon manicure with bows

The combination of bows will add a very childlike playfulness. with colored peas on the nails.
These designs can be alternated on the fingers or even combined on the same nail, using either the same color or different bright shades.
The main thing is that the base for such a manicure is light enough.

Delicate manicure with bows and polka dots

Exquisite white bows can be an ideal option for a wedding manicure , which can complement a classic white jacket or, for example, rhinestones .

Wedding manicure with bows

For a truly festive and solemn option, you can even choose voluminous figures on long nails, which will look unusual and expensive.

Volumetric bows on long nails