When starting with nail art, you will find various brushes, each serving a specific purpose. While you can use toothpicks or mechanical pencils, specially-made nail art brushes provide the best results and feel more natural.
Nail Art Brushes
There is no significant difference between regular and nail art brushes, but nail art brushes are smaller to suit nail sizes. You can buy them online or at craft stores, with prices ranging from $1 to $20 per brush or set. With proper care, a brush can last for months.
Types of Brushes and How to Use Them
To properly define each brush commonly found in sets or individually sold, experts recommend The Daily Charme Nail Art Brush 10-Piece Set. This bundle offers professional-grade brushes for a variety of gel nail art applications as well as nail art done in regular nail polish.
Priced at $129, this set includes brushes for full-color application, French tips, and fine details, making it a versatile addition to your nail kit. Made in Taiwan, this set includes brushes like thin liners, short angular, triangles, and more. Most of the brushes in this set have a gold brush cap included for protection.
01 Thin Liner
The Daily Charme Nail Art Brush - 01 Thin Liner, priced individually at $17, features a short liner brush with an ultra-fine tip. Ideal for creating delicate fine lines and detailed nail art, this brush is made from a blend of kolinsky and nylon bristles. Make sure to remove any excess product from the brush before giving it a light sweep on your nails.
02 Short Angular
Going for $16, the Daily Charme Nail Art Brush - 02 Short Angular is perfect for painting flower petals, plaid lines, and detail blending. This small, short-angled brush is made of nylon and has a brush tip size of 3 mm x 3 mm x 6 mm, which means you can do several flowers on your nail. Test a stroke on tissue paper before using it on your nails. For sheer petals, use swift curved strokes.
03 Triangle
The Daily Charme Nail Art Brush number 03 Triangle, which also costs $16, is a pyramid-shaped angular brush. This structure is fit for creating pointy leaves, flower petals, and feather nail art. Its nylon bristles and unique shape make it perfect for detailed designs.
When trying leaf nail art with Daily Charme's 03 triangle brush, make sure your nail polish is new and fluid so that it won't clump up on your nail. Use the pointed edge of the triangle brush to define the tip of the leaf and make a slight curve motion to pull the colors and form a leaf.
04 Texture
Brush number 04 Texture is a small cylinder-shaped brush with bristles made from a blend of genuine goat hair and nylon, which gives the right degree of softness and stiffness, respectively. Individually sold for $16, it is ideal for creating textures like granite or felt through gentle dabbing motions.
05 Blending
The fifth in the kit, 05 Blending, is a flat rectangle brush with notched bristles, a layer with shorter bristles, and a layer with longer bristles. This brush structure is perfect for creating fine line patterns and blending color ombre. This brush, at $16, is ideal for creating irregular and multiple lines, marble, and ombre designs, even for beginners. Its sparse bristles also ensure that it will not remove glitters when applying them to the nails. When blending colors, use light quick strokes.
06 Art Oval
This $16 nail art brush features a small flat oval brush designed for creating round flower petals and painting small areas. Its unique brush head makes it ideal for painting intricate patterns like landscapes, leaves, flowers, and petals with ease. Using the tip of the brush, put a dot where the middle of the petal is meant to go. Use the brush to push the color to form the tip of the petal, and pull down to complete a petal.
07 Pointy Oval
Brush 07 Pointy Oval in Daily Charme's Nail Art kit, which goes for $16 a piece, features a cone-shaped oval brush designed to create watercolor blending effects and a variety of floral nail art. It is ideal for working with 3D gel or plasticine gel, as well as painting petals and leaves. Use this brush to shape your gel products with firm but gentle pushing and pulling motions.
08 Oval
This brush, sold at $16 a piece, is a large flat oval brush that you can use to easily get full nail coverage coloring and gel sculpting. Also known as a gel brush, it is perfect for applying solid gel polish, creating precise strokes, and extending nails with liquid gel polish or UV Builder Gel by pushing or pulling the gel product.
09 French
The Daily Charme Nail Art Brush - 09 French, priced at $16, is a slanted flat rectangle brush with a curved edge, perfect for effortlessly painting French tips. Paint on the first half of a French nail by laying the brush flat near the tip of your nail and pulling to the tip. Do the same for the second half but with the nail art brush turned over. It comes with a protective plastic sleeve and is designed for easy use, making it ideal for creating various French nail styles.
10 Gradient
Brush 10 Gradient brush goes for $17 and is a large cylinder-shaped brush with a slanted tip, perfect for blending ombre colors. Also known as the Snow Brush, it's ideal for creating smudge gradient nail art, like the trendy blush manicure. These effects can be achieved by using gentle but quick wet nail polish dabs on a dry base color.
