Nail Makeup

It Toe-tal Glam- Up With Toe Nail Art!

Add a splash of color to your feet and see them turn a stunner! Let’s tiptoe into the deets.


Written by Rani Premkumar

On Apr 25, 2023 – 11 minutes read

It Toe-tal Glam- up with Toe Nail Art - feature (1)

Not just our fingernails our toenails also deserve some art. let’s dive into the era of toe nail art.

Toe nails do get their share of pampering with a pedicure, for sure! The feet used to come last in our fashion priorities, but not anymore.  Fashion and beauty are a wholesome package. It is difficult to isolate one body part. Women of today love to show up in their immaculate selves no matter what hurricane is going on in their lives. ‘Dressing up’ and ‘power dressing’ have a wider trajectory that extends to even accessories and yes, nails. When your toenails qualify as an accessory, it will up your style quotient by a few notches.  

20 Toe Nail Art Designs 

If you are a fashion girlie who is looking for inspiration to do some toe nail art, whether you are a pro or a novice, here are some ideas for you. Toe Nail Art can be as simple as a bold color with a few streaks of color for beginners, or highly sophisticated designs that are reserved for pros.

Toe Nail Art Designs 

You can do DIY toe nail art at home which involves polka dots or blings without any hassle. Intricate designs are best done by professionals, but there is no harm in trying. After all, we are in control of our own bodies and we can decide if we want to try on a design ourselves.

1. Galaxy Toe Nail Designs

You can bring the Interstellar region onto your toenails for a creative vibe calling out for attention. You could include stars and even sparkly sprinkles to make it an out-of-the-world toe nail art. 

 Galaxy Toe Nail Designs

2. Polka Dot Toe Nail Art Designs

Polka dots are always in- on garments, accessories, and even nails! A great way of expressing vibrancy, simple polka dots on nails can be done easily with a dotter, at home. 

Polka Dot Toe Nail Art Designs

3. Rainbow Toes Nail Designs

Rainbow has always been a fascination for young minds. Showcase your childhood slice of joy on your nails. This toe nail art can be emulated by even the not-so-artistically-gifted lot by making it as simple as painting each toenail with a different color from the rainbow. Utterly simple as it sounds! A variant would be multi-colored nails which will bring different colors to the hands including pastels and black.

Rainbow Toes Nail Designs

4. Splatter Toe Nail Designs

Splatter has found a place in artworks. So does toe nail art! You could use white as a base color and go with multi-colored splatters. Another easy one for the amateur nail artists in us! 

Splatter Toe Nail Designs

5. Floral Toe Nail Art Designs 

How can we describe the joy of seeing some floral nail art on our toes on a summer morning? Floral designs bring in tenderness and sweetness with the association of floral designs.

Floral Toe Nail Art Designs 

6. Black French Tip Nail Art Designs

French Mani is cliched but how about a black French Tip for a change? It appears classy and simple. It can be done at home as well, almost in the same way you do a traditional French.

Black French Tip Nail Art Designs

7. Bling Toe Nail Art Designs 

Bling is always bling. It brings out the monotonous energy in the glittery starry theme. The question is how much is too much. You can go with the bling to any length, you see!

Bling Toe Nail Art Designs

8. Ombre Toe Nail Art Designs 

How’s for the sunset sky on the nails or some subtle shades creating an ombre effect which never vanishes from the art world, even the nail art design world? 

Ombre Toe Nail Art Designs 

9. Marble Toe Nail Art Designs

Marble is cool and the designs are versatile plus real. Including marble designs on the nails is just versatile and chic. What do you think?

Marble Toe Nail Art Designs

10. Contrasting Toe Nail Art Designs 

You can go with contrasting colors with the focus on the big toe or in whichever pattern you wish. Creative and simple designs will work wonders.

Contrasting Toe Nail Art Designs 

11. Bold monochrome Toe Nail Art Designs 

You can go to the simple bold monochrome themes where you paint all your toenails with the same one color, like how we used to do when we were kids.  This design still holds gold.

Bold monochrome Toe Nail Art Designs 

12. Glitter Toe Nail Design

You can play with glitter! Toe Nail designs use glitter all over the nails or may highlight the tips. Little or more, glitter draws the eyes and makes it sparkle. Great for college girls who love that extra oomph!

A little more intricate design, the foil Toe Nail Art design gives the toe nails its share of sheen and artistic touch. You will want to go bare feet every time !

Glitter Toe Nail Design

14. Confetti Glitter Nail Designs 

If you want to amp up your toenail design to something eye-catching, confetti Glitter Toe Nail design will satiate your craving for sure. 

Confetti Glitter Nail Designs 

15. Striped Nail Art Designs 

Jagged stripes or straight ones, the lines can be vertical or horizontal! If you have short toes,  then vertical stripes will give an illusion of longer toes. This will be a unique and simple do-at-home nail art design you can try all by yourself.

Striped Nail Art Designs 

16. Girly Toe Nail Designs 

Toe nail art with some girly colors and vibes is best for every girly gal out there!

The girly vibes can be embraced by girls at any stage in their lives. Matching the fingernail color is another simple artwork on its own. Pink is the all-time girly girl color. No doubt!

Girly Toe Nail Designs 

17. Elegant Toe Nail Designs 

You cannot afford to look flimsy even though your feet will be rarely out of your stilettos. Then classy nudes are a great option for you. If you want, you can add a row of rhinestones to make your toes even classier. You could go as Parisian with them or the classic French Mani. You are the boss! 

Elegant Toe Nail Designs 

18. Oceanic Toe Nail Designs 

There should be no limit to your imagination when it comes to nail art. A breezy oceanic vibe can be recreated with an ocean-themed toe nail art design.

Oceanic Toe Nail Designs 

19. Metallic Flowers Toe Nail Designs 

Metallic flower designs can make your toenails look ornate for sure. You could use golden or silver flower designs on your toes with a dark base. Metallic flowers on pastel colors will also look chic, you bet!

Metallic Flowers Toe Nail Designs 

20. Rhinestones Toe Nail Designs

Rhinestones can be used sparingly or in plenty. The choice is yours! Rhinestones sure add the sparkle you want on your toe nail art, while lost in your monotonous journeys. It sure will brighten your mood!

Rhinestones Toe Nail Designs

Choose Your Toe Nail Design

First, you have to ascertain what theme you want to get on your toenails. You can ideally make a decision with the occasion and intention in mind. While choosing the colors you may have to stay realistic to your natural skin tone. Fair-skinned can go for darker base colors and avoid pastels to avoid fingers looking washed out. Darker complexioned girls can go for neutrals with rhinestones or whites with floral or oceanic themes to look chic. The choice of art is your call. If you are doing one at home, you could choose ones that are less intricate. If you’re going professional, always go for the complicated ones!! Your toes will love you for that.

So let us assume you fixed your mind on a particular toe nail art design that you are confident in, let’s have the accessories line up- pedi essentials and the colors!

Steps To Follow

These are the few steps you should follow while getting toe nail art.

1. Removing Your Existing Nail Lacquer Or Nail Art And Wiping Your Toes Clean:

Buff the nails and soak them in soapy water with some bath salts. Push your cuticles back with a cuticle pusher or toothpick. You may not want to cut them as you may risk infections. With a  quick pedicure, leave your feet moisturized as a first step in the foot beautification process!

2. Apply The Base Coat.

If you are going for rainbow nails, color each toenail with each color from the rainbow on each foot.

3. Go Ahead With Your Nail Art Design:

You can do the design on all your toenails or just on your big toe, leaving the others with the base coat.

4. Sealing The Nail Art Design With A Top Coat Of Nail Polish.

For lines, you can use transparent cello tapes after the base color has been applied and dried. Cut the tape into shreds and paste them on the nails. Paint in between them for the lines. 

If polka is your calling, then use a dotter and enjoy the dot, dot, dot process on the nails. Big or small dots will get your work done. You could use contrasting colors for the dots.

If you are confident enough to go with the flowers, you can go ahead with it. The most common DIY ones are polka dots, lines, monochromes, contrasts, glitter, girly pink, and rainbow nails. You can do a brilliant job mixing the colors on the single-toe nail, mostly the big toe because of its space to hold the art. You can go versatile and try different designs on your toenails. Adding rhinestones is also not a cumbersome task. You are the artist!

Voila! You are good to put your feet up and admire your artwork.

If you are going professional, make sure the salons keep up the sanitary standards and that the dip powders are offered in disposable containers.

Health Issues Associated With Toenail Designs

That the Toe Nail Art involves traditional nail polish, dip nail powder, gel nail polish, etc. is a no-brainer. There could be complications associated with having these constantly on the toenails. Hence you should allow the nails some breathing time between your toe nail art sessions. Moreover, some dark-colored nail polishes used as a base for toe nail art can bring temporary discoloration to the nails.

Acetone(1) is drying and damaging to the skin around the toes. Hence the use of acetone on the nails can be limited with a regular allowance of toenail breathing time with no polish or art. 

 As you know, the gel polish is painted on to be cured under a lamp, which dries and hardens the polish instantly. Curing nail polish is actually a process called photopolymerization,  which causes the liquid to be absorbed using  UV or visible light and undergoes cross-linking to become a solid. Most curing lamps emit ultraviolet light, which is said to cause cellular damage, aging, and skin cancer. The gel nail polish removal involves soaking the nails in pure acetone repeatedly; and aggressive buffing and scraping of the nail polish which can injure the nail bed.  Wearing gel nail polish for a long time can also cause brittleness and drying of nails. Common containers with dip powder may be used for multiple people which could be a reservoir for bacteria, fungi, and viruses is a major concern while doing this at the salon.

The glues used to stick on nails and bling may also cause some damage to the toenails with toenail art.

Those who stick on nails or use acrylic or gel nail extensions can also cause some damage to their nails with prolonged use and the removal process.

So-Called “Non-Toxic” Products And Truth

Toe nail art designs can be fun and they could also change your life forever if not use the correct products.

There are nail polishes that claim to be ‘nontoxic’. Those like Five-free refer to polishes that are free from five specific ingredients: formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate, formaldehyde resin, and camphor. There are brands that claim to be free of these substances, like the 7-free or 10-free. Formaldehyde is a preservative that has been listed by the National Cancer Institute as a potential cancer-causing substance. It also causes allergic contact dermatitis. Formaldehyde resin, dibutyl phthalate, and toluene are also prone to causing allergic contact dermatitis. Camphor(2) is an oil that has been long used as a topical remedy for various conditions but can be toxic if consumed by mouth. Studies have shown that these chemicals in nail polish can be absorbed into the body. But whether it brings negative health effects is not well established.

Those who use decals on toe nails also may have to experience issues as a result of the removal processes involved.

But does this mean you should not do nail art?

Never!!!  Go for trusted brands in nail polish and acetone removers. Try to go without nail polish for at least one week after the removal. Try giving your legs a pedicure from home itself. Because gel nail polish requires a required curing process with UV light, you should try to apply ordinary nail lacquer more frequently and gel nail polish less frequently.

 FAQ

How to do toe nail art?

First, browse for designs or draw one. If you are going to get it done at home, then get the tools. You have tools like dotters, nail art brushes, and pens which can help you draw lines, flowers or aliens like an artist. We also have glitter, sparkles, and rhinestones to help us do some major artwork on the toenails. If you are starting out in the craft, choose simple designs. You can play with different colors. A bonus tip would be to wait for each coat to dry completely before you venture into the next stage.

What is the perfect toenail shape?

The perfect shape of the toenails is straight across. You can achieve this by not cutting the nails round or angles. The kind of ideal shape we would like to have for a French Mani.

Is nail art good for the nails?

Yes, the nail art is good visually and aesthetically. But they can cause skin irritation, allergies, discoloration of nails, etc due to some ingredients, in some cases. Always buy trustworthy brands of nail color. The procedure of pedicure before manicure should also be done under hygienic conditions. Toe nail art can act as a protective layer especially if you deal with puddles or dirt barefoot while gardening and the like.

How can I make my toes pretty?

Your toes can be made pretty with nail colors or nail art which will complement your complexion. You can use glitter or rhinestones to add some extra bling to the toes. You can moisturize it regularly and do a pedicure at least once a month at a hygienic and dependable nail salon

Conclusion

You are what your nails are. Do you know that your nails can indicate your health condition? So can it display your artistic prowess? So be a princess with toe-nail art and put your best foot forward!

Make your toe nail art safely and carefully.

  1. John Wiley & Sons.(1999-2023).Acetone. Available at:

    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/0471435139.tox074
  2. Elsevier B.V.(2023).Camphor: Who needs it?. Available at:

    https://jhu.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/camphor-who-needs-it

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rani

Rani is a women’s lifestyle coach with a knack for translating high fashion into accessible, everyday looks. She has helped countless women embrace their personal style, fostering confidence and self-expression.

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