There's more to nail art than just neon varnish and French manis. Glam up those talons with these fun ideas sourced by Bushra S Khan. Here's a how-to from nail art technician Aditi Mehta

The moon manicure

This look can be a chic and funky look for a dull day

You'll need:

-Two nail polishes. We chose black and coral, as coral has been a hot favourite shade.

-Nail guiding strips (easily available at most beauty outlets)

Procedure:

1. Put on two coats of the coral polish.

2. Stick the nail guiding strip as close to the base of your nail as possible.

3. Make sure to lock the strips at both ends. How do you that? Press the strip into the crevice at the side of your nail (between your nail and flesh. You should do that so that the black nail paint does not seep into the coral colour).

4. Apply two coats of the black nail paint.

5. Peel off the strip only when you are absolutely sure that the polish has dried off completely. And be extremely careful while you are at it.

6. Seal it with a top coat.

7. Flaunt your half-moon manicured nails!

Tip:

1. If you are using a light and dark varnish, remember to keep the lighter colour for the moons while using the darker colour for the rest of the nail bed. Note: There is a risk of the darker colour bleeding onto the lighter shade and you might have to start all over again.

2. If you have a shorter nail bed, don't make your moons too big. You nails will appear smaller than they are.

Tips and bows

A classy look that borders on cute and you can easily wear to work without looking boring

You'll need:

-Pink nail varnish

-No. 0 nail art brush

-Base coat

Procedure:

1. Paint just the tips of your nails with the hot pink nail varnish. You can use nail strips (sold in almost all beauty outlets and often used for French manicures) as a guide.

2. Using black poster colour and your No. 0 nail art brush, draw two triangles where your pink tips start. Fill the triangle with black colour and also draw the strands/ ends/ frills of the bows.

3. Finish with a top coat.

Tip:

1. Try to keep your triangles as tiny as possible and gradually build up on the size if you want bigger bows.

2. Amp up the look by drawing a neat line in black using your No. 0 brush between the pink tips and the nail bed and use the same brush and draw tiny polka dots with white nail varnish.

Nail artist Aditi Mehta says most nail art is done with poster colours. Why? Well for starters, if you mess up the bow, you will have to wipe off everything with a nail varnish remover; paint the tips with two coats of nail polish, carefully draw the bows all over again, recoat and also wait for four coats of polish to dry. Whew! That's a lot of waiting. On the other hand, if you mess up while using poster colours, all you have to do is dip a cotton ball in water, wipe off the messed-up bows gently, and draw them more carefully. Easy peasy!