As women, we are our own canvasses of art. Why? Well, simply because almost every part of our body can be spiced up and look like a piece of art, worthy of a place in the world's most famous art museums.

Clothes and accessories help us create art with our bodies, and hair treatments and hair dyes help us create art with our hair. However, do you know what other part of our body can be transformed into a work of art? Our nails!

There are a whole lot of designs and methods that can turn our nails into something extremely beautiful. In fact, so many women turn this into a hobby and profession, calling it nail art.

There are even specific tools made especially for beautifying our nails, and I'm not just talking about plain-coloured nail polish. However, nail polish is the most important element in creating nail art, but there's just so much more to it!

Are you curious about what exactly this 'more' means? Well, here are a few examples of these tools I mentioned earlier that are specially-made for nail art!

• Nail art stickers. They're similar to ordinary stickers, but with stronger adhesive backs and smaller so they can fit on our nails. There are several different designs for nail art stickers ranging from cute cartoon characters like Hello Kitty to hearts and flowers. Since there are so many types of stickers, we have the liberty to create our own customised design and show as much of our personality as we want!

• Nail art brushes. These are the perfect tool for creating stripes and details on our nails since these are usually very thin. Some of these brushes come in a fanned out shape, which are often used to create multi-coloured stripes.

• Base coat nail polish. This type of nail polish is probably one of the most important things we should own. While it's okay to directly apply nail polish on our nails, using a base coat achieves a better effect. Base coats actually prevent our nails from staining if we use dark-coloured nail polish. It also creates a smooth and even finish, and helps our manicure last a lot longer.

• Dotting tools. Before I heard about dotting tools, I used to create dots by simply using the tip of the nail polish brush. This was a hit and miss method, because the dots weren't always so perfect. However, with dotting tools creating perfect circles to a desired size is much easier! They even come in sets so we can experiment with different dot sizes.

There are many nail art tools out there, but these are four of the most common and popular tools. If you're still curious about nail art tools, try browsing our website for more. You can also check out our many nail art video tutorials!

We've seen it on TV, on magazines, on the internet, basically we've seen it everywhere. Every time we see it, our eyes either go big in awe or we actually try it ourselves.

I'm talking about nail art and the trend it has been setting for women all around the world. Celebrities, middle-aged women, young adults, teenagers, mostly everyone wants a taste of nail art and they won't rest until they learn a few nail designs.

Ever since nail art started receiving a considerable attention, plenty of enthusiasts have been coming up with several unique nail designs. They are even generous enough to share their ideas so everyone can try them, like how we have our own video tutorials on our website (www.meliney.com).

These varying nail designs have different levels of difficulty, with some being as simple as colouring each nail with a different colour to adding complicated patterns like animal prints. However, any design can be mastered with practice because as the popular line goes: practice makes perfect!

So, for us to fully enjoy exploring the colourful world of nail designs, here are a few tips, tricks, and advice that can help us along the way!

• Probably the most common and most annoying thing that happens while we're painting our nails is when we accidentally include the skin around our nails. Nail polish on the skin is a little hard to remove and not to mention it makes an otherwise neat nail design look messy! When this happened to me, I used to just wait until it eventually washed off from bathing and/or washing my hands. However with this tip I won't be doing that anymore! We can prevent nail polish from sticking to the skin around our nails by applying petroleum jelly on this area using a cotton swab, white craft glue works effectively as well!

• To make a really detailed design we can draw on our nails using gel pens that are available in every office supplies store. We have to remember though that the ink of the gel pen can take a while to dry. Once we're finished with the gel pen design, we have to wait for at least 30 minutes before finishing with a top coat.

• When we're busy creating a unique design we use different bottles of nail polish, and sometimes when we switch to a different colour, the lid is almost impossible to open. At times we're even too scared to exert more effort opening it because it might ruin our nails. Well, here's a simple tip to make nail polish lids come off very easily, even if we're trying to watch our nails: use rubber bands! When we wrap rubber bands around the lid, it allows us to have more grip so it's easier to twist.

Hopefully with these tips, we'll be able to have an easier and more fun time designing our nails to the nines!

As women we can be very expressive with the way we dress or the way we wear our makeup. However, these days our nails have joined the style wagon in the form of various nail art designs.

Almost every lady has tried to do nail art at least once, and why shouldn't we? It's fun, it's unique, it's basically like picking out an outfit for our nails.

We can see the impact of nail art on women for ourselves whenever we watch award shows like the Grammy's where they have this gimmick called the Mani Cam. The Mani Cam is basically a small red carpet platform with a camera at the end where celebrities can show off their nails.

This unique manicure style allows us to express ourselves creatively through our nails. We can have any colour and any design we want! It also doesn't have to be so complicated to create one. Some designs don't even need drawing skills.

Gradually when we keep doing nail art we will IMPROVE OUR SKILLS AND LEARN to do MORE COMPLICATED DESIGNS. So, to help you get there, here are a few tips for beginners that might be useful in giving you a head start:

• Begin with simple designs. As I've said before, some designs can be very simple to do. You don't have to immediately jump into complicated designs because you will eventually learn how to do them once you've mastered the basics. Some examples of these simple designs are stripes, leopard prints and polka dots. In fact, even having a different colour for each nail is considered a design!

• Use Ziploc bags. If you think you're still a little unsteady with applying directly on your nails you can use plastic Ziploc bags as your canvas instead. Estimate the size of your nails and draw the design you want on the Ziploc bags. After finishing your design, leave them there for a while to dry. Once it has dried you can peel them off, stick them to your nails and top it with a fast-drying, colourless coat. You can even outline your design with a marker to make it easier for you to draw.

• Improvise! As a beginner you might not have all the fancy tools the professionals have, but that shouldn't stop you! There are many materials just lying around your house that can do a good a job as the professional tools. Let's take polka dots for example, perfect circles can be achieved by using bobby pins (but you have to pull it apart first). If you want smaller dots - use toothpicks.

• Use a Cosmetic Sponge. These are a great tool for creating gradient or Ombre nails. What you can do is first paint your nails with a base colour and allow it to completely dry. Once you're sure that it's as dry as it can be, apply 2 or 3 colours onto a cosmetic sponge and dab the colours onto the nail to create the gradient effect. If you're happy with the results of each nail, finish off with a colourless top coat.

Starting out is really all about experimenting until you find a design you really like and are really good at. Hopefully these beginner tips can help pave your way to fabulous and expressive nails.

How many of you wish you could stamp multi colored designs using your image plate and stamper? Having the Konad stamp set has made it a lot easier to create nail art designs but usually we are limited to how many colours we can stamp with. Previously I have made videos showing you how to stamp with 2 colours in my Sweet Cherry Nail Art Tutorial. I also showed you the double stamping method in the Snoopy Tutorial. Today I’m going to show you the best one yet, how to create multiple coloured designs using your stamp set. That’s right, you heard me, it’s possible so watch the video to find out how.  

French tips made easy. Watch this video to find out 10 different ways to create french tip manicures. 

Don't you just hate it when one of your nail breaks? Especially if its below the tip. try this method to prolong the length of your nails until you are ready to cut them.

Have you ever accidentally ruined your manicure before it dries and had to redo your whole nail? Here is a little tip you can try to save you some stress.