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Short Acrylic Nail Designs

Long acrylic nails are great, it’s no surprise they’re such a big trend. But sometimes you just need to embrace short nails. Are you with us on this one? Short nails are always a win for practicality purposes. If you’re anything like us, you love long nails but sometimes feel like you just need to love them from afar. Regardless of your lifestyle if you’re a short acrylic nail kind of gal we’re talking to you. For some reason short nails got the rep of not being feasible for fun designs. We’re proving that theory WRONG as we rounded up some pretty incredible short acrylic nail designs.

1Geometric Art Short Square Acrylic Nails

Give your matte black nails an artistic twist with the addition of white shapes painted on. The key to recreating a nail design like this is to make the lines and shapes simple and delicate. Juxtaposing between matte black and delicate shapes in white makes this a stand out design.

2Blue in Love Really Short Acrylic Nails

Instead of choosing the classic black polish you always do, switch it up with a deep blue tone like this manicure. We adore the way they added a feminine flair to the blue by painting one nail in a nude color and adding a dainty heart to tie the nude nail into the blue.

3Modern Neutral Round Nails

Grey nails are the color of the year in 2019. Choose a light grey shade for a spring/summer vibe. Make it even more appropriate for the warm weather season by rotating grey with white on your nails. It’s a modern neutral color combination.

4Blossoming Pink Sakura Nails

You’ve probably seen the iconic cherry blossom trees that bloom in different parts of the world. Even if you can’t see the real thing you can use them as inspiration for you short acrylic nails. Have each nail painted with a different cherry blossom-esque design to add depth to the design.

5Chromed Beige Short Square Acrylic Nails

Beige nails have been popular for a while and we don’t see the color going anywhere – it’s a great neutral! If you like the beige color trend but want something that has a little more flair consider breaking up the solid polish with chrome. All you need to do is add chrome polish to one nail to transform the neutral shade.

6Pop of Flower Acrylics

Black and yellow isn’t just a rap song, it’s also a stunning color scheme. They complement each other so well. If you love black nails, add a pop of yellow to one of the nails to spring-ify your nails. Add yellow with a flower or any other design.

7Glittered Ombre Short Acrylic Nails

Will we ever get tired of ombre nails? The answer is no. We love that these short acrylic nails combine elements of ombre and a French manicure. It gives you the best of both worlds! Using glitter polishes makes it even more glam.

8Shimmering Lines White Acrylic Nails

White nails always feel like a fresh neutral color. Add some edge and glam to your favorite neutral color with a nail design like this. Painting thin lines in a geometric type of design instantly updates white nails. Keep it simple with just the lines or give your nails a little glitter touch like this manicure.

9Tipped with Glitter Short Acrylic Nails

The beauty of short acrylic nail designs is you don’t need to do a lot to achieve a gorgeous look. This is ideal for the woman who likes to keep her nails subdued but still wants a little glam. To get this nail design you’ll need to start with the perfect shade of nude polish – that’s the tricky part. But once you find it you’re golden.

10Beige Embellishing Acrylic Nails

We’re fully in love with nude nails right now, especially for short nails. It’s fresh, modern and chic. Add tiny gold embellishments to nude nails for even more style. If you don’t have access to gold embellishments like this you can always use gold polish to create a similar look.

11Pastel Stripes Nail Art

It’s spring so naturally we had to include the classic spring color inspiration – pastels! No matter how long we all rock pastels in the spring/summer it feels like new every year. We love how this short nail design combines multiple colors of pastel, combined with metallic stripes for contrast.

12Planted with Ombre Acrylic Nails

Ombre nails don’t have to be a big statement. So often when we think of ombre we think of colors that fade from one drastic color to another. This is a softer take. Adding leaf designs to one nail on each hand makes this short nail design even more special.

13Short Lilac Love Nails

Have you noticed lilac is EVERYWHERE right now? From clothes and shoes to…nails! It’s such a beautiful color you can leave it alone on your short acrylic nails. Add a top coat to the lilac to give it that nice shiny finish.

14Pastel Marble Square Acrylic Nails

Marble, marble, marble! We can’t get enough of marble designed nails. Painting just one of your nails, particularly the pinky finger, in the marble design is such a unique juxtaposition to the delicate pastel shade on the rest of the nails.

15Glamourous Mauve Acrylic Nails

If nude or beige nails aren’t really your thing but you still want a color that’s fairly neutral, give a mauve tone a try. Mauve has more pink in it than your typical beige color does which makes it ideal for spring and summer. For even more style try mauve with a matte finish and add depth to your nails with a pop of glitter.

16Matted Monochrome With Diamonds

How fun is this manicure?! Matte finish polish really has a way of transforming the look of nail colors, even your favorite neutrals. Monochromatic is popular in fashion so why not translate that into nails with shades of grey.

17Chic Glitter Short Square Acrylic Nails

Black nail connoisseurs this short nail design is what your dreams are made of – we’re assuming. Adding glitter to the base of the nail, instead of the entire nail, and fading it as you get close to the tip gives gorgeous depth to the nails. It allows you to keep your favorite nail color and just add a fun twist.

18Modern Color Scheme Blue Glitter Nails

We encourage you to give blue nails a try this year. Not only will it be a big nail color trend, it’s a fresh update from the typical nail colors. This blue color is perfectly complimented with beige. If you want to tie the colors in together, add glitter like they’ve done here.

19Mixing Finishes Brown Beige Acrylics

Matte polish is trendy but that doesn’t mean you have to go all matte for your short nail designs. Mix and match the finishes of your nail polish choices for your manicure. This design is proof you can stick to a neutral color palette without sacrificing style.

20Dipped in Gold Acrylic Nails

Once you find the perfect nude nail polish color for you, it’s hard to want to wear any other color on your nails. It goes with EVERYTHING you wear and looks great all year long. But let’s face it sometimes you may want to mix it up a bit, without going too far from the classic neutral. Well, all you need to do is add some gold glitter and you’re, well…golden!

21Clearly Pink Acrylics Styled

22Nude Color Rounded Acrylic Nails

23Short Classy Embellishing Acrylic Nails

24Pineapple Short Round Acrylic Nails

25Glittered Girl Acrylic Nails

26Freshen your Glitz Short Square Acrylic Nails

27Matte Meets Shine

28Glam Ombre Short Coffin Acrylic Nails

29Classic with a Twist

30Soft Glitter

31Pastel Candies Short Round Acrylic Nails

32Neutrally Pearlized Short Nails

33Sunflower Style Nails

34Reversely Designed Acrylics

35Rainbows and Unicorn Acrylic Nails

36Striped with Glitz Acrylics

37The New Star Acrylic Nails

38Shaped with Fashion Acrylic Nails

39Whiten in Silver Short Square Acrylic Nails

40Galaxy Chic Acrylic Nails

41Matte Grey Short Almond Nails

42Squoval Short Acrylic Nails

43White Pink Ombre Acrylic Nails

44Purple Glitter Short Stiletto Acrylic Nails

45Black Matte and Glitter Acrylic Nails

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We wouldn’t steer you wrong – these short acrylic nail designs are proof your nails can look just as chic when you have less length. It’s easy to feel like you can only have fun with your manicures when you have more length to work with but that certainly isn’t the case. So next time you head in to the nail salon to get your acrylic nails, don’t be afraid to opt for a shorter length.

For us, one of our favorite ways to spruce up short acrylic nails is with the use of fun embellishments. By now you’ve probably realized that embellished nails are massively popular this year – and not just for long nails. Even the smallest of embellishments like tiny pearls can transform your short nails from basic to uniquely beautiful with some nail glue and stylish embellishment.

If you want to make your short acrylic nails feel really trendy, we suggest giving matte finish nail polish a go. The finish changes the look of nails, even if you stick with solid color polish. Matte lipstick came onto the scene a couple of years ago and now the flat finish has made its way to our nails. For the spring try matte pastel tones it’s a fun take on the springtime classic. A modern twist!

Another factor to consider when getting short acrylic nails done is to think about the shape of the nail. So often we think short nails are limiting but they can get a different vibe with a slight change in the shape they are. Mix things up a bit and go from your classic squared-off short nail shape to something more rounded or even a slight point at the tips. The point is – think outside the box!