COPIED

6 mins

Football fingertips

The Euro 2024 football championship kicks off this month, so Scratch set four nail artists from competing countries a goal: to create a themed step-by-step to help you up your nail art game

Euro 2024 fact file

What: The UEFA European Football Championship, also known as the European Championship and Euro: a quadrennial men’s football tournament.

When: 14 June – 14 July

Where: Germany, across 10 stadiums.

No. of teams: 24

Francesca Paliotto is an Italian nail artist & educator based in Ferrara, Northern Italy. She has been awarded 27 Nailympia Competitions medals, as well as an Art Winner of Winners accolade and two Winner of Winners trophies. Here, she shares how to paint a salon-friendly football pitch design on a nail.

FP • Nail Studio & Academy di Francesca Paliotto @francesca.paliotto @francescapaliotto

Step 1 Prep the nail and apply two coats of green gel polish, curing after each application.

Step 2 Using white gel paint and a fine liner brush, paint a horizontal line across the nail to divide it in half. Cure.

Step 3 Continuing with the white shade and brush, paint lines on the top and bottom areas of the nail to represent the penalty and goal areas. Cure.

Step 4 Use a dotting tool and white gel paint to add the centre and penalty marks to to the field design. Cure.

Step 5 With the white gel paint and fine liner brush, paint a circle shape around the centre mark to create the centre circle. Cure.

Step 6 Using a dotting tool and your choice of gel paint (I chose blue), add 11 dots to create the formation of the first team’s players. Cure.

Step 7 Using a dotting tool and your choice of gel paint (I chose yellow), add 11 dots to create the formation of the second team’s players. Cure.

Step 8 Apply a glossy top coat and cure.

Henriette Skydt Svensson lives in Skanderborg, Denmark, where she creates nail content for the Magnetic Nail Design brand. She was awarded first place in the Mixed Media category at the Nordic Nail Open 2024 in Sweden. The pro has taken inspiration from the Euro 2024 logo for this design.

/henriettenails

@henriettenails@henriettenails

@henriettenails8425@henriettenails8425

Step 1 Following prep, enhance the nail using your chosen system and draw on the lines seen in the background of the logo using a pencil. Start to fill in the triangle shapes using gel polish shades that match the Euro 2024 logo.

Step 2 Fill in all the triangles so that the entire nail is covered, curing between colour applications.

Step 3 Apply a thin layer of top coat and make sure any unevenness is smoothed out before curing. Buff the nail with a very fine buffer.

Step 4 Paint the outline of the Euro trophy onto the nail using white gel paint. Fill this in using white gel polish and cure.

Step 5 Buff the trophy shape with the fine buffer and draw on the trophy details using a pencil.

Step 6 Paint the trophy using your chosen gel polish shades, adding shadows for a realistic effect. I mixed Magnetic Nail Design’s Gel Polish Base & Top with colours used for shadowing to thin them for effective painting. Cure in between colour applications.

Step 7 Using a liner brush to ensure lines are thin and precise with white gel polish, paint the highlights on the trophy shape and cure. Paint blue gel polish lines to match the trophy details and cure.

Step 8 Apply matte top coat over the entire nail and cure.

Essex-based Gemma Dawson is an English competition and social media nail artist, specialising in character, micro and 3D designs. She came fourth in Scratch’s World’s Star Nail Artist competition in 2023. To mark Euro 2024, Gemma reveals how to create a portrait of the tournament’s mascot: teddy bear, Albärt, on a nail.

Gemma Dawson (Gemma Dawson Nail Artist)

@gemma_dawson_nailartist@gemma_dawson_nailartist

@gemmadawson@gemmadawson

Step 1 Prep the nail, then apply white gel polish and cure. Using a medium to light brown gel polish, paint a flattened oval shape, with two smaller circles at the top, on the right and left. This forms Albärt’s head and ears. Use your brush to create the effect of tufts of fur either side of the head. Cure.

Step 2 Using a lighter brown gel polish shade, paint a small circle on the bottom half of Albärt’s face and two semicircles inside the ears. Cure.

Step 3 Near the top of the light brown circle at the bottom of the head, paint a softened diamond shape using black gel polish and cure. In line with this shape on the right, paint a semicircle using white gel polish. Cure.

Step 4 On the opposite side of the face, paint a curved, black gel polish line and directly above that, a black crescent moon shape lying on its side, to create an eyebrow. Cure.

Step 5 Add a second black crescent moon shape on the opposite side of the face to create the other eyebrow, and outline the entire face in black gel polish, including the open eye, before curing. Paint the eye’s iris using green gel polish and cure. Next, create Albärt’s mouth in black gel polish, painting a U-shape then a curved line across the top of the U. Cure, then paint the teeth using white gel polish and cure.

Step 6 Using a slightly darker brown gel polish shade than Albärt’s face, add some shading to the head in areas that would have a natural shadow. With white gel polish, add a highlight to the open eye and cure.

Step 7 Paint the background using a dark blue gel polish hue in keeping with the Euro 2024 colour scheme and cure. Apply top coat and cure to finish.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Euro 2024 mascot was named Albärt following a vote among UEFA.com users and European schoolchildren. It is hoped the character will inspire children across Europe to enjoy playing football.

Award-winning nail artist & educator, Kristie Jauvais, is based in the La Tour-d’Aigues commune in South-eastern France. With a focus on elegance and wearability for this step-by-step, Kristie was inspired by UEFA and Adidas’ Euro 2024 football design: Fussballliebe, which means ‘love of football’ and represents the joy of football and energy of the championship.

/kristie.jauvais

@kristiejauvais_studionailart

Step 1 Prep the nail, apply a white gel polish base, cure then buff. Draw the lines of the design pattern onto the nail using a pencil. Be careful not to press too hard – the lines should be light to simply guide you during the next steps.

Step 2 Fill in each part of the pattern using gel colours matching the Fussballliebe design and fine liner brushes for efficiency. I used neon red and saffron yellow gel polishes here, but you could also use gel paint. Cure between each colour application.

Step 3 Continue to fill in the pattern. I started with the lighter colours, because it is easier to cover them with darker colours if a mistake is made. I started to add black gel polish here.

Step 4 I added neon green gel polish, remembering to cure between each colour application.

Step 5 As you continue to fill in the pattern, add a second layer of gel polish over each coloured area and cure, so that the hues are bright and uniform.