Press on. Stand out. Repeat.

A hand with fruit-inspired press-on nails in strawberry, kiwi, and green-to-pink ombre designs holds a tan New Balance 992 sneaker with lime green laces against a kiwi slice background, with bubble-letter text reading "Low Hanging Fruit" styled in red strawberry lettering.

Low Hanging Fruit | Set Stories

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by

Erica
in

Calling all of my sneaker lovers with pretty nails! I’m finally back with some sneaker-inspired nail art. I went to the bottom of my closet to get inspiration for this set, not because I don’t love these sneakers, but because when I first bought them, I wore them so much they kinda became my beaters.  

No long story necessary up front. Let’s get into how I created these DIY fruit-inspired nail art press-ons inspired by the Concepts x New Balance “Low Hanging Fruit” 992s.

Two hands with fruit-inspired press-on nails cupped together against a wood plank background, showing kiwi, strawberry, and ombre nail designs in green, red, and pink across both sets of fingers.
A closer look at the fruit-inspired nail art details. This is where the kiwi and strawberry designs really get to shine.

The Vision

When designing any of my custom at-home nail sets, I always use my 6-step design process called The POLISH Method. The POLISH Method helps me think through the creative process in a way that minimizes analysis paralysis and leaves me with a set I love once that last layer of polish is cured.

Point of View

Coming off the very bright and botanical Tropic Glass set, I wanted to keep that vibe going strong. I didn’t really want to lean into a design that was too funky or abstract, but I did want to go heavy on the fun. I think this fruit-inspired nail art set achieved that. 

Origin

I pulled out the Concepts x New Balance 992 “Low Hanging Fruit” collab as the inspiration for this sneaker-inspired nail art set. Now, there are really only three colors on the outer part of the shoe: tan, green, and cream. At first glance, you may think the shoe design is based just on the kiwi fruit (especially with the fuzzy suede texture). It’s when you look into the shoe and at the box that you see this was a strawberry-kiwi sneaker all along. Strawberries and kiwis are the fruits I eat the most, so I feel like I’m paying homage to some of my dietary homies with these fruit-inspired nail art press-ons.

Top-down view of two tan New Balance 992 sneakers with lime green laces, showing strawberry-print insoles and a "Concepts" logo, set against a strawberry background.
The insole detail that inspired this whole set. Image from Concepts.com.

Layout

Two words: medium, almond. That’s my tried and true nail shape and I stuck with it for this press-on nail set. Also, because this is a fruit-inspired nail set the almond shape was the best fit as it’s most similar to the form of kiwis and strawberries. 

Inventory

All of my color inspo was from the shoe and the box so I stuck with red, green, tan, and pops of white, black, and yellow. For the index finger, I pulled out clear acrylic powder for some added texture and for my favorite finish of this set, the thumbs, I used Poke base gel for a wet look. I’m so in love with how it turned out, my next set will be a full wet look.

Sketch

Take a look at The Set Map for this custom DIY press-on nail set:

A hand-drawn Set Map on white paper showing sketched nail designs for both hands, labeled "Almond" with theme "NB x Concepts 992 Strawberry Kiwi" and Gellike EC tips, for the Low Hanging Fruit fruit-inspired nail art set. Colors and products listed include PLA 109 Christmas Magic solid red, Major Duit 01 jelly red, DND 2521 Quantum Leap light green, DND 2525 Zen Oasis kelly green, and Lanfo C86 tan, with additional notes for stamp, magnet gel, and eyeshadow ombre techniques. Nail-by-nail sketches for thumb, index, middle, ring, and pinky show a strawberry design on the right hand and a kiwi design on the left hand, with step-by-step product and cure notes underneath each nail.
The Set Map for Low Hanging Fruit. Every color, every layer, every decision behind this fruit-inspired nail art set, documented before the first coat hit.

Getting my thoughts out on paper is always helpful for me. The Set Map gives me something to reference once I start to execute the set, and when things don’t work out well, it’s a way for me to document design updates and pivots I had to make while creating my press-ons.

Highlight & Harmonize

One of the reasons I love creating sneaker-inspired nail sets in the bulk of the design process is already done by the shoe’s designers. They put in a lot of work to make sure the color story and the texture elements all make sense together. Because of that, I’m never truly worried about harmony in these designs, but I do get to choose what I want to highlight. For this set, the hero nails are the middle fingers which most clearly represent the kiwi and strawberry. I love both nails, but the kiwi nail is my favorite of the two!

The Execution

Two hands with fruit-inspired press-on nails hold a "Concepts" branded shoe box against a strawberry background, with the box displaying a kiwi and strawberry illustration and "New Balance 992" branding.
The Concepts x New Balance 992 “Low Hanging Fruit” box that started it all.

As always, this is a gel polish nail art set. You could probably achieve this or a similar design with nail lacquer, but I opt for gel polish because it only dries once cured in a UV/LED lamp, so I’m free to wipe away any designs until I’m 100% pleased with how they look. 

I used a few techniques that I tap into quite often when doing nail art: magnet gel, clear acrylic powder, and ombre. The one that gave me some trouble this time was ombre. If I’m being honest (and I’m always honest with y’all), ombre nail art in all of its forms gives me a bit of trouble every time I attempt it. I’m still working on getting a seamless blend between two colors, but my issue this time was color saturation. 

For the ring fingers, I wanted to recreate the green-red ombre letters on the shoebox. I started off by using eyeshadows because I find I get the best blend with that product, but the color payoff wasn’t great. After adding a base coat layer over the eyeshadow to help prevent lifting, I decided to pull out a jelly green and jelly red gel polishes and went over the eyeshadow ombre with gel polish ombre. This worked perfectly and I think I might start doing the eyeshadow layer + jelly gel polish layer when I want a smooth, but bold ombre effect. 

Okay, let’s get into the nail-by-nail of it all as I walk you through how I created each nail in this set. 

Nail by Nail

Ten almond-shaped DIY press-on nails arranged in two rows against a yellow gingham background, showing five fruit-inspired nail designs: a glossy red strawberry base, a tan nail with a green center stripe, a hand-painted strawberry with visible seeds, a green-to-orange ombre, and a red nail with a palm tree and wave design.
The full Low Hanging Fruit set, laid out flat. Ten nails, one shoe, a whole lot of fruit-inspired nail art detail.

First up, prep: buff and etch the nails! 

I etch the underside of each nail with an e-file to create a rough surface so the nails stay on for at least 2 weeks after application. I then buff the top of each nail to ensure the gel polish does not peel off. 

For this set, both hands mostly mirror each other (the middle fingers are the exception), but each individual finger has its own design, so I approached the design execution differently.

A three-panel image showing a green kiwi-inspired thumb nail against a rainy car window, a close-up of a sliced kiwi and strawberry, and a red strawberry-inspired thumb nail against the same rainy window.
Kiwi on one hand, strawberry on the other. Real fruit, real fruit-inspired nail art.

Thumb:

  1. Clear base coat, 1 coat, fully cure
  2. Solid color polish all over nail (red or green), 2 coats, fully cure between each coat
  3. Magnet gel polish all over nail, 1 coat, use magnet to create desired pattern, fully cure between each coat
  4. Jelly color polish all over nail (red or green), 2 coats, fully cure between each coat
  5. Clear builder gel, 1 coat, fully cure
  6. Glossy top coat, 1 coat, fully cure
    1. In hindsight, this step wasn’t necessary, but I decided to do the “wet” nail look after I had already added the top coat
  7. Poke base gel all over nail, 1 coat, fully cure
  8. Lightly jab glossy top coat randomly all around the nail to create a patchy look, watch the polish beads move and fully cure as soon as you see your desired look
    1. This TikTok shows this technique in action. 

Index:

  1. Clear base coat, 1 coat, fully cure
  2. Solid light green gel polish all over nail, 2 coats, fully cure between each coat
  3. Clear builder gel, 1 coat, fully cure
  4. Glossy top coat, 1 coat, fully cure
  5. Paint tan gel polish design, 1 coat, fully cure
  6. Go over tan design with another coat of tan gel polish, do not cure
  7. Using a tiny scoop and focusing on the wet tan section; pour acrylic powder over the nail until the tan polish no longer looks shiny, fully cure
Two close-up press-on nails against a pink gingham background, one painted as a kiwi slice with green rind and black seeds, the other painted as a strawberry with red base, yellow seeds, and a green top.
Kiwi and strawberry, nail by nail. The two designs anchoring this fruit-inspired nail art set.

Middle:

  1. Clear base coat, 1 coat, fully cure
  2. Solid light green gel polish all over nail, 2 coats, fully cure between each coat
  3. Magnet gel polish all over nail, 1 coat, use magnet to create desired pattern, fully cure between each coat
  4. Matte top coat all over nail, 1 coat, fully cure
  5. Create fruit designs with liner brush and design-specific color gel polishes, flash cure as you go and fully cure once full design is complete
  6. Clear builder gel, 1 coat, fully cure
  7. Glossy top coat, 1 coat, fully cure

Ring:

  1. Clear base coat, 1 coat, cure
  2. Solid white gel polish all over the nail, 2 coats, fully cure between each coat
  3. Matte top coat, 1 coat, fully cure
  4. Using an eyeshadow applicator sponge, apply bright green on the left/right side of the nail and red eyeshadow on the other side of the nail, be sure no white polish is visible on the nail
  5. Using a lint-free wipe with a little bit of 70% isopropyl alcohol on it, wipe just the border of the entire nail, just along the edge as to not disturb the eyeshadow 
  6. Clear base coat, 1 coat, fully cure
  7. Apply jelly red and jelly neon green gel polishes over the corresponding eyeshadow colors, do not cure
  8. Using an ombre brush, blend the two colors only where they meet in the middle of the nail to create an ombre effect, fully cure
  9. Clear builder, 1 coat, fully cure
  10. Glossy top coat, 1 coat, fully cure

Pinky:

  1. Clear base coat, 1 coat, fully cure
  2. Solid red polish all over nail, 2 coats, fully cure between each coat
  3. Matte top coat, 1 coat, fully cure
  4. Using liner brushes, paint on design, flash cure as you go and fully cure once full design is complete
  5. Clear builder gel , 1 coat, fully cure
  6. Glossy top coat,1 coat, fully cure

Here are a few more tips I think are non-negotiables:

  • Always follow the curing instructions based on the safety guidelines for each specific product.
  • Use an appropriate UV/LED lamp – at least 48W. Those handheld flashlight ones and tiny 1-nail-at-a-time lamps do not completely cure gel polishes.  
  • Wear nitrile gloves at all times when handling gel products!

Here’s a step I never skip when making homemade press-on nails: 

After each set is done, even when the non-wipe top coat is fully cured, there is likely some residue left on the press-on nails. So I do the following:

  • Wipe each nail with a lint-free wipe dampened with 70% isopropyl alcohol. 
  • Follow with a second lint-free wipe dampened with water and a drop of Dawn dish soap. 
  • Finish with one final wipe using 70% isopropyl alcohol to ensure any residual inhibition layer is completely removed.

This gives me peace of mind that any residual inhibition layers are completely wiped off.

The Toolkit

It’s time for me to give you details on all of the products I used to create this set. I beg you, don’t get overwhelmed by this list. It looks like way too much stuff, but most of these things are items you buy just once or a couple of times a year. They’re mostly items you likely already have in your DIY Press-on Nail Starter Kit.

Base & Prep:

Colors:

Finishes & Effects:

Tools:

Top Coat:

Two hands with fruit-inspired press-on nails hold a tan New Balance 992 sneaker with lime green laces from opposite angles, set against a background of kiwi slices and strawberry pieces with a red graphic outline.
Every fruit-inspired nail art detail on this set traces back to this shoe. Tan, green, and cream, translated straight onto the nails.