When it comes to nail art that makes people genuinely smile, nothing beats a monkey nail design. Cute, creative, surprisingly versatile, and endlessly fun — monkey nails have officially claimed their spot as one of the most beloved character nail art trends on Pinterest right now. Whether you love soft, pastel jungle vibes, bold cartoon-style nail art, or jaw-dropping 3D sculptured monkey charms sitting right on your fingertip, there is a design in this collection made exactly for you.
We have pulled together 12 of the most adorable, most creative, and most save-worthy monkey nail designs straight from our Pinterest board. Each one is different, each one is delightful, and each one comes with tips on how to achieve the look yourself or what to ask your nail tech.
Ready to go bananas? Let us get into it.
1. Sunset Tree Monkeys Nails
One of the most visually stunning designs in the entire collection — Sunset Tree Monkeys Nails transform your nails into a breathtaking tropical sunset scene. Warm ombre nails in shades of orange, coral, and golden yellow serve as the backdrop, with tiny silhouetted monkeys swinging from palm tree branches painted across the nail surface. The setting sun glowing behind the jungle silhouette creates a dramatic, almost painterly quality that makes these nails look like a piece of wearable art. This design is ideal for long almond or coffin nails where the panoramic sunset scene has enough space to unfold beautifully.
How to achieve it: Create a warm sunset ombre using a sponge with orange, coral, and yellow gel polishes. Once cured, use a fine black nail art brush or a nail art pen to paint silhouetted palm trees and tiny swinging monkey shapes over the gradient. Seal with glossy topcoat.
Best for: Summer, tropical holidays, nature lovers, statement nail art
2. Pastel Jungle Tale Nails
Soft, sweet, and completely enchanting — Pastel Jungle Tale Nails bring the monkey theme into a dreamy, watercolour-inspired world. Milky white and soft pastel bases are painted with adorable little monkey faces, tropical flowers, and delicate leaf details in muted mint, lilac, peach, and baby blue. The result is a manicure that feels like a illustrated children’s storybook brought to life on your fingertips. Pearl or iridescent topcoat finishes tie the pastel palette together for a cohesive, ethereal look. These nails are as gentle and whimsical as they are creative.
How to achieve it: Apply a milky or sheer white base. Use soft pastel polishes and a thin detailing brush to paint small monkey faces with simple dot eyes, a round snout, and curved ear shapes. Add tiny floral and leaf accents in coordinating pastels. Finish with a pearl or holographic topcoat.
Best for: Spring, kawaii aesthetic, pastel lovers, delicate and feminine nail art
3. Highlighter Safari Nails
Bold, bright, and impossible to ignore — Highlighter Safari Nails dial up the energy with neon and electric tones that feel like a jungle fever dream. Think highlighter yellow, electric green, hot pink, and vivid orange as the base colours, with cartoon-style monkey faces and tropical leaf shapes painted across each nail. The neon palette gives this design an almost graphic, illustrated quality that feels young, fun, and completely on-trend. These are the nails for the person who believes that life is too short for neutral manicures.
How to achieve it: Apply neon gel colours in yellow, green, and orange on different nails for a colour-blocked effect. Paint simple cartoon monkey faces using a detailing brush and black and white gel polish. Add black outline work around the monkey features for a bold, graphic feel. Cure and seal with gloss.
Best for: Festivals, summer, bold and neon lovers, statement manicures
4. Banana Tips & Mischief Nails
Clever, charming, and bursting with personality — Banana Tips and Mischief Nails combine yellow banana-shaped French tips with playful monkey nail art accents for a design that is as witty as it is gorgeous. The banana tip is painted in a warm golden yellow that curves naturally with the nail tip shape, while tiny cartoon monkeys holding or reaching for bananas decorate the accent nails. On a warm caramel or tan base, the yellow and brown tones feel cohesive and intentional. This is the design for the nail art lover with a sense of humour.
How to achieve it: Paint yellow banana-shaped tips using a nail guide or steady freehand technique. On accent nails, draw simple monkey characters holding banana shapes using a fine nail art brush. Use warm brown and black for the monkey body details and bright yellow for the bananas.
Best for: Fun and playful aesthetic, summer, unique French tip lovers
5. Starry Monkey Fantasy Nails
Where the jungle meets the cosmos — Starry Monkey Fantasy Nails are one of the most imaginative designs in this collection. A deep, galaxy-inspired base in midnight blue, purple, and teal is scattered with tiny stars and moon details, while adorable cartoon monkeys float among the stars as if in zero gravity. The contrast between the cosmic backdrop and the whimsical monkey characters creates a magical, surreal quality that feels like a dream. Long almond or stiletto nails give this design the most dramatic, otherworldly effect.
How to achieve it: Create a galaxy base by sponging midnight blue, purple, and teal polishes and adding white star dots and swirls. Paint small, simplified monkey faces and bodies over the galaxy base using a fine detailing brush. Add tiny gold star stickers for extra dimension.
Best for: Creative dreamers, galaxy aesthetic lovers, unique and imaginative nail art
6. Wild Side Cuteness Nails
A tropical explosion of colour and character — Wild Side Cuteness Nails feature a vibrant jungle backdrop of deep orange, burnt sienna, and tropical green with bold, cartoonish animal characters including monkeys, tigers, and jungle creatures painted across each nail. The thick, graphic outlines and saturated colours give this design a confident, almost graffiti-art energy that is anything but subtle. Every nail tells a different part of the jungle story, making the complete set feel like a wearable mural.
How to achieve it: Apply bold base colours in orange, green, and tan across different nails. Use black nail art liner to draw thick-outlined cartoon jungle animals on each nail. Fill in with saturated colours and finish with high-gloss topcoat to make the colours pop.
Best for: Bold and graphic aesthetic, cartoon lovers, maximalist nail art fans
7. Fuzzy Climber Nails
Absolutely irresistible and endlessly charming — Fuzzy Climber Nails are the design that stops people in their tracks. A soft, neutral or pastel base is decorated with incredibly detailed little monkey characters that appear to be clinging to and climbing up the nail, complete with tiny hands, feet, and expressive faces. The monkeys are painted with impressive texture and shading detail that makes them look almost fluffy and three-dimensional without any actual 3D sculpting required. This design rewards patient, detail-oriented nail artists and looks sensational on medium to long oval or almond nails.
How to achieve it: Apply a soft neutral or sage green base. Use a fine brush to paint detailed monkey characters in warm brown tones, adding lighter highlights on the face, belly, and hands and darker shading for depth. Use tiny strokes to simulate fur texture. Finish with a matte topcoat for a softer, more illustrated feel.
Best for: Experienced nail artists, detailed character art lovers, nature and animal lovers
8. Playful Primate French Tips
The most wearable and elegant design in the collection — Playful Primate French Tips take the classic French manicure and add the sweetest monkey face accents you have ever seen. A sheer or nude base with a clean white or soft cream French tip is decorated with one or two tiny, perfectly drawn monkey faces on the accent nails — complete with little round ears, dot eyes, and a soft brown snout. The result is sophisticated enough for everyday wear but playful enough to always get compliments. This is the monkey nail design for those who want character art without going full maximalist.
How to achieve it: Apply a nude or sheer base with a classic white French tip. On the ring finger accent nail, paint a simple monkey face using warm brown for the head, a lighter beige or peach for the snout area, and black dots for the eyes and nostrils. Add tiny curved ear shapes on each side. Keep it clean and simple for the most refined result.
Best for: Everyday wear, office-appropriate fun, French tip lovers, minimalist character art
9. Cartoon Safari Twist Nails
A full safari story told across your ten nails — Cartoon Safari Twist Nails combine monkeys, jungle foliage, tropical flowers, and safari-inspired details in a cohesive, illustrated cartoon style. Each nail features a different element of the jungle scene, from a monkey face close-up on the thumb to palm leaves on the index finger, a flower bloom on the middle finger, and a full monkey character on the ring finger. The unified colour palette of warm greens, oranges, browns, and yellows ties all ten nails into one coherent, storybook-style narrative.
How to achieve it: Plan each nail design before you begin so the colours and elements tell a cohesive story across all ten. Use a jungle-inspired palette and keep the illustration style consistent — all cartoon, all outlined, all at the same level of detail — for the most polished result.
Best for: Creative storytelling nail art, safari and jungle lovers, statement sets
10. Playful Jungle Pop Nails
Joyful, vibrant, and practically radiating good energy — Playful Jungle Pop Nails are a riot of colour and personality. Hot pink, lime green, and tropical yellow base colours are covered with oversized monstera leaves, tiny monkey faces, banana bunches, and jungle flower blooms for a design that feels like a tropical party on your nails. The oversized scale of the nail art elements — big leaves, big flowers, big expressions — gives this design a bold, graphic quality that looks stunning on longer nail lengths. These are the nails that match a vacation state of mind.
How to achieve it: Apply bright tropical base colours on alternating nails. Use a medium-sized brush to paint large monstera leaf shapes in green and add oversized cartoon monkey faces and flower blooms. Embrace scale — bigger, bolder nail art elements read better than small, fiddly ones on this type of design.
Best for: Tropical holidays, summer, bold and bright nail art lovers
11. Plaid Party Animal Nails
Unexpected, playful, and completely original — Plaid Party Animal Nails merge two wildly different aesthetics into one surprisingly harmonious design. A preppy plaid pattern in pink and white or green and yellow serves as the base on some nails, while monkey face accents and jungle character art appear on the contrasting nails. The clash between the structured plaid grid and the organic, playful monkey art creates a fun, fashion-forward tension that feels fresh and completely unique in the world of nail art. This is the design for those who love to break the rules.
How to achieve it: Create a plaid pattern on alternating nails using thin nail striping tape or a fine liner brush to draw clean intersecting lines in contrasting colours. On the remaining nails, paint playful monkey faces or characters in colours pulled from the plaid palette to unify the design.
Best for: Pattern mixing lovers, quirky and original nail art, back-to-school season
12. Banana Baby Nails
The most irresistibly cute design in the entire collection — and the one that will make literally everyone who sees it say “aww”. Banana Baby Nails feature hyper-realistic or highly detailed 3D sculpted baby monkey characters sitting right on top of the nail, their tiny hands wrapped around miniature banana charms or resting in their laps. The baby monkey sculptures are crafted from acrylic or builder gel and painted with extraordinary detail — tiny fingernails, expressive eyes, soft fur texture, and a sweet little face that looks almost impossibly real. These are the nails that become the centrepiece of every room.
How to achieve it: This design requires advanced 3D sculpting skills and is best done by a professional nail artist specialising in character nail art. The baby monkey forms are built from acrylic or hard gel using sculpting tools, then painted with detail brushes and sealed. If attempting at home, start with a simplified flat version of a baby monkey face rather than full 3D sculpting.
Best for: Special events, maximum wow factor, animal lovers, 3D nail art enthusiasts
Essential Tools for Monkey Nail Art at Home
If you are planning to try any of these designs at home, here is what you will need in your toolkit:
• Fine nail art detailing brush (size 10/0 or 20/0): Essential for painting tiny monkey faces, fur texture, and fine detail work.
• Dotting tool: Perfect for creating round eyes, nostrils, and polka dot accents on monkey face designs.
• Nail art liner pen: For clean, confident outlines around your monkey characters and jungle elements.
• Makeup sponge: For creating gradient and ombre backgrounds like the sunset in Sunset Tree Monkeys Nails.
• Gel polish and UV/LED lamp: For longer-lasting results that hold up the detail work in character nail art.
• High-quality topcoat: A crystal-clear, high-gloss topcoat is essential for protecting your hard work and making the colours vibrant and long-lasting.
Final Thoughts
Monkey nail designs prove that nail art does not have to take itself too seriously to be extraordinary. From the dreamlike beauty of Sunset Tree Monkeys and the galaxy whimsy of Starry Monkey Fantasy to the jaw-dropping craftsmanship of Banana Baby Nails and the everyday charm of Playful Primate French Tips — this collection has something magical for every personality, skill level, and occasion.
Save your favourites, pin this article to your nail art boards, and share it with every friend who is ready to take their next manicure to a wildly adorable new level. Life is genuinely better with monkey nails.
