Technique: Splatter Nails

So this was my first try at splatter nails. I used this tutorial, so I am just going to do a quick summary of what I learned while trying this technique.

I started with a dark purple base coat (2 coats). This one is No More Film by Essie. (I just love Essie polishes so much!) It looks almost black, but I wanted a good contrast with the splatter so this was perfect.

Below is a pic of my set up. (The gold is Good as Gold by Essie). Basically I just used a plastic straw cut in half (you have more control over the straw if it is short) and a dime/nickel size amount of polish on a plastic plate. You really need a good amount of polish to dip the straw in for this to work. I had to keep replenishing my pile of polish throughout the splattering process.

So instead of going into detail about the process (tutorial is linked at the top) I will just point out some things I learned from doing this the first time…

The below order of operations worked best for me:

1.  Paint all nails with base color. 
2.  Tape around nails of one hand. One tape on bottom, 2 on sides.

3. Splatter with other color. (Good as Gold by Essie)

4.  Splatter lightly with base color. (No More Film by Essie)
5.  Carefully take off tape.
6.  While waiting for first hand to dry, clean up polish on skin with brush/Q-tip and nail polish remover.
7.  Repeat steps 2-6 on other hand.

Some Tips:

- TAPE AROUND YOUR NAILS FIRST. Below, pic A shows how bad the splatter gets all over your hands without tape. Pic B shows how much nicer it was pre-cleanup.

pic A: after splatter (no tape)

 pic B: after tape, pre-cleanup

- You need a layer of polish at the bottom of the straw for the splatter to work. If you are blowing through the straw and no polish is coming out, then you probably need more polish in your dipping pile. The polish will only splatter out of the straw if the hole of the straw is completely covered in polish. The below pics show what will and will not work.

- Don’t blow to close to the nail. The end of your straw should be about 5 or 6 inches from your nail. If the straw is too close you will just get a big blob of polish.

- Use contrasting colors. You can even use multiple colors instead of just 2, but I think a really dark and fairly light combo looks best!

So there you have it. I am just in LOVE with this look! Definitely will do this technique again!