Watercolour Nails Tutorial

Remember my first attempt at watercolour nails? It turned out more like speckled nails since the methylated spirits didn’t quite agree with the polish formula. So now that I got the acetone, here is my second attempt at watercolour nails with a tutorial in case you want to try this out for yourself. 

Since it’s really sunny out here lately or summertime in other parts of the world, I choose to use bright vibrant colours. For this design you will need: 

1. Opaque white polish: I used China Glaze White on White

2. Top coat: I used Seche Vite Dry Fast and China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat

3. Bright pink polish: I used China Glaze Flirty Tankini(From the summer neon collection)

4. Bright orange polish: I used China Glaze Orange You Hot? (Summer neon collection)

5. Bright blue polish: I used Jordana Sapphire

6. Paper towels

7. Nail brush

8. Acetone

Step 1: Start off with a base coat if you like and then one coat of your opaque white polish. The white forms your base. Seal off the white base with a top coat. I used Seche Vite since its quick drying. Make sure you use the top coat after the white since this will prevent the acetone from affecting the white and causing bald spots.

Step 2: Taking your bright pink polish, apply a few small drops onto one nail. If you use too much, transfer some onto the next nail. You want to work on one nail at a time though. 

Step 3: Working quickly, dip your brush (I used an ELF eyeliner brush) into the acetone. Tap off the excess onto the paper towel. Tap the pink colour lightly with the acetone bearing brush. Move the colour around a bit. The acetone will diffuse the colour.

Step 4: Repeat step 3 using the bright orange colour. You may go over the pink but try to get the orange as well on any white spaces. The overlap of the orange and pink will appear as another colour. 

Step 5: Repeat the process again using the bright blue colour. This gives the more watercolour effect. You can also see bits of green appearing where the blue overlaps with the pink and orange.  

Step 6: For a long lasting manicure, seal off your design with a top coat. I used China Glaze Fast Forward top coat. 

With soft flash

In sunlight

In sunlight

This was really a fun manicure. The acetone evaporates rather quickly so the drying time between the colours is very small. It took me about 30 minutes to complete this one though. Any watercolours for you?

Happy Watercolouring!

XOXO

Naomi