Black and White and Blue All Over Splatter Nail Art

I definitely didn't intend to take such a long break from blogging, but between vacation and being sick afterward (isn't that always how it goes?), I've had almost no time or energy lately to even paint my nails, let alone blog about them. So, my apologies for my absence—but I'm finally back today with some new nails to share!

I decided to ease back into nail art with a technique I hadn't tried before, but that I hoped would be pretty easy: a splatter design. I've seen splatter nails around quite a bit and they always appear pretty straightforward, so how hard could they be, right?

Well, I didn't quite think things through, because while the actual splattering was super easy (dip a drinking straw into your polish bottle and then blow air through the straw onto your nails in short, quick bursts), the cleanup was... kind of a nightmare. I quickly taped off my cuticles before I started the process, so that helped a little bit, but I still spent about three times as long on the cleanup as I did on the actual manicure! I will definitely be using some peel-off base coat around my cuticles when I try this technique again.

Because, unpleasant cleaup aside, I really like how this turned out and will absolutely be using this technique again. Random and asymmetrical, but still cohesive—a great combination, in my opinion. And as I've demonstrated a few times before on this blog, I'm a sucker for black & white + one additional color, so. I was destined to love this, I think. The final design also looked nice with a shiny finish, if that's more your thing, but I felt like a matte finish was the way to go for these particular colors.

Here's what I used:

• Deborah Lippmann Video Killed the Radio Star
• China Glaze Snow
• Julep Cleopatra
• Sally Hansen Big Matte Top Coat

Thanks for looking—I hope to be moving back toward a more regular posting schedule from this point forward!