Splatter Paint Nails Tutorial

Arden here!  Did anybody else's family do a lot of splatter painting when they were younger?  Maybe it was just me, but I definitely had several articles of clothing that featured some home-made splatter paint when I was in elementary school.  Today's manicure brought back all that 90's awesomeness!

I had been looking to do some really colorful nails, and my original plan was to try a rainbow pattern.  But the more I thought about it, the more tedious, time-consuming, and un-fun painting on a gazillion rainbow stripes sounded.  So I decided to go in another, infinitely more fun direction.  And I'm so glad I did, because this is by far my favorite manicure I've given myself yet!

I started by painting my nails with two coats of Sally Hansen Black Out.

I then started splatter painting!  All you really need to do this technique is a straw.  I did not have a full-sized drinking straw, so I used a little red coffee stirrer straw.  I do think that no matter the diameter of your straw, it probably helps to cut them down so they're shorter.  I ended up cutting each coffee stirrer in thirds.

Next, make a little puddle of the nail polish you want to splatter on a paper plate/wax paper/Ziploc baggie/whatever water-resistant surface you want.  Dip one end of the straw in the nail polish.  Then hold it over your nail, and blow into the other end of the straw.  (Be careful not to inhale the polish!)

It will probably take you a couple of tries to work out all of the kinks.  Here I am practicing on wax paper.  As you can tell, the nail polish didn't so much splatter out of the straw as drip down.  (But that one in the lower left corner looks good!)

I found that blowing a quick sharp breath helped.  Also, it worked better for me when I made a tah sound as I blew, instead of a wah.

Here are my nails after I finished my first color.  They weren't too impressive.

Yeah, that's right, the pinky and pointer finger basically only have small drops on them.

But here's what they looked like after I finished all my colors!  A bit messy, but very splatter-y!

I discovered that it helped make a more interesting pattern if I didn't always aim directly for my nail, but sometimes aimed for the side of my nail or even the side of my finger.  (That's one reason why they're so messy.

Here they are all cleaned up & with a top coat:

Beautiful, no?

Colors used:
Red: Julep Jackie
Pink: Cover Girl Boundless Color Fuschia Girl
Orange: Essie Fear or Desire 
Yellow: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening
Green: Sinful Colors Rise and Shine
Neon Green: Julep Korin
Blue: Essie Butler, Please
Purple: Revlon Impulsive

The only problem I had with this technique is that on some nails, certain colors landed in really thick puddles and when they dried they got some bubbles.  I'm not 100% certain how to avoid this in the future.  I think it's possible one of the major causes was the polish I used.  It happened the worst with the yellow polish, and my Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening gets bubbles no matter what you do.  Plus, that Cover Girl Fuschia Girl is at least 10 years old.

I'll definitely have to try splatter painting again and see if I get bubbles.  Has anyone else ever tried it out?  Did you avoid the bubble problem?  Let us know!

Even with the bubbles, this was an amazing manicure.  My nails made me so happy!  I left them on for several days and got lots of comments.  So you should try them too so your nails can be the envy of everyone you meet!