PinspiratioNAIL – Sea Glass Watercolor Nail Art with Sally Hansen
Since I work from home, daytime TV is my background noise and one of my can’t miss morning shows is the Today Show “Drunk Hour” (aka KLG & Hoda). I’m not gonna lie, Kathie Lee bugs the crap out of me some days and, when I first started watching, I thought for sure that Hoda would slap her someday. They’ve grown on me over the years and now I just roll my eyes at Kathie Lee like she’s a batty aunt.
Anyway, the point is, every day is something different on the show; Wine-sday (Wednesday), Thirsty Thursday, etc. and today happens to be Try-day Friday, when they try something new. This morning it was chocolate babka, yum!! It’s in honor of that concept that this PinspiratioNAIL was born.
![PinspiratioNAIL - Sea Glass Watercolor Nail Art PinspiratioNAIL - Sea Glass Watercolor Nail Art](http://www.alllacqueredup.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/pinspirationail-sea-glass-watercolor-marble-nail-art.jpg)
Sea Glass Watercolor Nail Art
If you recall, PinspiratioNAIL is my riff on a look I find on Pinterest. Today I wanted to attempt a new-to-me technique, Watercolor Nail Art (or Marble Nails). The name is open to interpretation. Anyway, I’ve seen a few different tutorials on how to create the watercolor look but, given my amateur skills, I wanted the simplest possible method. For my sake and yours. Check it out!
The Pinspiration: Like I said, I’ve seen watercolor nails done multiple ways. You may remember how I feel about water marbling (click if you don’t). My friend Steff from Short N Chic did the brush dipped in acetone method, and it’s beautiful, but anything that involves a nail art brush makes me leery. It wasn’t until I saw the plastic bag technique on Pearls and Polish that I felt confident to give the look a try.
While I was in Sandusky for my birthday weekend, I stopped at Meijer (oh how I wish we had them in Cleveland) and saw a couple Sally Hansen displays that weren’t in my usual drugstore haunts back home. I picked up a few blues and greens and when I looked at them together, they had a very beach-y, sea glass feel so they became the color palette for today’s look.
I started with a base of Sally Hansen Jaded from the Complete Salon Manicure line. The CSM polishes have been a fave of mine since they launched in 2010 and the new formula adds gel-like shine and increased chip resistance to the already phenom formula.
Jaded is a bit sheer and jelly-like. An ideal candidate for a syrup manicure. It’s a blue-green creme, heavy on the blue, that lives up to its jade green name. I used three coats and I can see my tips a bit in real life but not to the point that I’d need a solid base (aka underwear).
![Sally Hansen Jaded nail polish swatch Sally Hansen Jaded nail polish swatch](http://www.alllacqueredup.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/sally-hansen-jaded-nail-polish-swatch.jpg)
Sally Hansen Jaded
Technique
1. Make sure base color is completely dry. 2. Add splotches of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue-ming Fast (cyan creme) and Sally Hansen CSM Resurrection (smokey navy) in random patterns with a few dots of Jaded to make sure it doesn’t get lost in the mix. 3. Press a plastic sandwich bag (plastic wrap works as well) on the nail to squish the colors together. 4. Clean up any polish on the cuticle and seal with a top coat.
Application Tips: 1. Apply balm or tape to the surrounding skin to make cleanup easier. 2. In most tutorials, the splotches are shown rather large but I wanted a more mixed result so I used multiple, tiny drops of polish, even overlapping the colors some.
![Watercolor Marble Nail Art featuring Sally Hansen Resurrection Watercolor Marble Nail Art featuring Sally Hansen Resurrection](http://www.alllacqueredup.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/watercolor-marble-nail-art-sally-hansen-nail-polish.jpg)
Watercolor Marble Nail Art
![Watercolor Marble nail art with Sally Hansen Blue-ming Fast Watercolor Marble nail art with Sally Hansen Blue-ming Fast](http://www.alllacqueredup.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/watercolor-marble-nail-art-sally-hansen-resurrection.jpg)
Watercolor Marble Nail Art
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Jaded is a core color and available at drugstores nationwide and online at Target.com and ULTA.com. Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue-ming Fast is part of a LE spring launch as is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Resurrection which is from the Runway Designer series. Availability will vary. Sally Hansen CSM polishes retail for $7.99/ea and Insta-Dri polishes are $4.99/ea.
What do you think of my watercolor nails? Is this a technique you have or will try? Of all the Sally Hansen polish lines (CSM, Insta-Dri, Diamond Strength, etc), which one is your favorite?
Also, follow my PinspiratioNAIL board on Pinterest and leave a comment on the look you would like to see me try next.
Disclosure: I purchased all the nail polishes shown. Affiliate links may appear via a third party link service. For more info view my Disclosure Policy.
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This is a fun look, and seems SO much easier than the acid wash technique that I tried a while back. It looks like it gives a similarly fun and interesting look, but much more reasonable effort required! Thank you for sharing, Michelle.
Cheers!
Ker
I LOVE that blue. Actually, I love all of those colors. To the Meijer! (I remember being SUPER excited when I found out that Columbus had Meijer because when I lived in Cincinnati they were few and far between).
I think my daughter would love these, looks like a fun project for summer.
Oh wow! These are like my favorite colors ever — cool effects you’ve achieved here!
I totally miss Meijer too. I try to make a visit any time I visit my parents. I really like this look! I bet it looks amazing at a distance as well!
Oh! I watched that tutorial a while ago and meant to try it but got distracted by “watercolor nails.” Yours looks lovely.
I like it and it seems like I could do this. I do miss Meijer. None out here on the east coast.
Wow, amazing! I’ll try something similar… like… tomorrow… well, no, tonight… ok, I go and do it NOW!
Love this look! Are you going to do a post about (or have your purchased) the new Essie Naughty Nautical collection? I’m contemplating on buying some and I would love some swatches! Thanks
Hi Laurel! I have the Naughty Nautical collection and will be reviewing it soon
That’s really pretty!
I’ve found that if I put the polish on the sandwich baggie, then press it on the nails, the effect is even better.
Thanks for the tip!
So pretty! I love this color combo.
Wow!!!
So beautiful!
Great color choices!
LOVE this color blend. I saw the swatch itself and thought “sea glass” myself! Will try this one soon. Looks faster than water marbeling that was a HOT MESS for me both times I tried it!
Water marbling is a PITA. This is definitely much easier