I tried something new on my nails last night, and while it didn't come out perfect, it was kinda fun, and looks pretty cool!

sponge painted nails
Laurie Cataldo
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WARNING: BEFORE YOU SAY IT, I'M NOT INTERESTED IN THE NAIL STICKERS YOU'RE PEDDLING.

I saw one those nail art videos floating around on Facebook a while back, and on one of them, someone use a makeup sponge to apply nail polish to create a cool effect.

Now, I'll tell you flat out -- I RARELY have my nails done. The reason is mostly because I hate the feeling of being completely incapacitated for hours or risk ruining the polish. (It's also because when I do it myself, my left hand winds up looking decent but my right will be a complete disaster...)

That said, I had some free time last night, so I thought I'd give it a try!

I also tried using Elmer's glue around my nail to make polishing easier, but I'll get to that after.**

To do the sponge painting, I used the following:

base/top coat
white nail polish
orangey-pink polish
bright yellow polish
make-up sponge
polish remover
Q-tips
cotton pads
more polish remover
nail corrector pen
lots of patience

I started as I would any mani...applying the base coat...then I applied a layer of white polish. (This is because I really wanted the colors to pop, and they were a little sheer to begin with...I'm sure you could skip this step if you wanted to.)

Now, the key is to let that white polish dry a bit. I learned that the hard way.

I then dotted the two colors onto the makeup sponge. I basically did 4 dots, each color in opposite corners. I then dabbed the sponge onto the white nails, just like you'd sponge paint anything else. The sponge WILL get the polish onto your skin, so have a corrector pen or polish-remover soaked Q-tip or cotton ball handy to clean that off.

Apply top coat to smooth out the new tie-dye look and seal in the mani, then clean up any errant specks of color!

**So, I saw another 'hack' where you apply Elmer's glue to the skin all around your nail, and let it dry before you start polishing your nails, then after you can just peel the dried glue (and any misplaced polish) right off. It's effective, but sort of a pain, and if you let the polish dry too much before peeling off the glue, it will lift some of the polish off the nail...

I think if I kept doing it, it would get much easier, so I might try it again. Sure, it's not as nice as a professional mani, but I like that I can say I did it myself!

Wearable arts & crafts!

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