For this week’s nail art post, I thought I’d experiment with two different methods for how to do watercolor-inspired nail art. These two techniques, using a sponge and using saran wrap, have been rather popular, with tutorials using it for ombre or marbled effects respectively popping up everywhere.

I tried both to see which would be closer to what I wanted, but since they give off different looks when finished, I was satisfied with both. In the picture above, the top two fingers used the saran wrap technique while the bottom two were sponged on. Let’s get right to the tutorial:

Table of Contents

What You’ll Need:

• A white polish – mine was China Glaze’s White on White
• Three or four polish colors of your choice – for a watercolor effect, I went with pastel colors; Essie’s Tart Deco, and Nicole by OPI’s Am I Making Myself Claire? and Alex by the Books
• Saran wrap
• Sponge-tip applicator or makeup sponge
• A top coat

Step 1:

First off, paint on a white base – sort of like a canvas the colors will be going on. Once that’s dry, unscrew all the lids to your colors for easier access.

Now, the tutorial splits into two parts – you can either choose to use a makeup sponge (directly below) or saran wrap (which is further down the page).

Sponging:

We’ll start with the sponging technique, which I used for my ring and pinky finger. For this, you can use a makeup sponge or a sponge tip applicator. Keep in mind that with a makeup sponge, the surface area allows you to sponge on all four colors at once, while with the sponge-tip applicator, you would need to do one color at a time.

Step 2:

For the makeup sponge, it apparently works better while a bit damp, so it doesn’t soak up the color as quickly. However, I skipped this part and it turned out fine for me. Apply each color generously, making sort of a rough 3-part square or oval on the sponge.