My first attempt at a splatter mani

Oh dear Jen, little did you know, when you posted your Neon Splatter Tutorial, that two of your Sagittarius pals (myself and the lovely Nicole) would instantly want to give this a try. Sagittarians are known for obsessing over things they find cool, interesting or unique and, when it comes to anything crafty, we Sagittarians want to jump right in without hesitation and try it for ourselves!

So all it took was a simple tweet from Nicole, showing me her attempt at a splatter mani, and I was IN. I had to do try this myself, and less than 48 hours later, here we are.

Always one to improvise when I don't have the proper equipment, I decided to use a slightly different method since I didn't have any plastic straws on hand (essential for getting the look you see in Jen and Nicole's manicures). Well a silly think like the essential tool needed for this mani couldn't stop me! No, I had to give it a try using some nail art polishes instead. I figured that I could use a similar technique to what painters use to splatter paint, and sort of "flick" the brushes and see what happened. I wouldn't suggest using a regular polish brush for this, because I think a normal brush is way too thick. But with nail art brushes, since they're so narrow and fine, it worked pretty well (albeit, messy. VERY messy).

Here's what I used:

Limited edition Maybelline Express Finish polish in Gray-T Glamour, and three L.A. Colors Art Deco nail art polishes in black, yellow and white

As you can see, it's a TOTALLY different vibe than the splatter manis that Jen and Nicole did. I much prefer the look of their manicures because the paint is distributed so thinly using that straw technique. I think the paint on my nails resembles a painter's canvas, and I actually don't hate it. I think it's kind of cool in its own way, but I DEFINITELY want to try the straw method soon (adding plastic straws to my shopping list now).

So, have any of you tried doing a splatter mani? If so, I'd love to see and/or hear how it turned out! Feel free to leave a link to pics of your mani in the comments!

A huge thanks to Jen and Nicole for the inspiration!