Cool-toned splatter

Hello everyone, happy Monday! Monday is such a daunting day, isn't it? To take the edge off, I thought I'd do a dramatic splatter manicure, which is one of my very favorite techniques.

I started with a base of China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint, though you can't see that very well anymore! Then, I taped off the finger areas surrounding my nail to make cleanup a bit easier.

I splattered on Sally Hansen Going Green first, then OPI Ogre the Top Blue, then Wet N Wild Ink Well, then Orly Frolic. I think that it is a good idea to include either black or white in every splatter manicure, as they really stand out from the other colors you choose to include and add a lot of great contrast and definition.

When I do splatters, I use a regular drinking straw. Some people prefer smaller straws but the regular sized drinking straws work well for me. I dip the straw directly into the polish, and then do a strong and fast puff of air through the straw on to the nail. The speed and strength of the air is the key to getting a good looking splatter effect. For an in-depth step by step on the process, check out this question I answered on Tumblr a bit ago.

I am very pleased with this color combination, in particular. It kind of reminds me of the 80s, or of a Ninja Turtle. The green is clearly the turtle and then the purple would be the color of his eye mask. Which I guess makes this splatter mani Donatello inspired? And yeah, I did have to Google which one wore purple.

I love splatters so much, but MAN they are such a pain! The splatter takes 3 minutes to do, but then cleaning up after it takes 8 BILLION YEARS! The tape makes it easier to clean up the finger, but the splattered polish almost always gets into my cuticles and floods them. Cleaning up 10 flooded cuticles? Not so much fun. Oh well. The things we do for beauty, right? :)