ChitChatNails

Earlier today I posted my first ‘saran wrap’ manicure.

I wanted to try my best to put together a little photo-tutorial for you, as this technique is sooo easy, quick and relatively mess free.  Sponged gradient manicures as well as the saran-wrap manicure have become sooo popular lately, and I am one of the many caught up in the hype.  I combined both of these techniques (in a way).

What you will need:

* At least two shades of polish (I used three.  You can make them complimentary shades or contrasting shades depending on the look you wish to achieve)

* A plastic sandwich bag (or any other non-absorbing surface: piece of aluminum foil, back of a stamping plate etc)

* A piece of saran wrap rolled/scrunched up into a ball

1. Paint your nails with a base coat.  For this look I only applied a base coat on my nails, but if you have staining on your nails, or would like a more colorful backdrop for your manicure you may paint your whole nail any color you wish.  Make sure your base coat/base color is fully dry!

2. Choose the colors you wish to dab on and paint a small section of your plastic bag with them (haphazardly)

3. While this polish ‘blob’ is still wet, press your saran wrap ball firmly into the polish and lift up.  This is what your plastic bag will look like after you pressed the saran wrap into it:

The ‘missing’ polish is now on your ball of saran wrap:

4. Working one nail at a time and while the polish is still wet (so work fast) on the saran wrap, dab it firmly directly down onto your nail.  If you dab this ball of polish once, you will get a splatter-like effect (with some of the base color still visible.  In my case, you’d be able to see some of the ‘naked’ nail beneath).  If you dab it over and over (pressing onto the nail, lifting, shifting a tiny bit, dabbing again, etc) you will get more of a water-color like effect.

5. Repeat steps 1-4 on all of the nails.  You can always go back with all (or only some of the shades) and re-dab the saran wrap to create the look/effect you desire.

(I concentrated the dabbing on the ‘tips’/top half of my nail, but you could press the saran wrap onto the entire surface of your nail as well)

6. Topcoat.  TIP, I applied a topcoat onto the polish while it was still semi-wet, and that created more of a smudged watered-down look.  If you wait for the dabbed on color to dry fully before applying topcoat you will get more of a splattered/splotchy look.

So how does this technique compare to a sponged gradient manicure?

In many ways these two are the same, but with the gradient manicure you are aiming to get a smooth/gradual transition.  Many times that requires dabbing each nail once or twice over to get the gradient saturated.  This saran wrap method will give you more of a ‘jagged’ result.  Kind of like a less-messy version of the splatter manicure

I hope you found this little photo-tutorial helpful.

If you try it, I’d love to see so feel free to provide a link!

THANK YOU FOR READING

Tags: Tutorial