Washed out

After doing distressed nails for this months “Mottomonat” – Grunge – I wanted to give the “washed out” look a try as well:

There are many techniques out there for this look. Nicole from Schaberlack did an incredibly awesome version I had not heard of before, and then there are variations using watered down acrylic colors. I wanted to try the “deliberately smeared” method. 😉

I started with two coats of a light nude. When I tested this idea, I also smeared the color base, so I added one layer of top coat to keep it in place. Then I sponged a bit of black in a thick horizontal line around two-thirds down my nail, and while it was still wet, used a liberal amount of clear polish to smear the hell out of it. 😀

I used an old essence brush I saved from an old bottle to not ruin my clear polish, and cleaned it between nails, as of course quite a lot of the black polish stayed on the brush.

After I was happy with the smeared look, I added matte top coat as finish.

This was a lot of fun to make – how often do you scream and curse when your topcoat smears your design, but this time it was part of the plan and expected. It was really satisfying, like playing with mud or making a mess with your food. My inner child had a blast. 😀

And although this turned out pretty much as I planed it, I am not sure about the final look. I think these are fitting nails for a Grunge-themed party, but other than that, I probably wouldn’t wear it. 🙂

Base coat: p2 hands & nails calcium gel
Base color: KIKO 372 Nude (two coats)
Top coat: Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat
Smeared color: essence colour & go 144 black is back and essence colour & go 101 absolute pure
Final top coat: essie Matte About You