Watercolor nail art is our newest beauty obsession

Remember when you were a little kid and using watercolors was hands down the most satisfying way to create a magical sunset? The colors practically wanted to blend together – painting a pretty sky with your Crayola set was an easy way to pretend you were a professional artist. Literally anything you made with watercolors looked amazing. Well, a new nail art trend will have you feeling like an artist all over again.

Feast your eyes on the “watercolor” nail.

It’s like the best day of Kindergarten all over again, only with a hint of sophistication (and no Play-Doh eating, thank goodness). The secret to the watercolor look is acetone – yup the same stuff you usually use to take nail polish off. Mixing polishes with an itty bitty amount of acetone thins out the color until it’s practically see-through. When dabbed over a fresh white nail, voila! Someone call the Louvre, because this is some serious art.

Fashion yourself a palette of “watercolors” by smoothing out a small sheet of aluminum foil or a plastic bag and blotting a few different polishes onto it. Grab a clean brush (or even a Q-Tip) and soak it in acetone. Then, take a teeny amount of polish and wipe it on your palette. Dip back and forth between the acetone and color until the polish looks see-through. Apply it to white nails. It might take a few coats for the watercolors to appear more vibrant, but since they aren’t opaque, layering looks super gorgeous. YouTube has some easy-to-follow tutorials that make the whole process seem simple and actually doable.

Pastel polishes make for stunning watercolor nail art, but this method should work with any array of shades. Try reds, oranges, and even black for a Halloween theme.

So cute, it’s scary!

(Images via herehere, and here.)

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