Tutorial: My Cling Film Manicure

A few weeks ago, I did a cling film manicure. It turned out to be fairly popular, and I had a few requests to do a tutorial for it. After scouring the internet, I found that I do the cling film thing a little differently than most. I decided that a tutorial was in order, since this is such a simple manicure that only looks complicated. This technique can create so many different looks, just depending on the colors you choose. For the tutorial, I stuck with the same palette as before: L'Oreal L'Orange, China Glaze Liquid Leather, and Wet 'n' Wild French White Cream.

Assemble Your Supplies:

Base Coat

Sheer-ish/jelly polish 

Two Cream/Opaque polishes

Top Coat

Cling Film

Something to pour your polish on and blot your cling film against

Step One: Base Color and Top Coat

Apply your base coat, your base color (to opacity), and apply your top coat. Nothing fancy at this step.

Step Two: Blot Your First Color

my wrinkly bit of cling film
my blotting foil. Less is more when it comes to polish here

Using your cream or opaque polish, drop a medium-ish puddle onto your foil. Wrinkle your cling film into as crinkly a ball as you can. It looks best when you have lots of wrinkles. Blot the cling film into the polish and then blot it against the foil. You don't want to apply to much to the nail, as it tends to look a little bleh. Repeat as desired until you are happy with the look.

Step Three: Blot Your Second Color (optional)

Same thing as Step Two, just with a different color. It looks best if the two colors are contrasting, but it might be a neat marble effect if they are similar.

Step Four: Another Layer of Your Base Color

Fairly soon after blotting your final color (you can do as many as you want, I don't judge) apply a layer of your sheerish base color. It will mute the blotted colors you just applied, so keep that in mind when you choose them. By applying the layer of your base color while the blotted layers are still wet, it will also smear them together a little. It creates a really lovely, marbley look.

Step Five: Top Coat

top coated and cleaned up. I think it turned out ok.

Once you are happy with the look, apply your top coat! You're all done! See, super simple! You don't have to follow the steps exactly, if you dont want to. It would look cool to lay a layer of your sheer base color down in between the blotted layers too. This is art, not math. You can do anything you want to here!