THIS POST IS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PUEEN COSMETICS.

I don't use nail powders very often when I do my nails, but more and more recently I'm finding that I love other people's nail art featuring them and it makes me want to play around and try them too. When I first saw the Pueen Mermaid Nail Art Kit*, the obvious choice would have been to do some mermaid nails, but ultimately I decided that instead I wanted to try something a little different and I'm kind of obsessed with how it turned out.

Keep reading for more!

So essentially my idea for this mani was to start with a sort of watercolor looking base, add the nail powder, and then go in with this kind of swirling water design. Because you use a No Wipe Gel Top Coat to adhere the nail powder, I decided to go all gel for this mani and I think it really helped with this watercolor base because I feel like you can blend gel polishes on the nail a little more easily.

After applying a peel off base coat, I went in with small swipes of light purple, light blue, and a sort of aqua green shade using a flat nail art brush. I sort of just like to do this part randomly, adding a few swipes of each color sort of willy nilly on the nail, and then I clean the brush and use the clean brush to blend them a little bit. For this mani, I did two layers of this swiping technique to get a more opaque base, curing between each layer. Once I was happy with that, I then applied the No Wipe Top Coat to all of my nails and cured that as well. 

Once I had cured the No Wipe, I grabbed for one of the sponge applicators that came in this set and used the brush side to pick up the powder and the sponge end to really buff it into the nail. It's definitely important, if you want to get that really smooth, chromey sort of iridescent look that you really buff that powder in. I could easily have left it there because that look on its own was so gorgeous, but I decided to stick with my stamping plan and went in with this really pretty metallic teal stamping polish and that swirling water image. I alternated the direction of my stamping placement to add a little bit of visual interest, but really just kept it simple.

Once I was happy with my design, I finished with one more layer of the No Wipe Top Coat to seal everything in and give a nice shine and voila!

Not even joking right now, the number of different nail art design ideas that I have in my mind right now featuring the base that I did for this design is absolutely insane. Like... don't be surprised if you seen some other mani like this one using different stamping or something on top of that iridescent watercolor base. Even as I type this, I have a million ideas I can't wait to try.

If you're interested in trying out the Pueen Mermaid Nail Art Kit*, I highly recommend checking it out because it has everything you need to try out this type of nail powder for the first time. Except a lamp, please do be aware before you pick this up that it is a UV gel polish and does require curing. 

Thanks for reading!