This Summer’s Top Nail Art Trends Are All About Feel-Good Finishes

Inspired by Impressionist paintings, watercolor nails put an artistic spin on the season’s texture trend as translucent polishes are swirled together for a diffused finish that feels fluid and expressive. Nail artists don’t use actual watercolors, of course, but the technique required to create this look is not far from how a painter maneuvers their brush on a canvas.

When San Sung Kim, a Korean nail artist, creates her watercolor nails, she starts with a cat-eye base; its shift is what makes the finished look more dynamic. “I have been working with velvet polishes since the beginning of my nail journey, and I always try to come up with fresh new takes,” she says, noting that colorful swirl candies inspired this manicure.

Kim then uses a nail art marker (a felt-tip pen filled with polish) to paint swirls and patches in varying widths and sizes, before taking a wet nail brush to blur her hand-painted design for a realistic watercolor look. The result is a dreamy manicure that would feel at home next to paintings by Monet and Renoir.

Some nail artists use an airbrush tool to create this blend of colors, while others, like Annie Ngo, a nail artist in Atlanta, use more unconventional methods, like dabbing on eye shadow. Ngo coats the nail with a matte primer, which creates a smooth base, before buffing eye shadow across the surface with a nail sponge. She does this with multiple colors, allowing them to overlap at the edges to create that diffused look.

Clear 3D accents

Courtesy of Vanity Projects and @_foxy.nail

Courtesy of Kassidy Silva

Courtesy of @chuenails

Courtesy of @chuenails