Stonewashed Nails

I was flipping through Marie Claire and saw ideas on nail art.  Creating this stonewashed effect with sponge-tip eyeshadow applicators seemed easy enough.

Except it wasn't that easy for me.  Here are my results.

Sad, isn't it?  

Like someone took a piece of charcoal and did a bad job coloring within my nails.

What I learned from my experience is that you should definitely use very LIGHT pressure when dabbing the eyeshadow applicator onto your nails.  I got a little overzealous in dabbing the polish-dipped applicators all over my nails.  Leaving some areas untouched would have been ideal.  Also, be prepared to use clean applicators between nails.  As the sponges absorb the polish, you get less of a stonewashed look.  I recommend buying a bag of those cheap disposable applicators!

I decided to hide this terrible excuse for nail art with some distractions.  

A little Sephora Special Effects Top Coat in Chaotic does the trick! Or maybe makes it look more messy?  I thought it was an improvement.  The first coat was Covergirl Outlast in Silver Lining.  The "stonewashing" color was Sinful Colors in Rich in Heart.

Since I was so disappointed with how my left hand came out, I didn't even attempt the stonewashed look on my right hand (I was also behind in some errands..haha).  So I just slapped on the Chaotic Top Coat over the Silver Lining.  By the way, it was so difficult to "pose" my right hand for the picture.  It was like an alien claw! My fingers were going every which way, and my fingers were NOT listening to me. Do your fingers do that? I feel like toes tend to do that a lot. 

I would definitely give the stonewashing effect another try.  If you attempt it, let me know how it goes!