Day 20: Water Marbled

Water marbling… is fun! Seriously :) When about a year ago I saw a tutorial on this technique, I was terrified. I saw a girl’s nails and fingers all covered with polish and I imagined how much time and effort it takes her to clean it up. I thought it’s not my thing. Now I know that I was wrong, but first things first – my water marbled nails:

I don’t think there’s any need to describe the process of water marbling, I’m sure you’ve seen it many times. Let me just write down some general thoughts/ideas/problems etc. :)

1. Using fast drying polishes may not be such a good idea – they dry too fast, and other polishes don’t spread inside them. For example, 3 polishes of Rimmel 60 Seconds line didn’t work for me. The first drop was always spreading all right, but the next drop was sitting still in the center. Essence nail polishes worked great for me, plus they are pretty cheap and you don’t have to worry about wasting to much polish.
2. Well pigmented 1 coaters is the best choice if you want a bright and vivid water marbling design (mine is quite pale).
3. I used a colored base done with the lightest of 3 nail polishes I made my design with.
4. Dip your nails at an angle, it helps to prevent bubbles.
5. I used warm and filtered tap water (they say it’s the best for marbling).
6. And the most important thing – carefully tape your fingers, leave only the surface of your nails uncovered. This way you’ll be able to remove the unwanted polish in no time without hurting your skin and cuticles with acetone.

I used 5 pieces of tape for each finger, and I applied them over my cuticles too. I came to the conclusion that you waste your time anyway – either with cleaning your fingers (and drying your skin with acetone), or with taping you fingers like mummies. The last is harmless. I used a medical tape, it’s elastic and adjusts to the shape of your fingers.

The list of products for the water marbling design:

• Light grey base color – Essence 56 Got a Secret
• 3 Essence polishes for the design: Let’s Get Lost 55, Got a Secret 56, Movie Star 35
• Medical tape
• Warm water, a plastic cap and a toothpick
• Clear top coat

And one more picture of the water marbled design with the light grey Essence nail polish Got a Secret (the color is very beautiful by itself as well):

That’s all for today, thank you for reading! xxx