Blue & Pink Swirl – Water Marble

It’s been awhile since I’ve done water marble art, and unfortunately, you can tell by how it turned out. Not my best work, but we all have flops sometimes, eh? Still, the nice thing about a marble is that people won’t necessarily realize it went wrong. ;-)

There’s a video at the end of the post...I’m afraid I’m still not all that great with the actual recording video part, and it shows, but it’s not too bad for my first try. The only way to get better is to practice, right? Maybe next time I’ll even keep my fingers in the center of the frame...

I used four polishes for this manicure – shown & labeled above. My “Megawatt?!” is really thick, which is why you won’t see it expand as much as the other colors in the video. Other than that, these colors worked really well, and I think they look pretty nice together too.

Before I started, I coated my fingers under the nail to the first knuckle and around the cuticles with petroleum jelly (next time I’ll probably use a thick homemade salve I normally use on my face). This prevents the polish from sticking to the skin – but as you’ll see, I should have gone farther down on my fingers with it...

I started with one coat of Seche Vite base coat, then added two coats of Finger Paints “Well-Cultured Pearl” as the base color.

Then I started dropping polish in my bowl of warm water. I cycled through Misa “Like It Like That”, OPI “A Rose Before Dawn...Broke by Noon”, and OPI “Megawatt?!”. One drop inside the other, as shown.

I didn’t get any good dipping pics, so you’ll have to watch the video for a slightly blurry demonstration of my amateur technique. This is the after-shot for one hand done.

I cleaned off the excess polish by simply wiping away the petroleum jelly with a paper towel (also show in the video), and then used a nail corrector pen (I generally use Avon) to clean up the rest.

And there you have it – a swirly water marble manicure (don’t mind my poor broken nails – ugh). Here's the video:

So what’s on your nails this week? And what kind of tips on water marbling do you have for me? I think I need to watch more of Colette’s videos...

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Peppermint Swirls

I apologize for the too-bright pictures...my room lighting is just too low tonight. I think you get the idea though - fun red & white peppermint-y swirls! I had a ton of fun doing these, but I was up until 3am because, well, things have to dry, and clean-up, while much easier this time still takes...time. But I ramble.

I started things off with a base of China Glaze base coat topped with two coats of CG "White Out".

 

 You'll notice that my fingers are a little shiny. I was going to use cuticle oil to block the excess polish this time, but in light of our fruit fly problem (which has since been controlled, thank goodness), I decided to use petroleum jelly instead (no scent). For the record, it worked great. 

Then I had the brilliant idea to use glitter polish for swirling. I'll save you the whole sordid story, but just FYI - CG Ruby Pumps and Tinsel do *not* work for water marbling. I started over with Pure Ice "Platinum" and Sinful Colors "Ruby Ruby". Much nicer. 

I should have taken photos of the swirls - I used an orange stick and started in the center, just swirling the colors together. The first one came out a bit too wide:

The rest of my right hand went pretty well though - these fingers were done using red as the first color dropped (first photo above). Are you ready? I told you this was a messy job (ie, really fun!)...

Then I switched it up for my left hand, and dropped the white color first (2nd photo above). I also did the middle three fingers at the same time - worked great!

I look like a sick zebra. LOL After I got done dipping, I put on two coats of Zoya topcoat, and used Qtica half-time drops to dry everything quickly. After it was dry, I used a paper towel to just wipe away the excess polish along with the pet. jelly. The cuticles still needed a little clean-up in the shower this morning, but not much at all.

And voila! Peppermint swirls, all cleaned up.

I've got some Christmas decals for next week, appropriately enough. Until then, happy polishing!

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Green Marble

I missed the Tuesday post again - but I have a good excuse! I was up until 3am experimenting with my first water-marbling attempt...I need more practice, but it was pretty fun (and super-messy). I took a lot of pictures (more than I'm posting), so it's taken me awhile to get them all cropped and posted for you. I'll warn you though, this is just as much a "what not to do" post than a tutorial...

I watched a bunch of videos on water marbling before I started, and gathered a bunch of things for my experiment. I decided to use mostly greens and one yellow-green just so if I screwed up, it would at least be monochrome (I ended up using only four colors). Other things I got included a bowl of cool water, cotton buds, tape, an orange stick, and some tiny little iridescent rhinestones that Sparkly Nails sent me for review. And a strawberry soda, of course. 

Polishes Used

- OPI "Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow"

- Sinful Colors "Show Me The Way"

- Zoya "Tangy"

- Zoya "Bekka" 

By the way, have you *seen* the new Zoya winter colors? Between those and Nubar, I may go broke this month...but I digress. 

Anyway. I started by prepping my nails - file, buff and then put tape just under my nails in an attempt to keep the skin cleaner. I've since read that petroleum jelly works just fine, and it's probably easier to take off than tape. I'm going to try that next time - the tape is a pain to get off when you're done. 

I added one coat of base coat, and then decided to use "Bekka" as my main base color. I only did one coat since I planned to use it in the marbling as well. In hindsight, two coats of the base color would have been better. 

That taken care of, it was time for fun. I added a few drops each of "Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow", then "Show Me The Way", followed by "Tangy" and finally "Bekka". Each new color right in the center of the previous colors. 

I used an orange stick to sort of pull the center out to the edges and mingle the colors. The polish texture in the water is kind of like really thin plastic wrap - so you can manipulate it, but it's still somewhat fragile. In hindsight, I'd use a toothpick for mixing the colors.

I sort of wanted a striped design, so when I put my finger in, I laid it flat on top the outer edge of the polish, and pushed down into the water.

I held it there for a few seconds, and used a cotton bud to gently pull all the excess polish away. It was pretty easy, but later I "wrapped" the excess polish back over my nail on accident - be careful not to do that unless you mean to (it creates globs). After I had the excess polish out of the way, I pulled my nail out.

I had enough undisturbed polish to do one more with a similar design...

I'll spare you the long and messy details, but this is what one whole hand looked like after I finished with all the nails. I experimented with pulling the polish in toward the center, swirling it, etc.

At this point, I took the tape off - which was a huge hassle. Then I used the teeny little rhinestones to add just a little bling (and to cover up some little dings & dents). 

I used cotton buds to clean up my fingers afterwards, and my normal "orange stick in the shower" method of cleaning up my cuticles the next morning. 

And there you have it - whew! Obviously I need practice, but it's fun, and I plan to do some more very soon. 

Not sure what I'll do next week - pumpkins or leaves, perhaps? Until then, happy polishing! 

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Felicity Marble

Sorry I missed last week's post. A head cold and a seriously busy week at work got the best of me, I'm afraid. The good news is, last week's manicure is already scheduled to post next week, so I'm caught up for two weeks now. :-)

I decided to play with simple brush marbling this week - and I was going to do a video for you, but couldn't find the tripod. I will definitely get this done sometime this spring - I really like how it turned out (just ignore my poor clean up job, if you don't mind - I was in a hurry this morning).

I started with a base of Pure Ice "Platinum" - two coats over Seche Vite base coat.

Then I took Zoya's "Felicity", which is a semi-sheer light pink, and sort of swirled it on very lightly just using the brush in zig-zag motions over the nail.

I did that a few more times, alternating swirls of Platinum and Felicity for a light marbled look, and then I brushed CND Effects "Raspberry Sparkle" over the whole thing for shimmer. Unfortunately, it just doesn't show very well in photos - it's a pretty subtle effect.

Then I added a few faux pearls...just for some interest/texture, and covered them with a coat of Seche Vite topcoat. (Excuse the blurry photo - I need to find that tripod!)

Something still wasn't quite right...so I decided to see what it would look like with Essie's "Matte About You" topcoat to matte everything down. I put a drop of Seche topcoat on the pearls to keep them somewhat shiny. I really like the way it turned out, soft and almost satiny with a slight pink shimmer.

I still think these need "something" - maybe take the pearls off all but just the one nail with three. But overall, I love how the colors swirled together and matted down. I think it would work with any sheer polishes. I'll be trying it again, certainly.

Happy Easter, and happy polishing until next time! :-)

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Green Marbled

Last night, following instructions from the Mini Nail Blog (link to the right) on marbling, I tried it again, with some success, I think. I used her method of dotting the different colors on, then swirling them with a top coat brush (I had an older top coat that got thick, so I used that brush). I did better this time, though I think I need to work on my “swirling” techniques, but they didn’t turn out too bad, overall.

I’ll be honest though – I didn’t care much for them last night after I was done. It was only this morning after I’d cleaned up my fingers and gotten all the excess polish off that I decided I liked them well enough. Today you get pictures of both hands, since they turned out so differently.
Next time, I think I’ll use more colors, and a darker base color. I used China Glaze “L8R G8R” for the base, with Zoya “Felicity” and Sinful Colors “Snow Me White” for the swirls. Predictably, the Sinful white bubbled on a few of my nails. *sigh*

More about → Green Marbled