Water Marbling Mani!

Hi!  I am FINALLY getting around to blogging!  I've been wanting to for days, but it just hasn't happened.  I only have three weeks of school left until I graduate with an associate's degree in childhood education!  I am so excited!  So, anyway, I have done water marbling twice before doing this mani.  I had never done it on all of my nails.  It was messy and time consuming, and I am still not perfect at it, but I was very happy with the result...especially on my thumb!  Here it is:

I started out with a coat of OPI Natural Nail Base Coat.  Then I applied two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White.  Oh!  Also, before doing anything I made sure I had a disposable plastic cup of room temperature water.  For water marbling, you can use any type of water, but it needs to be room temperature.  

I used scotch tape to make this process a little less messy.  I applied it all around my nails and part way up my fingers.  This majorly cuts down on the clean-up process at the end.  I think I'd use masking tape next time, because it is more flexible.  I then started water marbling.  Here's how you do it:

1--Open up the tops of all your polishes.  The runnier the polish, the better.  Thicker polishes are more difficult to water marble with because the polish won't spread out on the water nicely.

2--Start dripping drops of polish onto the surface of the water.  Hold the bush just a little over the surface and let the polish drip off.  Use as many colors as you want.  I used three.  You can create a pattern by alternating the drops of polish, or you can use more drops of one color than another.  Do whatever you want!

3--Take a tooth pick or pin or special water marbling tool (I used a tooth pick) and drag it through the polish on the surface of the water to create a design.  There are TONS of videos of people doing it on Youtube.  There are all sorts of designs you can create!  I learned all I know about water marbling from Youtube.  (OhMyGoshPolish does amazing water marbling manis!  Look her up!)

4--Dip your nail into the part of the design that you want on your nail and then leave it submerged in the water.

5--Blow on the surface of the water to dry the excess polish.

6--Take a tooth pick and move it through the water to grab all the extra polish.

7--Remove your nail from the water.

8--Remove the tape from your finger.

9--Clean up any polish on your skin with acetone or nail polish remover on a small brush or a cotton swab.

10--Apply a top coat.

Wow.  Sorry those directions are so lengthy.  I wanted to give a fairly good explanation of how I do this.  Watch a Youtube video!  That is much easier to understand!  Anyway, I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Essie Loophole, and L'Oreal Now You Sea Me for my water marbling.  

I finished off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

My favorite nail in this manicure!

I was really excited about how my thumb turned out.  Water marbling is still a learning process for me.  It is super fun!  I can't wait to experiment more!