Nail Experiment: Marbling

Good evening ladies,

So I've always had Dawn do my nails for me, this is the first time that I actually did "art" for my nails and did Dawn's nails too. Last week, this was the design of my nails.

And all these were done by marbling. Ok so for those of you who aren't familiar with the process, here's a short picture tutorial. The colors I used for this tutorial aren't the ones I used for my nails... instead I'm using UST colors, black, gold, black, white! :)

So here are the things that you need.

Nail polish

A small cup 

(preferably something you won't use again for any other purpose like a cap)

A tooth pick

Scotch tape

and tissue paper.

First off, put your base. I prefer using white but I think any color can work. When it's dry, wrap your finger in scotch tape leaving the nail exposed. This is so that you don't have to clean up your whole finger with acetone after. I usually wrap the tape first before putting my base cause I'm not very careful and the tapes sticks to my nail.

Then, you fill the cup with water. Some people would use warm water for this. I usually just use room temperature water and it works fine for me.

As for the nail polish, you don't need expensive ones for this. When I did mine, I used the ones from Twinkle (Magic Black and Mango), Caronia (On the Go), Etude House (White) so you can use just about any polish. The only things you have to remember to make this work is that:

1. Nail polish should be a little runny so it's easy for you to make droplets on the water.

2. Get the solid colors, not the sparkly frosted ones, they spread more evenly and you see the colors form.

3. Before starting on dropping the polish on the water, make sure that all the caps are already unscrewed. You have to do the layering of the droplets quick because once the first layer hardens, you won't be able to make a decent pattern. Oh, and just let the polish drop on it own and bring the brush as close to the water's surface as possible. If it's too high up, it'll sink rather than float on top.

So here is the layering I did... and then with the toothpick, create your pattern. Just slide the toothpick across that target. I'm not very good at it and I basically do random swirls.

Then, when you've just about achieved the pattern you like, select an area then dip your hand there straight in. Then with the toothpick again, clean up the excess before pulling your finger out.

And here's the finished product. :) After it dries, just peel off the scotch tape and apply top coat. :)

So far, this is the best pattern I've done.

  

This is a technique that needs some amount of practice to perfect. I do believe the more layers you do, the better it'll turn out... maybe that's where the warm water will help, it'll keep the 1st layer from hardening... probably.. haven't tried it though. You can look up marbling in youtube if you're getting a little confused with my tutorial. :)

Anyway, that's it for my first nail experiment. :)

Cheers,

LIZ