Nail art: step-by-step

Hey everyone,

Last summer, as I sat home bored while Aaron was at work, I decided to browse the internet for cool nail art ideas. I've always liked having manicured nails, but salon manicures are too expensive to get on a regular basis. I came across a few videos on Youtube about a technique called water marbling. I always get complements and people always ask me how I did it, so I'll explain in this blog.

What you'll need:


-Base coat (Nail Life Gripper is literally the ONLY one I have ever liked! Every other brand I've tried has made my nail polish smudgy. You can find this for around $6 at Sally Beauty Supply. It may sound expensive, but it is twice the ounce-size as standard nail polish bottles.)
-Top Coat (I like Revlon Quick Dry top coat. It dries my polish in about a minute.)
-Two or more nail polishes of your choice. The colors should contrast enough for the marbling effect to show. For example, hot pink & red together won't show the marbling effect. For this particular design, I used a black from Sally Hansen and a Tiffany's blue color from China Glaze. It's my favorite nail polish ever.
-Nail polish remover-- 100% acetone for your natural nails. It works much more quickly and efficiently than non-acetone blends.
-Cotton balls
-Q-tips
-A needle or straight pin
-Tape: painter's, Scotch, masking, etc. Whatever you have will do.
-Scissors to cut the tape (unless it's Scotch tape...)
-Paper towels or scrap paper to protect your work surface
-Distilled water (room temp)
-Some kind of cup

That all may sound like a lot of work, but I bet almost all women have ALL of these products in their homes! :)

1.) First things first, clean your nails with nail polish remover (even if you're not wearing nail polish). Polish will stick much better to clean, oil-free nails.

2.) Give all of your nails a coat of base coat. Let it dry.

3.) Cut 30 small strips of tape. This is a VERY messy technique. The purpose of the tape is to protect your fingers from becoming a big sticky mess. You will use three pieces for each nail (two for the sides, and one for the top).

Tape application:
It doesn't have to be perfect. Any nail polish that gets on the edges of your skin around the nail will easily come off in the shower.

4.) Fill a cup (one that you don't mind being destroyed!) with room temperature DISTILLED water. Distilled water will produce the fewest air bubbles and make the application of nail polish look more professional.

5.) Start marbling. Nail polish floats on the top of water. When a drop is placed in water, it will spread out over the surface of the water. By alternating one drop of color A, one drop of color B, a drop of A, a drop of B, etc., several times, you will create a thin bull's eye on top of the water.

The more rings, the more lines will show up in the design and the more opaque the colors will be. Too few rings will be ugly. Too many will look crazy. In general, I do 6-9 rings.

6.) Gently drag the tip of your needle or straight pin across the bull's eye. For this design, one line will suffice. For a more swirled or "flowery" design, several lines are necessary. This is what it will look like:


7.) Carefully dip ONE FINGER AT A TIME into the nail polish/water. Leave your finger submerged. It is important that rather than poke the water, you lay the flat surface of your nail onto the flat surface of the water. For this particular design, I aimed for one of the pointy spots so that my nails would look like lines. The polish will stick to your nail (and your finger, which is why we use tape).

8.) After about 15 seconds of submersion, take a Q-tip or a wooden nail stick (15 cents at Sally Beauty Supply) and drag it around in the water. The excess polish will stick right to it. This prevents the excess polish from dangling like plastic wrap to your finger. It's hard to explain... you'll just have to try.

9.) When you pull your finger out of the water, give it a shake so that any excess water drops fall off. Remove the tape, piece by piece. As soon as you remove your finger from the water, the polish should be dry enough for a top coat.

10.) Repeat this process for every nail. You cannot do more than one nail at a time :(

Try to make the pattern on each nail as alike as possible for a more professional look. It is time consuming, but it's relaxing (in my opinion) and it is MUCH cheaper than going to a nail salon! People will ask you where you had your nails done and you can proudly reply, "I did them myself." =)

Here is a peppermint-type water marbled nail design I did right before Christmas:

Actually, that's what I was doing when my Granny passed away. I think she would have liked them. :)