My First Watermarble!

So, I've been wanting to do a water marble for a long time but to be honest, it's managed to intimidate me up until now! It was this big pink elephant in the room that nobody talked about but it still loomed! Okay, so I'm being dramatic! Just so I didn't disappoint myself, I started this project expecting this to be a learning experience but a complete fail as well. Imagine my surprise when it tuned out!! I did still make mistakes and had a few redos but if I can do this then you shouldn't be afraid to give it a try!

I used all China Glaze polishes and I highly recommend them for water marbling!! I painted a base coat of Traffic Jam which is quickly becoming one of my favorite polishes - its great for stamping too! Then for the marble I also used Man Hunt and Custom Kicks which has a gorgeous shimmer to it! One of the coolest things was that where Man Hunt and Traffic Jam met I ended up with purple!! Here are the pics!

What do you think? My thumb is my favorite! I also have a couple of tips for you that I learned the hard way:

* Marble your dominant hand first because once you marble your non-dominant hand you won't want to chance screwing it up marbling the other!

* Be patient and let the first hand dry COMPLETELY before starting on the second hand. It may take a little longer but it's still faster than redoing the nails you messed up by being impatient!

*Use very light strokes when drawing the designs in the polish! Just barely touch the surface of the polish or you will drag it all over and make a mess!

*Don't be afraid to redo a finger if it didn't turn out the way you want it!

Okay, I'm done for now! Have you done a water marble? What was your experience? Do you have any tips to share? If you haven't done one what's stopping you?

Acrylic Paint Splatter Mani

Hello my fellow polish addicts! I'm so excited to share my mani with you today because it was so much fun to do and I think it turned out pretty good! I've been loving the paint splatter technique and finally decided that I was brave enough to try it! I wanted to use acrylic paint rather than polish though because of several reasons. Acrylic paint is much cheaper, it dries flatter and it washes off with water so if you mess up a nail you can just rinse it off and start over! Then when you're done with the mani and your top coat is dry you can just wash the mess (and there WILL be a mess!) off your skin - no acetone! With as dry as it's been around here I can use all the help I can get!



I used OPI Alpine Snow for a base coat. Then I just put a small bit of paint in an old ice cube tray and add a few drops of water to thin it out. Then use a regular paint brush and hold it over your nails and tap it until you like the way it looks. Wait until the acrylic paint is dry before attempting a top coat - I learned this the hard way!! It will smear all over the place and you will have some funky looking nails! Here are my instruments of torture:




Here is the awesome mess that I made! You could tape off around your cuticles and that would make the cleanup a little easier if you want but I didn't!!



 

And here is the finished product! I'm thinking of making a video on this technique, what do you think, should I? I don't know, maybe paint splatter nails are "over," but I still like them and I never claimed to be fashionable!



 

My next attempt may have to be a water marble but that may be a while off - the idea still scares me a little bit! :)