Materials I used:
Base coat - Seche Vite
Three shades of polish - I A.M...Custom Color '30 Minute Work Week,' 'Secret Society of Poobahs,' and 'Space Frog Follies' (these are all part of the Fraggle Rock collect, checkout swatches here).
Top coat - I A.M...Custom Color 'Diamond Pro' top coat
Bottled Water
Clear short solo cup
Dotting tool
Mani Mask - Ellagee 'Lickity Split Liquid Latex Mani Mask'
Now as I previously mentioned, I have not had much luck creating watermarble nails. I do not now the perfect formula, what polishes are perfect, or the best procedure. The only thing that I have determined from what I have read and discussed with other nail art addicts, is that creating a successful watermarble involves a lot of trial and error. Here is how I created this design...
I started with a base of '30 Minute Work Week' on my thumb, pointer, and mid-finger. I used 'Secret Society of Poobahs' on my ring finger and 'Space Frog Follies' on my pinky. Most people use white undies (white base polish) under their watermarble, and that does help to brighten the colors. You can also use the lightest shade of polish you are marbling with, however, this may change the appearance of some of the colors in the watermarble design. Either way I highly recommend you use some kind of base color, the first watermarble I did, I did them on naked nails and the colors were so muted you couldn't even tell it was a watermarble design. Since, I was doing this design as more of an experiment and wasn't having any great expectations for creating an awesome nail art design, I decided to watermarble over a holographic and metallic polish to see how it affected the design.
I prepped my fingers with a liquid latex mani mask from Ellagee. I received this as part of my Indie Mani Bunny Box and I'm not really sure how I ever lived without it. However, if you don't have liquid tape I highly recommend protecting your skin with scotch tape or Elmer's glue. Watermarble is very messy and if you don't protect your skin you'll spend more time cleaning than creating.
For my watermarble I use bottled water because I know I have hard water and the few times I have used tap water I have had nothing but problems. I keep a bottle of water in with my nail art supplies so that it is always at the perfect room temperature. Many people have used tape water and have not had issues. I recommend that you try your tape water, however, if you have problems with your polishes spreading or sinking it may because of your water.
For my first attempt at creating a design I tried for a flower-like pattern but after a few tries I couldn't get it right. I was having a hard time with the holographic polish breaking and bleeding into the other colors, making the marble messy and not at all pretty.
I decided to try for a zigzag pattern and had much greater success. In the pictures below I inserted arrows to show you the directions I dragged to create this pattern (I figured this might be easier than trying to describe it). Once I was satisfied, I targeted an area of the design, plunged my finger, cleaned the remaining polish off the surface, and slowly removed my finger from the water. I only did one finger at a time, since I am a total plebe when it comes to watermarbling.
After repeating this process for my pinky finger, I removed the mani mask. As you can see, it saves on a lot of clean up. However, I didn't apply my mask high enough on my mid finger but still far better than no mask at all.
Originally, I was going to watermarble over the purple crème too, but I felt like I was pushing my luck. Instead, I decided to apply two side dots of 'Space Frog Follies' with a medium dotting tool over the crème nails. I then performed a clean up with brush and acetone and topped it all off with IAMCC 'Diamond Pro' top coat.
It is really interesting to see how using a different base polish changes the appearance of the colors in the watermarble design. The metallic green on my pinkies really muted the colors, giving them a slightly yellowish appearance.
If you take a close look at the watermarble over the holographic purple polish on my ring fingers you can almost see a bit of the holographic shimmer through the design. It also made the purple crème much brighter.
I am so ecstatic about how this turned out. When I started this project I completely expected to end with a mess on my nails and less hair on my head. For those of you who have tried watermarbling and have given up because its such a pain and seems impossible, just keep at it. Just like any other kind of nail art design this requires practice. But once, you find something that works it is so worth it. I hope you all enjoyed this nail art design, thank you for stopping by, see you next time.
Your Fellow Plebe,
