Nail Art - Water Marbling

Until recently, I used to believe that nail art or painting designs on fingernails is not my cup of tea (or coffee?!) as I found myself too clumsy to hold a brush steady enough to make designs or flowers, which would then end up as huge blotches on my nails :(

I am neither an artist or have any artistic inheritance,so to say, nor do I have patience to sit and create beautiful pieces of art work on my nails. Somehow, I am not that comfortable in wearing artificial nails. So I had been surfing through lots of blogs, websites and videos searching for a easy "recipe" for designing fingernails.

Man! people do have patience and come up with innovative, sometimes crazy and other times weird ideas for designing fingernails. And the tools they use.... 
I came across hordes of creative stuffs, among which I liked the best: "Water Marbling" and "Newspaper" nail art. (I shall do a detailed post on Newspaper nail art on my next blog).

Water Marble Nail Art is simple and neat technique and moreover its easy!!! (That's why I chose this, becoz even an amateur like me can do it!)

Water Marbling involves drawing abstract designs, specially swirls or lines in water using nail polish. Weird, eh? Until then, I was unaware of the fact that nail polish droplets when dropped in water disburses and forms a thin film on top of the water surface. Basically, you need to create a bull's eye like pattern in water with nail polish. You can use any number of nail colors. The choice is yours. Then draw lines or swirls with a toothpick. Dip your nail(s) in  the water. Wait for two seconds and then pull it out. Tadaa! you fingernails are now painted with unique designs! Easy right?

OK! Its not that easy... I have just given you an overall picture of how it should be done. Now, we move into more detailed steps. I shall also share with you the tips and tricks, do's and dont's while doing Water Marble Nail Art.

So here goes:

What you need:

• A relatively small shallow bowl filled 3/4th with normal water (Not hot/warm/cold/ hard water. Just normal water. You may also use distilled/filtered water )
• Nail Polishes

• White or Light shade nail polish for base coat
• Nail polishes of contrasting colors. Minimum of 2 is required.( I had used 3-4 different shades. It shows the difference!)
• Transparent/Colorless Nail polish  for the top coat

• Toothpicks. You may  also use needles/ bobpins/ chopsticks which ever comes in handy.
• Waste cloth
• Scotch Brite cello tape (Masking tape is also OK)
• Nail Polish remover
• Cotton buds

Lets get started!

First, paint your nails a base coat of light shade. White is preferable as it acts as a canvas for your marble design. You can also use pastel colors which will enhance the marbling effect that you are about to give to your nails.

Allow it to dry.

Now, take the scotch brite tape. Cut 2 pieces of the tape so that you can stick it around your finger. One piece should be stuck horizontally around your finger starting just below your fingernail. The other piece should be stuck vertically covering the sides of your finger so that only the nail will be exposed.  Cover all your fingers in this way. This is done to avoid the excess nail polish from sticking to your skin which would otherwise require extra time in cleaning up with remover!

Next, gather all the nail colors that you are going to use. Unscrew the top and keep it ready as we need to add the droplets sooner before the previous droplet dries up. Make sure the nail polishes that you are going to use are fresh and free-flowing ones, not the lumpy, guey ones. Because the sticky ones would not spread in water.

Now, take the bowl of water and the nail colors that you are about to mix. Into the bowl of water, add a droplet of each nail polish color. Add the first drop, wait for it to spread and form a thin film on the surface of the water (which happens instantly). Next add a drop of another nail color in the middle of the film. You can see that too spreads instantly forming a circle within first droplet circle. Keep adding nail polish droplets of different colors into the middle of each circle. The nail colors should contrast each other to give a vibrant effect. Keep adding until it forms rings of colors.

 (You may add 2-3 three drops of a nail color at a time to give a darker shade effect)

Take a toothpick. Start from the outer edge and drag a line towards the centre of the circle. Clean the toothpick with the waste cloth and then draw another line. Repeat this process around the circle. Each time you draw a line, make sure to clean the toothpick on the waste cloth .

You can see that the pattern formed is similar to cafe-latte art, done on top of coffees that we get in barista! :-). 

Make sure you finish creating the design before the film of color rings hardens.

Once you are pleased with the design, slowly dip one finger into the bowl with the nail facing downwards, in line with the design that you like.Wait for 2-3 seconds. Do not move your finger. 

Now take another toothpick or a cotton bud, clean up the excess polish around your dipped finger by wrapping it around the cotton bud.

Now, slowly remove your finger from the bowl. Blow off any water droplets sticking to your fingernail and leave it to dry.

Repeat this process for all the other nails using new water each time. Yeah I know! Its not that easy as it seems to be. But believe me, once you see the result, you will realize that its worth the effort! :-) You may dip three fingers at a time and pull out three different designs on each finger nail ( Now, this would have cheered you up! :-))

Once all the nails have dried up, remove the tapes around the fingers. Take a cotton bud damped with nail polish remover and rub off the excess polish on skin surrounding the nails.

Give a top coat to all nails with a transparent polish for the final touch. And its done!

You have super chic nails to flaunt! :-)

Here! check out this video (which tempted me to try water marble) which I got from youtube. Thanks to one who posted! :)

Video to water marble your nails

Tips and Tricks:

• Make sure that the water used is distilled or filtered and of normal temperature. It should not be cold or warm or hot. Nail polish does not spread in hard water as well.
• If the drop doesn't spread out, gently shake the water or try pulling the sides out with a toothpick.
• If you do not wish to use tape, you may use vaseline lotion or lip chap around your nails. It helps remove the excess polish easily from your skin.
• Always drip the nail polish drops from just a little above the surface of water. If you drop the polish from high above, it will fall to the bottom of the bowl.
• While pulling out your finger from the bowl, pull it out with one quick and straight move. Do not angle your finger as it may create water bubble blotches on the nail. If you get one, you can always cover it up using rhinestones :-)
• Instead of a toothpick, you can use needles, bobpins etc, which has a sharper tip.
• Do not use a normal cellophane tape as its got a polished,slippery surface and the nail polish will not stick to it.
• Make sure, the nail polishes that you use are the watery kind. The lumpy ones will not spread in water. Even the nail polishes thinned using a thinner, also will not work...
• When the first droplet of nail color is dropped into the bowl and it forms a thin film, take a toothpick and pull the outer edges of the film towards the cup's edge so that the nail color film will cling to the cup and will not move when you dip your nail in.

The images in this post have been taken from other websites for informative purpose.