Hiya guys! Hope you’ve all had a great week!
This week I was thinking it might be
an idea to start a question-answer type post. This idea came to me after a couple friends
asked me some creative-y/design-y questions, and I thought it would be a good
idea to answer their questions through my blog. That way I can do the DIY thing myself and
post pictures on how it can be done (if I can manage to do the project myself,
that is).
So I got asked a couple questions and
I will deal with one of them in this blog post. I will answer the other one after Christmas,
as I haven’t done that DIY project before and I’ll need some time to look at it.
Okay, this week’s question was about
nail art, water marble nail art to be specific. A friend had seen a video of it on Facebook
and was wondering ‘how is it done?’
So here you go pal, a wee answer for
you! J
I’ll do a step-by-step tutorial and also
include some tips and tricks to help you. These are things I have found out through
trial and error as well as from nail art blogs on the internet.
This is one of my fave nail art
designs to do as, even though it’s a wee bit tricky, it is fun to do and you can
end up with a different design on each nail. You can also jazz up the nail a bit more by
adding little details, if you like, as illustrated in my previous blog post.
Right-o! I’ll start by listing the tips and tricks. Water marble nail art is quite difficult to
start with but the following tips and tricks should make things easier, and it
becomes easier with practice.
1. Water. What I have found is that you have to use the
right temperature of water - it is easier if you use the right water! When I first did the water marble nail art I
used cold tap water and it didn’t really work very well. It might also have had something to do with
the nail polish I was using back then, but after some research, watching other
video tutorials, I saw that other people were using bottled water at room
temperature, so I thought I’d try that. It
worked much better! So this is what I
use now!
2. Nail polish. I have discovered that not all nail polishes
work for me. Some makes of polish seem
to work better than others. Also, it
depends on the style of nail polish, glitters etc. It is all trial and error really, just giving
it a go and seeing which one works. The
main thing you are looking for is for the polish to spread out and sort of
dissolve in the water! If it doesn’t do
that straight away, give the bowl (or whatever you have the water in) a little
shake to see if that helps. Another tip
is not to plop the polish into the water as it will just fall to the bottom in
a little blob - just hold the brush a few millimetres above the water and
lightly drop the polish onto the water. It
also helps if the polish is new or runny-ish as it will be easier for it to
drop off the brush. If you are using old,
just load the brush so a drip forms on the end.
3. Work quickly! As you are putting more and more drops of
polish into the bowl, the earlier drops will start to dry and congeal on top of
the water so you need to work quickly and get all the drops you want into the
water and drag the cocktail stick (or whatever too you decide to use for this)
through the layers to create the design you like. If you take any longer, you will find that the
outer layer of polish sticks a little as it will have congealed already. (Be careful though, not to drag through the
polish too heavy handed - if it does stick to the tool it might end up dragging
the whole thing together and create a clump at the end of the tool).
4. Vaseline/lip balm. Using Vaseline or some other lip
balm around the nail cuts down on clean-up time. This creates a barrier between skin and polish,
meaning that after the nail comes out of the water the extra polish on the skin
can be easily wiped away. When I first
did this type of nail art I used masking/sticky tape but that didn’t work very
well because the polish still got under the tape, and cleaning up was a nightmare! So, now I use Vaseline - so much easier!!
5. Be steady. Be steady, and be careful not to move your
finger around in the water. If you keep
your finger steady the polish will stick to your nail in just one thin layer! I found how important this was the hard way,
realising that once my nail was out of the water it looked like it had multiple
layers of polish on it – and it took forever to dry too! There is also a way to remove your nail from
the water, to make sure that only a thin layer forms – this is explained in
Step 7!
Now for the step-by-step tutorial - with
pictures of course! (I really need to
invest in some sort of tripod, because trying to take pictures while doing my
nails was quite difficult. I do
apologise if the pictures aren’t great or don’t explain what I was doing
clearly enough.)
Water Marble Nail Art Steps:
1) First of all I applied a base coat,
then one coat of white nail polish. This
colour doesn’t have to be totally opaque as the water marble will cover any flaws.
2) I poured the room-temperature water
into a large cup (one that I only use for nail art!) and set that aside.
3) Next I picked the colours of nail
polish I wanted to use and laid them out next to the cup – all open and ready
to be used.
4) Then I used the Vaseline and put it
around the nail, not forgetting under the nail and all around the finger up to
the second knuckle.
5) After that, I dropped the polish into
the water in the order I wanted. To do
this, I put a drop of the first polish into the water then let it spread out. I then dropped the next one into the centre of
the first, then let that spread out, and so on until I had the desired amount
in the water.
You
can use as many or as few colours of polish as you like. Obviously the more you use – the more detailed
the nail art will be! As I said in Tips and
Tricks #2 and #3 above, work quickly when dropping the polish into the water.
6) I used a Kirby grip as the tool to
create the design in the polish. I
lightly dragged the hair grip through the polish to create a leafy shape that I
was happy with. You can create whatever
shape you want by dragging the tool from the inside out or the outside in.
7) So, after prepping my finger I
carefully placed my nail over the part of the design I liked best and, making
sure the nail was parallel to the water, dipped my finger into the water to
cover the nail. Being very careful not to move my finger while
in the water, I blew into the cup just to dry the extra polish around my finger,
and used a cotton bud to pick up the excess by twirling and dragging it across
the water until all of it was gone!
8) I then removed my finger from the
water - I did this by slowly straightening it while keeping the nail below the
surface. Then with my finger pointing directly downwards, I started to scoop my
finger upwards so my palm ended up facing down towards the water.
9) Now, using a clean cotton bud, I
wiped the excess polish from around my nail and finger.
10) This is where the design can be left
as it is, with a clear top coat being applied once dry.
Or, if you want you can add more design, which
is what I did here! I
used my dotting tool to create little dots along some of the marbled effects.
11) After finishing my designs, I put a
white sparkly textured coat of polish on top and then added a clear coat to
give it more shine!
That was all I did really. I know it looks like a lot of steps, but I
just wanted to break it down a bit more, just to explain it a bit better.
So, hopefully this answered the question?
As well as explained it to anyone else who was interested in how this nail art
was done!!
Okay guys, that’s all for this
week. Keep an eye out for my next question/answer
post which I will put up after Christmas!
Have a fab week and I’ll catch up
with you all next Sunday! Until then…See ya!
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