Update: New Water Marble Video tutorial is available:
http://southernsisterpolish.blogspot.com/2012/08/nail-art-wednesdaywater-marble-tutorial.html
Water Marbling 12 steps....give or take a few:)
1. The night before you water marble leave a bottle of water out, this needs to be filter water.
Why you ask???? well its simple the water needs to be room temperature:)
2. Good Morning... collect everything you need.
a. a cup or I use a candle votive(you can reuse it, just clean it out)..... they are $.49 at the store
b. paper towels or I use a old wash cloth ($1 at the dollar store)
c. toothpicks, orange stick, tape, scissors
d. polish and polish remover
3. Deep Breath..... Know mistakes are a part of the game, you can always start over:)
4. Prep your nails , do whatever you do normally do before your regular mani's.... this is the time you want to paint a base coat on your nails, use white or with this mani I used grey.
5. Votive is placed in the middle of the wash cloth, fill votive with water leaving a small space at the top so you can dunk and not spill. If the water is not warm you may want to make it luke warm. And add a drop of polish remover.
6. Polish is very important ... like I know that Zoya's work for me so I use them a lot, but you may want to start with some cheap stuff. Try a drop of polish in the water, making sure it spreads. you may want to try each polish you are going to use.... just to make sure:) Remember you will be working with 3 to 4 colors.
*Not every polish is going to work for you, you may have to exchange polish several times.
7. Nails at the ready.... now comes the tape. Tape helps with the mess factor!!!
8. You have taped one nail, You have tested your polish (you can just leave the tops undone). I lay out everything like so......
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| this just works for me do whatever makes you comfortable |
One drop at a time .... making sure each one spreads correctly. Try to work at a quick pace so you have time to do the design you want
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| Pink polish |
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| Grey Polish |
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| White Polish |
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| Black Polish |
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| Grey Polish |
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| Black Polish |
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| Grey Polish |
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| White Polish |
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| Pink Polish |
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| White Polish |
9. Design Time!!!! the sky is the limit:) Today I'm doing a pulled in flower look.
You are going to pull the toothpick lightly through the polish towards the center and when reaching the center do a slight dunk in to make the center. After each pull you HAVE too wipe off the toothpick! If you mess up its okay just use your orange stick to gather the polish out of the votive and try again:)
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| 1st pull through polish |
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| 2nd pull |
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| 3rd pull |
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| 4th pull |
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| 5th pull |
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| 6th pull |
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| 7th pull |
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| 8th pull |
10. If you have the look you want now you get to dunk.... slow and steady. If you need to rotate the cup do so now... so you can get the look you desire, slowly lower your taped nail into the water. Leave nail in the water.
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| slowly, just try not to shake shaking will cause a mess! |
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| DUNK! |
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| Use your orange stick to clean around your nail, to remove the extra polish. |
11. Pull your nail out of the water. I blow on my nail and then cut off the tape.
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| This is the part I blow for a second. |
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| Cut Tape from back. |
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| Carefully remove tape |
12. All you have to do now is repeat the cycle and clean up and your done!!!!
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| Not cleaned up yet. |
Here are some pictures of the finished look:)
Please remember that every design is different in it's own way and yours might look slightly different than mine. I hope that this tutorial has helped you with creating a master piece of your own:) If y'all have any questions just leave me a comment and I will try to help:) I'm working on a short video clip too help you a little more:)
I think I want to see everybody's pictures.... send them to me so I can take a look:) gmail account...
southernsiterpolish@gmail.com put in the subject water marble picture, please include your name in the email:)
Happy Polishing Everyone!! Maybe I should say Happy Water Marbling Everyone:)
Love,
~Anne~
Thanks for the tutorial, I have tried this before but it has always been a miserable fail. Definitely going to try it again your way tho! :)
ReplyDeleteGood Luck Lynn :)
ReplyDeleteThese look so cool! Everytime i try this it never works :( Haha
ReplyDeleteLexi I hope you try it again.... I had tons of mess ups before I got it right:)
ReplyDeleteawesome tutorial!! :) lovely water marble! :)
ReplyDeleteAnne, I did these today and I love them!! Great tutorial!! I will send you an email when I post them on my blog on Thurs!! Thanks for the great idea.. I will totally link you on my blog!! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks ladies:) I ♥ Y'all
ReplyDeleteJodi I can't wait to see yours:)
~Anne~
Gorgeous!! I can not wait to try this. I have not done a marble in forever, but this would be the perfect vacation mani!
ReplyDeleteGreat color combination and execution! I have done several water marbles and love the look and I always get compliments. It takes a lot of practice to master, but well worth the effort.
ReplyDeleteI have a question...what is the drop of polish remover in the water for? I have never done that, very curious.
@Melissakc1a I have always done that, I really don't have a good reason. We have hard water here and even leaving the water out did not help me with WM. So I started adding a drop of remover to the water and it was like magic for me, it just worked. If you drop the remover in you can see it(in mine I can anyway) clear the top surface of the water.
ReplyDeleteHope this helped:)
~Anne~
I too was very curious about the drop of remover! I'm definitely going to try that. Do you use a dropper or what do you use to drop in?
Deletemariepb I don't use a dropper, I just pore a small amount into a empty votive and then pore what I want into my water marble votive. Hoope that helps :)
DeleteI think the key is using the small votive cup. Thank you so much for sharing :D
ReplyDeleteGreat post
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tutorial! I took inspiration from this to my water marble too, so thank you so much. :)
ReplyDeleteDid you say you used a drop of nail polish remover to the room temp. water in your votive before starting the process? If so, what type/kind of nail polish remover did you use?
ReplyDeleteYes I do use a drop of polish remover in my water before I start, I use Beauty Secrets Pure Acetone. Its sold at Sally's Beauty Supply Stores, for about $2 for a small bottle. Hope this helps:)
DeleteAwesome thanks! I'll definitely try that next time.
DeleteAnother question: How do you keep bubbles from forming on the polish on your fingers? And how/what do you use to remove ALL the residue from the water before you start on another design? I always have a little bit of stuff floating around and can't quite figure out how to remove it all.
Bubbles....that is trouble a lot of people have... I never shake my polish before water marbling and try to dip my finger slowly into the water. Some bubbles just happen, I use a pin to pop them. The left over residue.... I use a drop of clear polish in the votive, blow to dry and clean it out with the orange stick(tooth pick). I hope this helps:)
DeleteThanks for answering ALL my questions! I'm going to try my water marble again once my nails grow longer. Can't wait to see how it works this time around using your technique! :)
DeleteGood luck:) I hope everything turns out great!!!! I'm trying to put together a water marbling video to help you guys...soon I promise:)
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ReplyDeleteI know using chap stick (no matter how wierd this sounds!) around my fingers on my skin instead of tape. It works like a charm! I find it a little bit easier then trying to get the tape lined up. Just a little tip!
ReplyDeleteI've thought about that or using some kind of wax....great tip! Thanks
DeleteI can not wait to try this... Have never tried water marble before so this should be very interesting!! Thanks for the great instructions!
ReplyDeletegood luck! ♥
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