Amy J. Bennett

Extraordinary Faith for Everyday Life

The Water Marbling Manicure

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OK so I heard about this marble manicure thing from Katie on Twitter the other day.  Side note: I feel like everything I know is starting to come from Twitter.  Every other sentence I say is something like “Oh, I saw that on Twitter” or “The other day on Twitter”.  Oh well.  So the other day on Twitter I heard about these things and some of them looked SO cool.  And they made it look SO EASY.  Here is one of MANY tutorials on YouTube.

 

 

Here’s the basic steps though:

  1. Paint your nails with a base color and let dry.
  2. Pick 3 other colors to use.
  3. Fill a bowl with tepid water.
  4. Tape up one finger (see videos).
  5. Let a drop of the first color drop on the surface of the water.
  6. Let a drop of the second color drop in the middle of the first drop.
  7. Let a drop of the third color drop in the middle of that.
  8. Repeat as many times as you want. 
  9. Use a toothpick to pull in the colors to the center.
  10. Dip your finger in the spot of the pattern you like.
  11. The polish has created a film on the water. Pull that away from your nail while it’s still dunked in the water.
  12. Pull your nail out and untape it immediately.
  13. Repeat for all your nails.

Yeah, it’s not the fastest thing ever.  One video I watched said it only took 15 minutes.  HA!

So I picked this mint green color for the base and then silver, pink and dark purple colors for the swirl which apparently were horrible picks because really only the green and purple showed up. I had to redo a few fingers and still a few are pretty sketchy. I think if I try a few different colors and practice with the patterns in the water I’ll get better.  Here is my first water marbling:

photo (1)

I think my thumbs came out the best:

photo 2

So, that’s that I guess.  I definitely see some potential. 

Have you heard of this?  Tried it?

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Comments

  1. This looks so good, and like a lot of fun ! And the colors you tried are so pretty, and fit really well together !
    One question though, do you think it is possible to do 2 fingers at once ? In the video, when she digs her finger in the water, it looks like you can do it maybe two fingers at a time ? Idk, just wondering haha
    I’m definitely trying it soon ! Thks for this post, I didn’t know about it !

  7. This could have/should have been an infomercial, I was watching the video with my mouth open at to how cool this is. Being a SAHM it seem like a lot of steps but a pretty cool effect. How is the drying process though, is it normal? And what about wear length, does it hold up like normal too??

    Thanks for the feature!
    MommyB Knows Best recently posted…KitchenAid Rescue My Appliances SubmissionMy Profile

    • It was weird…it seemed to dry almost immediately and so far it’s wearing very similar as if I’d done it normally!

  8. So CootieGirl and I tried this today. EPIC FAIL. SEriously – it was ridiculous. The polish was hard in the water before we could even create a pattern with the toothpick. I made sure the water was tepid, per the instructions, to no avail. We got 6 of CG’s nails done before I gave up entirely. I told her we’d go by Miss Amy’s house this week and let her do the rest. =)
    Jaynee recently posted…My Little RunawayMy Profile

  9. You did a great job!!! I can’t wait to get home and try it again. Vacation doesn’t really allow good manicure time, but I’m dreaming up a neon rainbow marble to try when we get back!!! Thanks for the link!
    Katie recently posted…Worship with BernieMy Profile

  10. Made another attempt last night. Out of four nails attempted, only one looked halfway decent. Just tried it again on those same four, and this time three out of four look good. Now the key will be to find the right color combinations and pick out a really good basecoat color.