Lisa Attempts Water Marbles

Hello!

There are a few nail art techniques that are quite beyond me, and water marbling is one of them. Mostly I have been very content to sit back and admire other polishers' amazing marbles, but this week I decided to have another couple of goes.

The basic premise of a water marble is that you drop a few colours into a bowl of water to form concentric circles, swirl them with a cuticle stick to make a pattern, then dunk your nails in! Some specific advice I've been given is to use filtered or bottled water at room temperature, to test polishes first to see how well they spread, to apply a white or similar base coat first in case your marble is a little transparent, and to dunk your nails in at a 45-degree angle. Lots of things to consider!

Here is my first attempt, a pink marble:

I really quite liked this hand but, unfortunately, the other hand was a write-off! I got globs of polish on my nails which I couldn't fix.

Here is my second attempt, a purple water-marble:

As you can see I got both hands done this time which is a success! It still felt a bit messy to me though.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

31 Day Challenge ~ A New Technique To You

Hello!

Today's challenge is to try a technique you've never done before, and I decided to be brave and go for a water marble! I've always thought my fellow polishers' marbles were absolutely stunning but the technique seemed intimidating and so I never tried it myself... until today :-)

With some kind advice from the Polishaholics Anonymous group and an extremely clear and helpful tutorial by Colette at My Simple Little Pleasures, I got a bowl of water and some polishes and gave it a try. I used 3 polishes from Barry M's Gelly collection - Pomegranate, Blueberry and Grapefruit - because they're thick and colour rich, and here is the result:

It is SO COOL!!! The colours are super-bright and give a stunning effect. As you can see, it's not a complete success story - I have some messy bits and imperfections. However, I had already been told that you need practise with this technique and so I was delighted that I got the marble effect, even though it's flawed. Although the manicure required some preparation, such as painting my nails a base white and taping around my nails for easier cleanup, it was not nearly as drawn-out or difficult as I feared it would be. I will definitely be trying again!

Hugs,

Lisa xx