Tuesday 26 June 2012

31 Day Challenge - Day 20 - Water Marbled

This is a long post guys, just a warning… :P This was my first water marbling attempt. I was ready for water marbling… Until I looked up some tips and heard the horror stories, of the polish not spreading, the time and waste, the water marbles that got messed up etc. The list went on and on. I still proceeded.

I unfortunately forgot to leave some water overnight; therefore the water was too cold. But I work with what I’ve got.  Otherwise I was over prepared, I made sure I had my equipment ready and nothing was forgotten. My white nail polish is a gloopy disaster, so my base colour had to be mint (China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint). It’s pastel and light so that’s what I used.

I had my water in a muller rice cup with my three polishes ready to go.

Left Hand
Colours:
Pink: No7 – Me! Me! Me!
Blue: Revlon – Dreamer
Green Blue: Topshop – Green Room
When the first drop actually spread (you’ll be hearing a lot about polish spreading. Or not in my case), I already thought things were already looking good. By the time I got to the fourth drop… It didn’t spread; I continued to make my design.
My second nail was the same story of Green Room not spreading and just going on anyway.

Do you see Dreamer? Yeah neither do I. I changed the polishes after. Those colours were giving me random blob shapes. I thought they were ok, but time to move on.

Colours:
Pink: OPI – Japanese Rose Garden
Orange: Bourjois – Tangerine Fatal
Yellow: w7 – Sheer Lemon
I tried Essie Lilacism and Turquoise and Caicos, but it was far too sheer and I used the other colours (listed above) over it.
Middle finger failed, and same went for the ring finger I drew my design badly for that nail and it showed. My pinky nail worked until when I was cleaning up the polish I smacked the toothpick into that nail and that created a dent and the excess polish went on the nail too. Turns out Sheer Lemon really is sheer.
The amount of times the polish just wouldn’t spread or the toothpick would lift all the polish off making me have to start again and again. I failed my left hand but I was kind of proud of my first attempt at water marbling. It smelt awful, I understood what people said about waste, so much polish not used. Since I’d failed my left hand I was determined to do my right hand right.


Right hand
Colours:
Pink: OPI – Japanese Rose Garden
Purple: Barry M – Berry Ice Cream
Light Pink: Chilli Pepper – Light Pink (no name)
Japanese Rose Garden really was the star, so I kept using that; SO many polishes just wouldn’t spread. I tested so many, that was my main problem. Finding colours that actually spread on the water, it was so hard to guess which ones would. Some would spread but it would be far too sheer, a white base would’ve been better but if it doesn’t show up on the mint it won’t be great on white. Looking at my collection I couldn’t see many that I thought would spread. New nail polish is the time for water marbling. 
Now THAT is more like it. I really like every finger apart from my ring finger. There’s a random hole in it!!! I used w7 Golden Sands for my index finger but it wouldn’t spread that well, but it worked for that finger, it might be my favourite of them all. I loved the pinky, I really just wanted to finish by that point but it turned out really cool. Thank goodness. The light pink from Chilli Pepper spread amazing, even though it’s completely sheer. I thought the orange from there would work the same. It kind of did but left a hole, so I went back to my winning combination, listed above. Once I realized that combination worked, that was it I stuck to it.
I found clean up pretty good. As long as you tape up your fingers well, you’re good to go.

Even after the frustration and effort of water marbling. I would definitely do it again, its fun and so many different colours and patterns to try. Of course when I get new nail polish, the spreading issue really was the bane of my water marbling existence.

Equipment used:
Toothpicks (many toothpicks)

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