My First Attempt at Water Marbling and Tutorial! (and side note on growing my nails)

Sorry, I started writing this post last Saturday night, which is actually when I did and filmed my water marbling video, however, since this was my first time ever making a video, never mind uploading one to YouTube, it took a lot longer and was a lot more work than I was expecting, and ever since I’ve had too much to do to get back to this post. However, it’s here now! Below are my water marbling tutorial video and pictures of the finished manicure! Enjoy!

Alright, so this post is going to be mainly about my first attempt at water marbling, however, I just wanted to talk about some issues I have with my nails, first, as this doesn’t really warrant a separate post. Feel free to skip this chunk of text if you don’t want to hear about my issues with growing my nails long.

One big problem I have is actually just letting my nails grow out. I want to preface this next part by telling you guys that I used to be a nail biter/picker, and although I’ve pretty much gotten over it, anything wrong with my nails realllly bugs me. Anyways, usually, my nails get to a certain point, where they are actually longer than my finger tips, and then they start to chip at the edges, or especially right along the sides, and I either file them way too much, I’ll cut them off, or, if I’m out and have forgotten a nail file, I’ll snag one, and by the end of the day, I’ve lost all my lovely, almost-long nails.

Lately, however, I’ve been doing really well, and most of my nails have got to a really nice length. However, I’ve noticed that with all the polishing and un-polishing, my nails are getting a little dry, and for a few of them, the top layers have started trying to peel off. My thumb nails have always been especially bad for this, but right now, about half of them are trying to peel in two. So, before I start my water marbling, which I want to last a good long time, as long as it turns out well, since I don’t have a nail strengthener (I’m going to buy one tomorrow >_<) I’ve put some Vitamin E cream on my nails. I’m going to let it soak in for a while, and then wash my hands and get started.

I chose the vitamin E cream, is because one of the ingredients in the OPI Nail Envy strengthener, which is the one I want to buy, is vitamin E; it seemed logical.

Water Marbling:

So, I first learned about water marbling on the RedditLaqueristas forum on Reddit, and have since watched tons of videos and read a bunch of blog posts about how to do it, and now I’m ready to try it. If you’ve never tried, here are the main things you want to know first:

1. Always use filtered or bottled water at room temperature for best results. (For the purpose of this post, I’m using tap water, which lived in my fridge in a bottle for at least 24 hours, and then sat out in a cup over night… I figure that counts as filtered.)
2. You’ll need something to clean up the water before you pull out your nails. Some suggestions include:
   • an orange stick
   • a toothpick (this is what I’ll be using, as they are cheap and more disposable. And it has a good, fine tip for drawing)
   • a pencil
3. Its a good idea to tape around your cuticles, so that there will be less clean up to do on your fingers after you’ve dipped them
4. Have paper towel down to protect your work area. I would also suggest using a disposable cup, or something you don’t care about and will only use for marbling, as I’m not sure how hard it is to get polishes off, say, glasses and mugs. I’ll be using an old Starbucks cup!

The polishes I’m going to use are:

Left to right: Sally Hansen’s Hard as Nails in ‘Platinum’,
OPI ‘Keys to my Karma,’ Sephora by OPI’s ‘Caliente Coral,’
OPI’s ‘Strawberry Margarita,’ and Sephora by OPI’s clear top coat

I apologize for the awkward angle and poor quality, as the only cam I have is on my laptop, but here is my video tutorial (please excuse my account name, I don’t think I can change it. Also, I apologize about the tiny video, I’m trying to fix that, but here this is for now):

And here is the finished manicure:

    

 

Pre-clean up. I was really excited about them, so I didn’t even wait to clean up all the (awesome) swirls on my fingers before I took pictures…

 

 

 

 

Some of them turned out better than others, obviously, and they aren’t even nearly perfect, but I think they came out pretty well for my first attempt!

 

 

 

 

 

After clean-up,
looking much tidier.
(not perfect, I know.
I’m not great at clean-up):

 

 

 

 

And finally, my mess after I was all done:

So? What do you think? Have you ever tried water marbling, or do you want to now? (If you try it after this post, send me your pictures!!))