River Blue Dry "Water" Marble

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Hello, dear readers. The manicure that I present today was only 4 days old, but I had to remove the polish. I mentioned in my previous post that this polish went on very bumpy and gappy. First, if you are unfamiliar with a dry water marble, you can paint polish onto plastic wrap, marble it with a dotting tool and let it dry. You then peel the marbled polish from the plastic wrap and apply it to your fingernails like a foil. Enamel Girl has a tutorial for doing dry water marbles.

I did my dry water marble a little bit differently. First, I use old cottage cheese container lids to practice nail art techniques and the dry polish peels off very easily, so I used the lid instead of plastic wrap. I painted a base of China Glaze For Audrey and then marbled stripes of Revlon Ocean Breeze, Sinful Colors Midnight Blue, Revlon Plum Attraction, and China Glaze Strawberry Fields. I put a layer of quick drying topcoat onto the marbled polish to make it a bit more sturdy for peeling. I let the polish rest on the lid for about three days before peeling it and using it. You can see that the polish was flexible, but it was not flexible enough to cling tightly across my nails.

After four days, every finger of my right hand was chipped, some severely chipped. The left hand had some tip wear, but near the cuticle, where gapping had been strongest, the polish started to pull up more.

I loved the way that this manicure would have looked if it had applied smoothly; the marble effect was very pretty. I do plan to try this type of manicure again, but when I do, I will apply the dried polish and then, using a nail art brush, paint over the polish gently with acetone to make the polish more pliable and smooth.

Has anyone else tried a dry "water" marble before? Do you have any tips or tricks that could be useful on my next attempt?

Next week, I will show you some Easter fingernails inspired by this color palette from design-seeds.com.