Showing posts with label water marble. Show all posts
Showing posts with label water marble. Show all posts

Saturday, September 21, 2013

31 Day Challenge: Inspired by a Color

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Yes, some nails are missing polish, but they were polished earlier today. I ran my very first half marathon today and it was POURING rain. My peel off basecoat just gave up and pieces of my polish apparently ended up littered near the Niagara River. My husband said yesterday's mani looked like water, so I ran by the river with watery nails.

Friday, September 20, 2013

31 Day Challenge: Water Marble

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So happy! My very first successful water marble. Every other time I tried, the polish wouldn't spread for the bullseye. I have no idea why it worked this time; I'm just glad it did.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Pink Pseudo-marble Birthday Nails

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Hi friends. Just like my last post, this is an older mani. This was my birthday manicure. I absolutely love the look of water marbles, but have failed miserably in every attempt. I asked a water marble pro for her input on my problems, but she never got back to me with any suggestions. So, before I tell you about my birthday manicure, may I ask for your help? Every time that I try a water marble, my first drop of polish spreads well,but all of my subsequent drops refuse to spread and just pile up in the center of the cup. I have used every possible temperature of water, tap water, filtered water, and spring water; I have also experimented with many different polishes. The results are the same each time:  I spend over three hours trying to get just one fingernail to even the tiniest bit like a water marble and then give up, with the room reeking of nail polish and on the verge of tears. Does anyone have some advice or know why my bullseye never spreads? Thank you for you help if you can give it and your sympathy, if you don't know what I am doing wrong.

On to more successful polishing. These pictures were both taken after six days, so pretty good wear time on this manicure. Like I said before, I love the look of water marbles and have no success in creating them, so I bought a nail stamping plate with a faux water marble stamp. For this manicure, I wore three coats of China Glaze Summer Rain stamped with a marbled image in Nina Ultra Pro Hawaiian Flower (which is a spectacular stamping nail polish; I made a list of my best stamping polishes and it rated near the very top). I really loved this girly manicure and the fact that it actually looked like I had a water marbling success to some degree.

What are your favorite polishes for stamping or nail art in general? What are the best polishes for water marbles, in your opinion?

Take care, ladies.
~Alexis

Thursday, March 29, 2012

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.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Cinderella spring: Seven Days later

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I was so happy with this manicure. I loved the way that it turned out and it was presentable for seven whole days! By the end of seven days, I had some tip wear and a couple of small chips on my nails. The polish was beginning to pull up off the tip of my left index finger too.

Here is a teaser of next week's nails. I did a dry water marble with the image of azaleas growing by a river in mind. I love the look of the marble, but the application was bumpy and had gaps. I have some ideas that may allow me to do a dry water marble that applies more smoothly. I'll test them out later and discuss them later this week along with my discussion of this marble's durability. I don't expect it to last long since it is gapping, but I'm willing to be surprised.


Feel free to check out this week's blog hop.

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Until next time.
~Alexis