My First (and LAST) Water Marble Manicure
I should really call this manicure “An Afternoon of Frustration” because that’s how trying to create a water marble manicure left me feeling; FRUSTRATED! Those of you who have mastered the technique, I bow down to you. I honestly have no desire to try this ever again but since I made the effort, I thought I’d share my experience with you.
A few years back when China Glaze introduced the OMG! holographic collection, they posted a tutorial for their “Color Swirl” manicure and I was intrigued but intimidated by the process. Since then a whole mess of YouTubers have made countless water marble tutorials including lots of great tips and tricks to make the technique easier. I found myself watching a few this morning and got inspired. Find out more about the water marble technique and my adventure trying to recreate the look after the jump! |
The basic steps of the water marbling process sound easy enough; drop polish in water, create a pattern with a toothpick, dip nail, clean off excess. Simple right? For me, not so much. Here’s what you need to get started:
- Cup of room temperature water (filtered or distilled is preferable to tap)
- Toothpick or orange wood stick
- Cuticle oil
- 2-4 bottles of nail polish
STEP 1: Start with your nails painted and dry. Use a base color that will contrast the polishes you are using to create the marble effect. I chose to use a light base color, the minty green OPI Damone Roberts 1968.
The main issue with water marbling is that you are dipping your fingers into a pool of polish and it gets all over your skin and cuticle. You can take the time to clean it all off but I found a couple great tips on YouTube. CND’s Kristina Baune Estabrooks suggests covering your skin with cuticle oil to prevent the polish from sticking to your skin and SimpleLittlePleasures uses tape to create a polish barrier. I chose to go the cuticle oil route. My skin can always benefit from some extra moisturizing.
STEP 2: Apply cuticle oil to your skin and cuticles all the way down to the top knuckle and don’t forget the underside of your nail.
STEP 3: Drop polish onto the surface of the water from about a half an inch away so the polish will disperse. Continue adding drops in alternating colors to create rings of color. Add drops until you achieve the depth of color you desire.
Tip: Not all polish will work well with water marbling so you have to test a few to see which ones disperse the best. I tried OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui and it sank to the bottom of the cup. After a little experimenting I ended up with Sally Hansen Emerald City and China Glaze 5 Golden Rings.
STEP 4: Use a toothpick or orange wood stick to create a pattern in the polish. I’ve seen some people start from the outside but doing that just pulled all the polish into a clump so I started in the middle and worked from there. Again, you have to play to find the method that works best for you. Continue to swirl the polish until you create a pattern you like. If you mess up, just start over.
Tip: To clean the water surface, add one drop of polish and spread it over the surface pulling the color to the edges with your stick. Let it dry for a few seconds and then “clean” the surface by removing the layer of polish with your stick. It will pull up any floating bits of polish in the process. I picked up that trick from SimpleLittlePleasures.
STEP 5: Dip your nail in the polish right after you finish creating your pattern. If you wait too long the polish will dry. While the nail is submerged, use your stick to pull the excess polish away from your skin. Remove nail from water and shake off excess moisture.
STEP 6: Clean up the cuticle and skin. Thanks to the cuticle oil, the majority of the polish will easily come off using a cotton pad. I used a clean orange wood stick to push the polish off my cuticles, no remover needed. For stubborn bits of polish dip a cotton swab in acetone.
The Finished Product
So why don’t I plan to water marble again? Let me give you my list of frustrations/cons
- It’s a master at the art of time suckage. Much like Troy Dyer in Reality Bites, I spent way too much time on this to end up with ho-hum results.
- It’s a MAJOR waste of product. I trashed so much polish trying to get a good pattern, to get the polish to disperse well and to find brands that don’t sink.
- You have to keep cleaning the surface of the water or else little bits floating on the surface prevent the polish from spreading out.
- While the cuticle oil helps with cleanup, it was still a major pain removing up all that excess polish. I went through so many cotton pads and ended up getting polish on my other fingers. I seriously don’t know how people do a full manicure on all 10 nails without losing their shit!
- Trying to draw a pattern that looks good is not easy and as you can tell, I did NOT succeed at it for the most part.
- It’s very easy to accidentally pull the pattern or ding it during cleanup and being a naturally clumsy person, I biffed two nails and had to start over. I even made mistakes on the finished manicure but couldn’t bother to try again.
Now before you call me out for whining, I know that any new skill takes time and practice and I’m sure that the process becomes easier the more you do it. Though in all honesty, with the amount of waste I created just marbling three nails, I have no desire to master this art. I’ll be content with admiring the YouTubers from now on.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on water marble manicures. Who’s tried it? Do you love it? Hate it? Do you have any tips to share? Any insight that might make me change my mind?
Can you use any nail poshlish or a centin one ?
Well it really depends. Most of my nail polish I have tried it with doesn’t work because of the texture it has when it dries. So it’s not like a certain brand will work it’s individual nail polishes themselves so if you really wanna get the “perfect” effect you will have to experiment. Good luck to you!
PS: I never have any luck trying water marbling… but it doesnt mean it’s not possible! ^_^
if you add a bit off nail remover to the tap water before you start the process all nail polishes will work it a trick my friends shared with me
instead of covering your finger with cuticle stuff, use just regular tape around your nail and on your skin. pulling off tape is easy and less mess. then theonly polish i got was on the bottom of my finger which was an easy clean up
Use an old tweezers to pull off the tape and then you don’t get the polish on your other fingers. I picked up this to from youtuber ilovemylongnails. Hope this helps.
Yesterday was my first time to try it and I also hated it! Every polish I used either wouldn’t expand, float to the bottom, or dried too fast. Every time I got a little close and made a sucky design once I pulled my nail out it looked like a glob of paint no design at all. I agree it’s a major waste of time and polish,but I would still like to learn to do it atleast half descent! Do you have any hints for pulling your nail out?
if u use fake nails you can come up with a gr8 design and less mess. All u hav to do is:
1 chew a piece of gum
2 put it on the back of the fake nail
3 attach a stick to the gum and dip it into the design
that way no mess to clean off you fingers.
i 2 started to hate the process in till my friend told me to try this i love it now
and if you want all you nail polishes to work just add a bit of nail remover to the tap water before you start 5-7 small drops
I have tried the marbling technique a couple of times, the problem I have found is I put the first colour nail varnish in the water and it spreads I put the second colour ontop of it and it just stays in a dot but all the nail varnishes that I am using are the same brand so why is one spreading but the other any help would be entirely grateful thanks
while your nail is immersed, remove the leftover film of polish so that it doesn’t get caught and glob up onto your nail when you take it out of the water…good luck
Hey, your first time? Results look stellar. My first time, today, not so gorgeous as yours!
You’re a hero.
First of all, I think they turned out beautiful and green is my favourite colour: yay!
Secondly, you may have just saved my life. I’ve tried it twice now, with nailpolish that just doesn’t WORK.
I was still really determined but now that I’ve read your entry, I feel that I took the journey WITH you and rather don’t feel I need to go through all that frustration myself.
As I said, you’re a hero(ine)!
I tried the marbling technique 2 days ago. My verdict is I won’t be wasting my time on that again! I was adament about using these 3 specific colors but they were not dispersing very well into the water after the second drop which is extremely frustrating. So instead I just kept adding drops, then used the toothpick to create the swirls I wanted and then dunked my nail. I tried the tape barrier, it worked out well but it seemed silly to waste tape on such a project so only one nail had that barrier. I wish I would’ve read this before my little science project, I would’ve used the oil! It wasn’t so bad with the cleaning up when the polish is still wet on your fingers but that’s not to say it isn’t messy. After dunking and swirling the toothpick to remove the access polish film off the top I noticed that when pulling my nail from the water the excess polish on my finger slid down onto my nail. Not to mention there were a lot of air bubbles or water being traped underneath the polish. Shaking off the excess was a mistake, I flung polish almost everywhere- tap the nail lightly on a newspapered table. After 6 nails and 2 hours later without achieving the desired look I wanted (except on 1 nail lol) I threw my hands up and said, “DONE!” I may give it a go another time when I’m extremely bored and have time to kill. But that probably won’t be for a while. So, like you, I’ll be leaving this to the marbling professionals. I must say your results are far better looking than mine!
i cant make he circels in the water..it just stay as a dot….the first on its okay..but then..wont circle for me….help me…its so awsom…i want to learn..please send to my email…not always im at this computer…but always look at my mails..thank you so much..
I just emailed you!
Hey! I have the same problem..what can I do? I am trying for 3 days now,but nothing.. :-/ please help me…
The water may be too cold. Make sure you are using room temperature water. Also, try using distilled water. The minerals in your water could be part of the issue. Make sure you are dropping the polish as close to the surface as possible so that it gently lands on the surface and spreads.
Hey! My daughter and I tried this yesterday. We used at least 7 different colors with the same results.. dots in the middle of the water, or balls on the bottom. My daughter REALLY wants to put this on her nails. Any suggestions to get this to work?
Make sure the water is room temperature and drop the polish as close to the surface as possible. Also make sure you clean the surface well between nails or else the polish won’t spread out.
no matter WHAT i do, the polish always just films up and tears. i can;t get it to blend at all /: did that happen to you, or is my existence just a failure lol
I tryed it and the same happend to me anyone got any suggestions ?
Pull the colour from the 3rd or 4th ring inwards. If you pull from the outer ring it will film up because it will have already dried! You need to create about 8 rings of colour! good luck x
make sure you are not using any instant dry/instadry/quick dry nail polish. Also make sure a fan isn’t blowing on the cup…these were all my problems the first time. If the nail polish in the cup dries in the cup, it’s useless!
[...] Credit: All Lacquered Up this is a couple different kinds of nail polish marbled in water! I trick is to use cuticle oil [...]
I have tried the marbling but it doesn’t work instead all i got was little dots are a ball at the bottom it wont spread out in the water and if it does spread by the time am ready my make pattern its all clump and plastics like in the toothpick and no pattern is formed i really would like to make please someone give me a good advice i don’t know if the nail polish of to be a specific type help please.
Hi im Mia, and today i didnt have school, but my siblings did. (im in the fourth grade)i was incredibley bored this morning so i decieded to try this cause my sister had shown me that her friend had done water marbling to her nails. THIS IS SO HARD. I got like one good nail and i showed my dad and he was all oh that looks cool, so i tried the other nails and they looked like poo, i used soo much nail polish remover today (sorry about the shortage at walgreens in Miami lol), it always ended up looking striped instead of swirly. and then like polish got all over my finger, and it was just really annoying to get off.
but its a cool idea!!:)
I feel like I’m behind the times, since I just stumbled on the tutorials on YouTube myself. Michelle, I know you thought your results looked “ho hum”, but I think it’s GORGEOUS!!! I’m a huge fan of kelly greens, and I think your combo was very wearable and interesting. I really love the look of the marbling, but I have to say it does seem like a lot of effort to build up the color for one nail at a time. I have heard some people say they dip two at a time. I was wondering if anyone tries adhesive foils to stick around the cuticle rather than scotch tape. Seems like it would be easier to form around the nail.
Anyway, the marbling is just so darn cute, and I’m so addicted to watching the YouTube tutorials, I know I’m going to have to try it one of these days. Check out this one! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9A_9FH7e-A
I’m not sure if it’s already been said, but you used too little polish. Once you find some polish that works do 10-12 total rings in your “bullseye” it will make the colors more vivid and make it a lot easier to draw a pattern in.
It’s really not that frustrating…first u should use tape not oil..second if u were having problems with wasting product then either ur water was to cold or you were taking to long in dropping the polish..all in all I do this all the time and even the first time I did it was quite easy..
omg this looks so cool! im gonna have to try this soon. email me with tips!
The best tricks for me are: definitely use tape, use orange stcks, good quality polish I.e. Opi, Essie, etc,room temp bottled water, clean up excess polish with q-tips (both to fish out the left over polish film while finger is immersed and around cuticles), start with two colors and work your way up as you get better, before swirling the design try to “pin” the film of polish to the sides (very subtle step I’ve seen on YouTube tutorials, finishing with rapid dry clear coat by Sally Hansen and the motivation to do it over and over again…lol…I have lots of fun with swirling! Good Luck!
PS…your choice of color(s) are beautiful and the results Soooo worth it….L O V E it!
I am really trying to get the hang of this lol however when I put my polish in the water it stays in a dot and does not spread as others do on the videos. Please help if you can. Thanks
I gave you a shoutout. I love the nails and the news you give me. I wanna subsribe and will soon! haha
xoxo
Future Editor-In-Chief
Oh and I used tape instead of Oil! MUCH easier. Dip, wait a few seconds and rip off… carefully… XD
nails look great!!
i just did it
and it worked great!!
i used SALLY HENSON nail polish
and i just used tape
its not that hard….
[...] Image via All Lacquered Up [...]
I actually did this today, and then stumbled upon your tutorial. I found that my polish was really light when I dipped my nails, so I used more drops, and it darkened up. I don’t like having the same design on all of my nails, so this is the PERFECT thing for me. It took about an hour, a quarter of a bottle of polish remover, and some patience. If you ever decide to do it again, don’t mix brands of color was the tip I got from the professional from China Glaze who taught me.
Sally Hansen Extreme Wear polishes work the best for this process and they’re cheap! I got mine for $2.50 at WalMart. Someone said to use good quality polish but why waste it when it’s so expensive. Even at 4.25 a bottle for OPI at the beauty supply wholesaler, it’s still expensive.
I’ve also found that a votive holder works great for shorter fingernails. I also use the tape method and clean up is very easy. You have to “anchor” the polish to the edge of the glass so it doesn’t clump up to the middle when you make your design.
That is exactly what nail polish I have! It does work perfect. I got mine for 1.99 at walmart.
I had a similar experience with Water Marbling. The result was great but I messed so many things up in the process, I’ve been reluctant to try it again. The worst mistake was when I picked up a bottle of bright blue polish by the handle thinking I had screwed it on. Nope. The bottle held for roughly 1 second then dropped onto a table then my carpeted floor.
I know better what to do next time…if there is a next time.
I’m so glad I came across this conversation. I thought I was the only one having problems with this. When it worked it worked and when it didn’t it was a hot messy mess! Lol! So I thank you all for all your tips. I love the potential looks of this manicure and was becoming increasingly sad when it wouldn’t work out. If it weren’t almost 2 in the morning, I would be going to play in water and polish. But this has reignited my curiosity in perfecting this process! And my clients love it….well when it works.
And the greens are beautiful!
Hey,
I’ve pretty much mastered the art of nail polish marbling. It’s not as difficult as it seems and water marbling produces awesome designs. I’m a novice at nail art but this came as a pretty easy technique so I’d actually recommend it.
Some tips:
1. Use scotchtape/sticky tape. cover all around your nail, even under the nail.
2. The nail polish should, in ideal situations, touch ALL the sides of the container. This locks the design in place to prevent it from shifting about while you draw designs.
3. LIGHTLY, and i repeat, lightly, use a toothpick to draw through the design. Ploughing through wouldn’t help. And always start from the colour that looks the thickest in the water, which is usually the colour you added LAST. This is to ensure that you can create your design while the polish is still wet.
4. I found this out through trial and error and seems like no one has mentioned this yet. Not all the polish has to spread out, literally, just having 1 colour that spreads out nicely ( to touch all the sides of your container) would do, as you can still draw through those subsequent drops of nail polish even if they didnt spread out well. You still get a nice design! (:
I love marbling. I almost prefer it to painting my nails. Mostly because I find that marbling dries faster. Two big points tape your nail off first the sides and underneath. Also remember to remove the polish from the water with an orange stick before you lift your finger out. I have done the process with OPI nail polishes alone and it works perfectly everytime (I do not have a video on youtube). It is one of my favourite techniques. I might go home tonight and do them.
Also I am a huge admirer of ALU and am always amazed at how perfectly the pictures of your nails turn out. Any tips? I usually get the polish over most of my cuticle and it takes forever to remove.
Thanks
A
Maybe you can use an other nailpolish. NOT a quick dry nailpolish. you can use the brand China Glaze. If that doen’s work… then I give it up
-_-” xoxo. lizzy
Hello,, am Eme From UAE ,,mmm l tried it up to 20 times & its not working ,, i think you r using somthing else or the nail polish is special for this thing ,, So Plz tell me the solution to do it i really wanna know ??? “waitting for your email”
I tried this technique about 15 times last night and i would like to share my experience. It was a nightmare! I painted my nails white, and i got out a bowl of room temperature water. The first few nail polish drops i used, sunk right to the bottom. The next couple i used, stayed in a little drop at the top. I have a LOT of nail polish in all different brands! Only one color worked….. barely. I dont know if its my nail polish, or its something different, but i dont know how to make this work! I am willing to spend the time if i can ever get it to work.! Any Tips&Suggestions?
Since I’m not an expert on water marbling, only having done it once, I would try using a different brand of polish and switch to distilled water. There could be minerals in your water that is causing the polish not to spread. Though it could just be the type of polish you are using. Some brands spread easier than others. If it’s sinking to the bottom, you could be dropping the polish too high above the surface. Get close to the water. To the point that you’re almost touching the surface with your brush.
My best suggestion is to search for water marble tutorials on YouTube and use the polishes they do. The masters of water marble undoubtedly have favorite brands/colors that are especially good for the technique.
I had the SAME problem at first! It is not your water. I was using pink and purple nail polish. Then, I tried white and pink and it spread out and worked perfectly! I also tried the purple and white and it worked great too. It must be the combination of some nail polishs that don’t work. Try using your white with another color. I’m not sure if you have tried that. Hope it works! Good luck:)
I tried this today, using false nails that are the wrong size to fit in any of my actual nail beds, and would just be thrown out later. I tried room temperature-ish water first, and it just got really filmy (like at the clean up stage) and I couldn’t swirl it to save my life. Then I put my dish of water in the microwave for a few seconds, and it helped a little, though not much. After adding a about 5ml of nail polish remover to my water, it worked a lot better.
As to the tip about using all one brand of polish? I used some cheap bottles, and some pricier ones at the same time, and got a fairly decent result.
GIRLS….easiest cleanup ever. Before dipping your finger apply a thin layer of petroleum jelly around your nail. The nail polish just wipes off. Just now getting the whole marbleizing down and love it! Will never just paint them one color again.
So i tried marbling today and loved it! I know I need to work a little more at it because some of the white nail came through but that can be fixed with practice. first I tried dipping without anything on my nail (mistake), then i used oil and it helped take the polish off quicker. Next time I think I’m going to try the tape to see how that goes. I did notice that after the first hand it got harder and harder to design the polish. It dried very quick! They say that you need to use expense polish but I used Pure Ice (which is about $1.98 at walmart) and it worked just fine!!! I can’t wait to try this again!!!
I tried this today. It was a rocky start, but I made note of a few things that helped make it work. I, too, am not an expert, but wanted to share my experience to hopefully help.
I found that if the cup used is too big; the polish dries on the outer rings before you can marble it. I actually used a shot glass & that worked out great! I also used filtered was, slightly warmer than room temp. And lastly… I found that thicker polishes tend to not spread much, if at all. I put a bit of polish thinner into the bottle of polish, shook it, and it spread on the water perfectly.
*I used filtered water that was slightly warmer than room temp.
Sorry for the typo.
The first time I did water marbling, I was so frustrated! After, I got the hang of it. I just did my second full marble manicure and it was a piece of cake:) I used pink and white. I also had ot start over but each nail took me about 2 min. I am very happy with the results:)
–I also use the sally hansen top coat that dries my nails in 30 seconds. It made it so much easier!
Marbling……. I so want to master this…..My students and I spent all day messing up…..IS THIS RIGHT
1. Room temperature water
2. Filtered best
3. 5ml of acetone in the water
4. Some polishes good others not, just try all
5.Polish nails first
WHY WHY WHY does it look easy on the net, but I fail…..
HELP PLEASE
NO acetone in the water. I tried to do this for the first time today and I was tap water room temp.. with a white base coat on my nails. GOOD LUCK
My sister and I tried this once too and it really didn’t work for us.. not worth the hour and a half we tried to make it work for us. I did manage to get 1 nail to work, which I was immensely proud of
[...] out. I’ve seen others do water marbling on youtube and elsewhere, and though I heard it was a mess, I tried [...]
[...] nail, wipe off abundance. Basic right? For me, less. Here is the tutorial you need to kick off. Read More Posted in Makeup, [...]
I’ve had a fascinating time reading through all these posts. I really sympathize with those who can not get this to work. I couldn’t get this to work at all and then one day I bravely tried again and it just did.. The only difference I can think of is the fact I used tap water both times. I tried this a few times in England and again here in Holland (known for its incredibly clean water) I managed this: http://www.ithinitybeauty.com/2013/05/fruit-punch-water-marble.html and never achieved something similar since. I always use tape, the polish never sinks, it always fills out but the results are always so different. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. I just don’t understand it but I’m hella greatful when it wants to work!