Saturday, March 29, 2014

Distressed Water Marble

Hey everyone! For today's mani I had this BRILLIANT idea of combining water marbling with one of my favorite nail art techniques, water spotting! Let me introduce you to.. distressed water marbling! Maybe someone had already already done this? If so, I've never come across it. Don't ruin it for me, let me think I invented this okay?



To start, I applied my base color, two coats of OPI My Vampire is Buff. Then I picked a ton of colors I thought would look together. I tested them all in the water to see which ones would spread out well.

I eventually narrowed it down to five polishes and started my water marble. I made as many rings of polish in my plastic cup as would spread out, then with my toothpick I dragged through the rings making little swirly designs.

Next I used some perfume (to make use of the high alcohol content and pump spray nozzle) and sprayed directly on the polish. This created the spotted/distressed look. I dipped my finger in a part of the design that I liked, and then before pulling it out, cleaned up the excess polish off the surface of the water with a toothpick. There weren't very many usable areas, so I ended up going through the whole process for each nail. Yeah, I know. It took forever. Totally worth it though.

It might be useful to mention that I had prepped around the nail with Scotch tape to make cleanup easier. I finished it all off with a coat of Out The Door Northern Lights top coat!


My thumb came out so awesome! It looks just like what I had in mind.


It's been quite awhile since I last used Out The Door Northern Lights, and I don't know why it has been so long! It is so beautiful with the tiny holographic sparkles. 



What I used:
OPI My Vampire is Buff
OPI Every Month is Octoberfest
Essie Lilacism
OPI Dutch You Just Love OPI?
China Glaze In a Lily Bit
Sephora by OPI Iris I Was Thinner
Out The Door Northern Lights top coat

So what do you think? I am pretty happy with the results! Is this something you would try? If you do, I'd love to see it!

18 comments:

  1. These look awesome! I love how you combined the two techniques - I can't even manage water marble on its own properly ;)

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    1. That's why this is so awesome! You can totally screw it up and it still looks good! ;)

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  2. The photos are great, and what a cool gal you are to invent a new technique! You are a brave one.

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  3. Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!

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  4. I am madly in love with this. I LOVE how you got the pattern just right so that each nail has a french-ish tip! SO great! This is why this continues to be my favorite blog.

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  6. This is such an awesome manicure! I think all of your nails turned out great but I love your ring finger. It looks like a tulip!

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  7. Great idea to combine techniques, I don't recall seeing this before....and I dig it!

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  8. Beautiful fantasy look! You did an awesome job!

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  9. Gorgeous! I love the colors, the technique, and the overall look!

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  10. I found this on Nialpolis site, I am digging watermarbling these days so this mani caought my attention obviously ! I am really impressed with your idea and yes I am going to try it and show it to you ASAP. By the way how you managed not to create spots on blue part ?? That takes skill I guess. Will definitely do it and tell how I did. In the mean time I would love to invite you to my blog. I recently did a water marble and I hope you will like it . Have a Nice Day !!

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    1. It's totally not skill. Some colors just didn't want to break apart. I just made a tutorial if you want more details! http://nailpolishsociety.blogspot.com/2014/04/tutorial-distressed-water-marble.html

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