Peachy Marbled Stone Nail Art

Peachy Marbled Stone Nail Art

31DC2015 favorite gel nail art nude presto gel water marble white

We're at the end of section two in the 31 Day Challenge! Today's prompt is "water marble," so basically I've been dreading it this whole time. I am not a good water marbler, I cannot create a marbling bullseye to save my life... BUT this time, I used that to my advantage! Instead of going for a super perfect and gorgeous water marble design, I opted for something a bit more organic with a marbled stone look. More room for error = happy Sarah.

Quick sidenote, does anyone know what kind of stone I created? Some pals suggested banded carnelian, agate, & jasper... But I can't shake the feeling that there's another one that I just can't put my finger on!



I started with a base of Presto #100 Trillo gel, a soft peachy nude. I've been wearing gel underneath all of my challenge manicures and this happens to be my base for this week!

Then, I dropped drops of white polish and a slow-drying clear topcoat onto the surface of a small dappen dish filled with room temperature water. I used a pinpoint dotting tool to gently stir up the drops until I had a pattern that I liked. Working one at a time (since my dish was so small), I dipped my nails into the swirled polish.

Look guys, I'm never gonna be a great watermarbling resource. Here's a good video for beginners from Hannah Rox Nails with some tips and tricks, if you're interested in learning!

Finally, I used a skill that I do have: freehanding! I added some orange and deep red banding along the white marbling using my tiny nail art brush.

The last step was to add a coat of sheer pink on top to give everything a deeper, buried look. I used Formula X Sheer Strength in Wonderous.

Previous water marble work:

• Turquoise water marble
• Starburst candy water marble
• Soft flower marble
• Tattered monochromatic spray marble

Tattered Monochromatic Spray Marble

Tattered Monochromatic Spray Marble

31DC2014 black china glaze formula x for sephora glow in the dark gradient grey halloween indie polish jessica cosmetics polish my life sponging water marble water spotted white

I never look forward to the water marble day of the 31 Day Challenge. This year, instead of putting myself through all of the pain, I went straight to a technique that I do have fun with: the spray marble! This technique is a sister to the water marble, and I actually prefer the edgy, tattered outcome.

Nail polishes used:
Polish My Life Birthday Suit
Polish My Life Storm Clouds
Jessica Cosmetics NY State of Mind
China Glaze Ghoulish Glow
Formula X Dark Matter

I started out by using a triangle makeup sponge to do a gradient of cream, grey, and dark grey. Then, I painted on a coat of glow in the dark topcoat, because why not?

The spray marble began with filling a plastic cup with room temperature filtered water and taping off the area surrounding my fingers to minimize mess. I gently dropped one drop of black polish on the surface of the water, and then used a spray bottle to mist a 50/50 mixture of water and apple cider vinegar on the polish. I've seen other people use hairspray, perfume, all sorts of other mixtures to break up the polish on the water, but @madamluck was the first one I saw that used the vinegar mix. It worked great!

I dipped one finger in at a time, removed excess polish from the surface of the water, and pulled my finger out. Remove the tape, clean up, and topcoat; you're done!

The glow was stronger where it was layered over light polish. Looks kinda like alien eggs, doesn't it?

Previous water marble work:

• Turquoise water marble
• Starburst candy water marble
• Soft flower marble